Tweet Tweet & The Power of Affiliation
Dplanet:: via Flickr (Creative Commons license)
Twitter is a tool that lets you send and receive short updates on your phone or computer from your network of friends about their current status.
Twitter describes their service as:
A global community of friends and strangers answering one simple question: What are you doing?
If you think twittering is a silly as the word sounds, then pause for a moment and check out the links below. Twitter is not for everyone or even for someone all the time, but it might fit for some of the people, some of the time. In fact given the rave reviews it seems to work for quite a few people, a lot of the time.
Whenever I look at a new social network service, I keep thinking about David McClelland's acquired-needs theory. "McClelland proposed that an individual's specific needs are acquired over time and are shaped by one's life experiences. Most of these needs can be classed as either achievement, affiliation, or power". (NetMBA) It's interesting to look at social networks that are sprouting up and how McClelland's acquired-needs theory might be impacting who participates and the ways in which they participate. One thing that is for sure is that social networking sites make the desire of affiliation and the benefits that can be accrued from affiliation and strong networks explicit and obvious.
Here's my twitter postings ... don't expect lots of tweets. For now I'm dabbling a bit and trying to better understand where this new technology might fit.
I think it could be handy for mobile teams or families where one person is on the move. Be nice to have frequent updates on "what" are you doing? I'd like my daughter, for example, to send updates as she traipses across Europe ... visiting the Louvre, ...
Food for Thought
- Anil Dash says Consider Twitter
- Kathy Sierra critiques Twitter mania in Is Twitter TOO Good?
- Dave Winer writes about the Imbalance of Twitter and the Theory of Twitter pointing out how unbalanced networks serve a purpose just as balanced ones
- Liz Lawley on MamaMusings writes about importance of "presence" and Twitter in Why Twitter Matters
Twitter for Visual Learners
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| Tanja de Bie | ecentro via Flickr, chart by Kathy Sierra (Creative Commons) | exof via Flickr (Creative Commons) |
Tags: affiliation | twitter
