Ruler express 1.0

When I was in elementary school I had an exceptional group of over-imaginative friends. In order to communicate while in class, one of this group of gals decided to invent the ruler express to pass notes between each other. The purpose? Half entertainment, one quarter boredom, and one quarter communication.

The ruler express was literally bits of plastic ruler broken up to which we would affix a little piece of paper. It didn't really matter the content of the note, what mattered was the act of getting the message through. We'd throw these babies across rooms, slide them into books and slyly look the other direction as the ruler express vehicles traveled the room.

We were seldom caught and to this day I wish I had a piece of those well worn little bits of joy.

Now here in 2009, I've been working pretty hard at learning the new communication tools since November. Mainly because I think as the walls of traditional media morph, the new social media will become as important as the print pieces, the tv interviews and the radio features. So, my twitter experiments have led me to spend time this weekend at Podcamp with a bevy of micro-bloggers in Toronto. If I were writing this on twitter I'd have to use a hashtag (#pcto09) to identify this line of thought, but since it's just on my blog, I can freely spew my mind instead.

My approach to twitter has been like learning a language. You need to learn the street speak to survive in this world - basic tools that have come in handy include learning to shorten links via a service like TINY URL, signing up for a BLIP.FM account so you can promote the songs you love to your friends, and referencing your new twitter followers (yes, it is the new cult of the webworld) by using @yournamehere and preserving the overwhelming opinion of the general twittership that this is not a stupid medium that is a waste of time, it is of use, it is a new way to weave a web, connect to friends of friends.

I've been converted this week mainly because I've been able, via the people I met this weekend at Podcamp TO, to run my fingers in a new virtual stream of conversation. You see, prior to this weekend, I was mainly connected to my friends who were of the Canadian Music Industry. Unfortunately, for all they know about the music industry, they don't know exactly the depth of interest that is out there for twitter. And people like @sarahprevette who runs the TO twestival and her gang of overwhelmingly overconnected friends and colleague have in three days, let me look through their perpective.

I'll give you some examples. When you're trying to connect with a new community of any kind, one of the first things you need to do is establish trust. By signing up for Podcamp - a free unconference led by people who are mutually interested in sharing information on social media - I was immediately trustworthy. So as I established trust, I found others who were already readily involved in the twittersphere - those who were already addicted (and I'm not kidding here) to the huge information feeds that can be filtered and accessed via tweetdeck technology. And just by showing up to a free lunch (and with no backup I might add) I was allowed to befriend and learn.

I'm currently self-employed and needing to find ways to simplify the tools needed to run a business and spend the maximum amount of time on the actual work, rather than the tedium of invoices and expenses. Thanks to my new friends I've learned about MOO.com where I can get business cards, I met the folks from the innovative invoice site FRESHBOOKS, and have accessed a whole new school of thought of how people really can communicate.

Anyway, just some stream of consciousness about all this communicating. It's a little terrifying to learn so much so fast, but hopefully in the end it will be fruitful and not just a fucking waste of time that takes away from your real world people friends (let's not call the real people followers, shall we?)

We shall see. Twitter is still on trial but so far, I'm quite convinced. This could be the new ruler express? Perhaps.

how much of a nerd are you?

Ok, so while on twitter today....

Yeah, I know. I'm a nerd. Sort-of. Any blog that might start with "while on twitter today" automatically brings in you into that club. But for me, I'm just hyper-interested in how people communicate, so, most of the time, I just join because it sort of quells my inner monster. I have to figure out this new thing, so I join and in doing so, up my nerd quota.

I have been using twitter specifically to see how it works. I joined during the Canadian elections to check in a see how the liberal parties and NDP were using it. I didn't even search for the conservatives. Why would I need more blather in my life? Anyway, it was interesting to get updates from the parties, and I was more engaged than I ever have been, so I guess it worked for me. I ran a polling station too, so I earned more points for joe-citizen involvement. But the quest to conquer twitter began because of the man in the post before this one - Mr. Obama. He used twitter to announce his running mate. As a communicator, this was a pretty ballsy decision. He recognized the value of twitter and gave an exclusive story/piece of information to a whole young technology-aware group of people who had already spoken up and said - yeah, us, our generation? yeah, we like our info in bite size pieces. We like it quick and easy. We like it delivered in this way - and we don't have time to watch the news at 6 o'clock - no, we, us, our generation, we want you to speak to us directly.

The thing is, people have a fixed view of what they think this technology is. When I bring it up in conversation, people glaze over and think it's just another time waster. What I've learned is exactly the opposite. Twitter is a social engagement tool that is very functional. You can tune in or out. You can choose what info you want. You never get too much and if you want more info, there is usually a link, or a person to follow, that will flesh out the story or the idea. The example I've used in what type of info people generally post online is this - rather than send a message that says "I love my shampoo" people are getting on twitter and saying "I love my shampoo because XXX" and the XXX is a link to more information. People make it functional because it's more interesting. I currently follow @themediaisdying since I tend to work with a lot of media and they update and let everyone know what they've heard about layoff or role changes in the media in North America. Quickly. Functionally. It's digestable and informative.

I've been particularly enamored that the people who are giving it the most credibility are in the political arena. Basically, by getting Obama and any other political party hooked up on twitter, they are saying, yes, we accept this is a form of valid social engagement. It's legitimate. And if you don't pay attention you'll get left behind.

So now that you're interested, I dare you to sign up and look up the folks @twestival. You'll see that they're using this platform to engage people from all around the world to raise funds for charities. They're bringing what is a simple free technology platform into the real everyday world and they're making people stand up and make a difference. I don't just think it's interesting - I think it's the new way that people should approach things. So, look up @twestival and ask them to RT (retweet) the info. You'll be impressed.

In other news, if you want to waste your time or laugh a little check out these guys. Another exercise in micro-blogging... You'll come out understanding what FML means and you'll have something to talk about at your next social gathering. Enjoy!