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News travels fast when you're connected to a group of news/tech junkies. The so-far highly unstable Twitter Network is fast becoming a "news" source for me. I am seeing news items "break" from the group of twitters that I follow. I am fascinated by Twitter because it goes beyond instant messaging and is truly crowd sourced information. You can monitor the "network" through sites like Summize and follow the trends.

Sites like Twitter spawn some great adaptations that may or may not make it into the general pools of usage. I like the thought of user adapations- tweeking the tech so it does what we want it to do. It remains to be see if Twitter will catch fire, but the early geek/tech users have driven the site beyond Silicon Valley into many diverse circles. The sense of community is one of the many reasons I like Twitter

Even though the site goes down a few too many times, and the bug list grows hourly, you get a sense that the users are all pulling for the Twitter Team. It's a fine service that doesn't try to sell you anything (yet). Perhaps it's the sense that you've Stumbled upon something that is new and highly useful that creates affinity to its simple brand. I hope that Twitter doesn't fall prey to too many API's and useless add-ons that slow the network down.

I found this to be an interesting/insightful article on the "news" phenom of Twitter- Read Tech Crunch post by Steve Gillmor- Our Home Town

Now if I could only add a few more features to my Mento Account! (Update: 06.17.08- they have added a ton of new features!)

And the news keeps pouring in. Recent conferences, published papers and articles all chronicling the social web development. While this isn't by any means a new phenomenon, it is a subject that seems to be picking up at a great pace. Here's a clip I spotted at TechCrunch of Google's Joe Kraus discussion at the Supernova Conference -

The video stops at 9 mins so you have to advance it a little to catch the end of the speech.

Read the TechCrunch article Google’s Joe Kraus Discusses the Social Web At Supernova Conference


msw