Mind Map
This Twitter thing is exploding. I turn away from the computer for a second and someone’s invented this living, moving map that shows you where in the world someone is twittering from:
Go to: http://twittermap.com/twittervision
You’ll be hypnotised - and also probably get a bit queasy as the map zooms around the world showing you thought balloons whenever anyone texts a thought, a gripe, a moment from their lives up onto to Twitter. It gives “stream of consciousness” writing a whole new meaning.
What’s the point of it all? I think people are still trying to figure it out. Key blogging commentators like Robert Scoble (Microsoft) and Steve Rubel (Edelmans) are on Twitter engaging in a conversation with other key figures plus anyone who wants to add their tuppence worth - about twittering, blogging and the impact of all this on global ideas. Other people are just texting what they’ve been doing, sharing their lives with friends and hundreds and thousands of strangers around the world - and I guess that’s part of the aura of it: that as a visitor, you can glimpse into the lives of so many strangers and as a participant you can share what you’re thinking or doing at any given moment. It’s an act of defiance - or desperation? - against existential angst and the aloneness of the human condition.
PS. Thanks to Andrew Eglinton for telling me about the link.
Pic: thanks to academic.evergreen.edu
- Posted on
Wed, March 21st, 2007 - Author
Yang-May Ooi - Category
- 3 responses
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March 21st, 2007 at 10:59 pm
There are a couple of things that Twittervision highlights for me:
1) Twitter hasn’t caught on in China or India yet. In the case of China it’s probably to do with Twitter being packaged to an English-speaking audience but I’m surprised about India.
2) That while twitter founders try to nurture an aura of human connectedness through their platform, there is actually very little communication (in the ‘traditional’ sense of the word) taking place, rather we are firing individual messages out into the Internet ether never to return. It makes twitter vision an act of gazing at a lonely planet.
March 22nd, 2007 at 6:49 am
Twitter sounds intriguing, so I guess the only reason why I haven’t jumped on board yet is the same reason why I don’t YouTube myself — blogging is addictive enough; if I add YouTube and Twitter to the mix, I probably won’t even have time to sleep! :P
How are you finding this though, Yang-May? Does it change the flow of your day much?
March 25th, 2007 at 5:50 am
You really hit the nail on the head with this…
“…as a visitor, you can glimpse into the lives of so many strangers and as a participant you can share what you’re thinking or doing at any given moment. It’s an act of defiance - or desperation? - against existential angst and the aloneness of the human condition.”
Very, very well stated.