Brad Roberts wrote:
> However, since it really is a pub/sub system, it'd be interesting to look for interesting one -> many programatic use cases that could take advantage of it.

I'm looking into creating a service bus with twitter as its transport mechanism. Unfortunately, I think it won't be terribly durable.

> Later,
> Brad

Lars Ivar Igesund wrote:
> Walter Bright wrote:
> 
>> Sean Kelly wrote:
>>> If there is, I haven't seen it :-)  I try to stay somewhat up on trends
>>> just to be current, but I've yet to see a point in telling people what
>>> I'm doing from minute to minute.
>> The site itself said that one use was to tell people when you're
>> drinking a cup of copy. bleh.
> 
> It is up to you to use twitter for something useful - saying there is nothing useful on twitter is like saying there is nothing useful on blogs. Not everyone write blogs about their last cup of tea, and neither do everyone tweet about it. In particular I know that many open source projects use twitter as a way to collect mini-reports from the community, and do mini-reporting themselves aka "just added the l33t feature foo too app bar".

In my workplace they used twitter for an humanitarian project:

http://code.google.com/p/geochat/

---
Geochat emerged from a simple concept - can I send an SMS message and see it on a map?

From there the concept has evolved, and geochat has become a project to build a collaboration platform for the lowest common denominator communication tools, considering as highest priorities the needs of workers of humantiarian aid, international health and disaster response.

The main drivers for the project are the feedback of the InSTEDD programs in South East Asia, excercises such as GoldenShadow, and a growing community of humanitarian and health workers who spend their days in technologically austere environments. We invite anyone from any line of work to use and contribute user experience, technical, and any other kind of feedback.
---

And this is what Golden Shadow is about:

http://instedd.org/goldenshadow

:-)

On Thu, Dec 11, 2008 at 12:58 AM, Walter Bright <newshound1@digitalmars.com> wrote:
> The site itself said that one use was to tell people when you're drinking a cup of copy. bleh.

/me imagines Walter holding a cup filled to the brim with steaming hot newspaper.

Jarrett Billingsley wrote:
> On Thu, Dec 11, 2008 at 12:58 AM, Walter Bright
> <newshound1@digitalmars.com> wrote:
>> The site itself said that one use was to tell people when you're drinking a
>> cup of copy. bleh.
> 
> /me imagines Walter holding a cup filled to the brim with steaming hot
> newspaper.

I have to say, I'm not drinking coffee at the moment. Perhaps later today. I'll be sure and announce it here!

Lars Ivar Igesund wrote:
> It is up to you to use twitter for something useful - saying there is
> nothing useful on twitter is like saying there is nothing useful on
> blogs. Not everyone write blogs about their last cup of tea, and
> neither do everyone tweet about it. In particular I know that many
> open source projects use twitter as a way to collect mini-reports
> from the community, and do mini-reporting themselves aka "just added
> the l33t feature foo too app bar".

I just can't imagine real time reports of adding a line of code/feature to a product would be useful. The timescale is at issue - to add a feature to a significant product requires coding (which may take days) followed by testing (many hours). Would anyone be hanging on twitter waiting for this?

That said, twitter might be useful if you're at a conference and want to know where your buds are headed for dinner or who is right now giving a talk that is interesting.

== Quote from Walter Bright (newshound1@digitalmars.com)'s article
>
> That said, twitter might be useful if you're at a conference and want to know where your buds are headed for dinner or who is right now giving a talk that is interesting.

There are some really interesting apps for the iPhone that integrate the GPS features of the phone with messaging and whatnot.  Definitely very cool if you live in an urban environment and want to keep in touch with friends.


Sean

Walter Bright wrote:
> Jarrett Billingsley wrote:
>> On Thu, Dec 11, 2008 at 12:58 AM, Walter Bright
>> <newshound1@digitalmars.com> wrote:
>>> The site itself said that one use was to tell people when you're drinking a
>>> cup of copy. bleh.
>>
>> /me imagines Walter holding a cup filled to the brim with steaming hot
>> newspaper.
> 
> I have to say, I'm not drinking coffee at the moment. Perhaps later today. I'll be sure and announce it here!

I'm drinking coffee now.

On Thu, Dec 11, 2008 at 3:31 PM, Walter Bright <newshound1@digitalmars.com> wrote:
>
> I'm drinking coffee now.
>

Thanks for the update, but I was making a terrible joke on your mistyping of "coffee" as "copy."  ;)

Jarrett Billingsley wrote:
> Thanks for the update, but I was making a terrible joke on your
> mistyping of "coffee" as "copy."  ;)

I looked at that 3 times and didn't realize I had misspelled it that way. My brain is weird.

Walter Bright wrote:

> Lars Ivar Igesund wrote:
>> It is up to you to use twitter for something useful - saying there is nothing useful on twitter is like saying there is nothing useful on blogs. Not everyone write blogs about their last cup of tea, and neither do everyone tweet about it. In particular I know that many open source projects use twitter as a way to collect mini-reports from the community, and do mini-reporting themselves aka "just added the l33t feature foo too app bar".
> 
> I just can't imagine real time reports of adding a line of code/feature to a product would be useful. The timescale is at issue - to add a feature to a significant product requires coding (which may take days) followed by testing (many hours). Would anyone be hanging on twitter waiting for this?

Actually, it is not about immediate notification - you can no longer receive SMS I think for those you follow. It is more that a "busy" developer/person can easily write a short note about the progress without it seeing out of place - if you use a blog you are "obligated" to write a longer piece which takes more time and thus is less likely that you do.

It has also become an easy way to aggregate - by using @ or # and some name or identifier, your message can be directed here and there depending on the topic. As Brad say, it may be a bit weird, but it is very convenient for aggregating short tidbits on a subject.

In case you are curious; my account ;)

http://twitter.com/larsivi


-- 
Lars Ivar Igesund
blog at http://larsivi.net
DSource, #d.tango & #D: larsivi
Dancing the Tango