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Will Twitter Join Podcasting on the 'Net Sidelines'?
Posted by
CmdrTaco
on Wed Apr 02, 2008 12:00 PM
from the no-i-need-to-know-the-minutia-of-everyone's-day dept.
from the no-i-need-to-know-the-minutia-of-everyone's-day dept.
Ian Lamont writes "Twitter has established itself in some quarters as a must-have communications tool, and its power to connect and even incite people is hard to deny. But does Twitter have long-term, mainstream potential? Or does a poor revenue model and strong competition mean that it's destined to be a sideline Internet technology, much like podcasting has failed to live up to early hype?"
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Yes! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Yes! (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Yes! (Score:5, Funny)
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wtf is twitter (Score:5, Funny)
Re:wtf is twitter (Score:4, Funny)
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Re:wtf is twitter (Score:5, Insightful)
It's a system whereby people tragically sit there in pubs "twittering" to other people instead of participating in an actual conversation. At least in my experience. In practice, it's just basically IRC re-implemented over SMS messages. They even seem to have kept the old "line limit" in that your cut off at the length of a standard txt (about 140 characters, I think). In my view, all it really seems to accomplish is leaving people not quite focused on what they're doing because they keep getting "twitters" arriving. If you have something important to send, you use email (with all its inherent advantages). If you just want to make limited comments to a "chat room," you can use Twitter that other users may or may not be paying attention to, you can use Twitter.
As mobile access to the Internet gets more pervasive, SMS will die or at least merge with other technologies anyway.
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Re:wtf is twitter (Score:5, Funny)
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Twitter ver One (Score:4, Insightful)
the biggest in my mind?
Allow linked URLs.
That would double its usefulness.
Who says podcasting is "sidelined"? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Who says podcasting is "sidelined"? (Score:5, Interesting)
The podcasts are great for me because:
- they rest my eyes (no need to read on screen)
- I don't need Internet access
- I don't need to wait for the show to be on or to be in the right country to listen to the radio show.
- they are enjoyable, entertaining and different from reading or watching TV
I tend to skip the ads, but I now who sponsors the shows I listen to so the ad/sponsoring is undoubtedly worth money.
A big thank you to all the podcasters! You made my life richer!
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Re:Who says podcasting is "sidelined"? (Score:5, Interesting)
1) NPR. I sync stuff every night for the hour commute to and from work. great way to catch up on news and such.
2) Workout music. I would never listen to dance/techno music normally, but it works well on the elliptic trainer. Here's where I get mine: http://www.djsteveboy.com/mixes.html [djsteveboy.com]
If we had wifi everywhere (when in the car) with access to things like Radio Paradise, podcasts wouldn't be quite as useful to me.
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Re:Who says podcasting is "sidelined"? (Score:5, Insightful)
Most people I know, geeks or not, also love to listen to their favourite radio shows on podcasts because it's EASIER and they don't have to worry about leaving the desk for 5 minutes half way through the show. In London here especially it's very handy as the radio doesn't work on the tube, but... a podcast does.
I don't quite understand how Twitter has gained the title of 'a technology', but there you go. It's effectively a flash in the pan to many people but it's not useless... then again I've never used it and probably never will, even as an avid techie.
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What Happened to Podcasting? (Score:5, Insightful)
not sidelined- just failed for the 'technorati' (Score:5, Insightful)
I think the issue is that while "Mainstream Media" (in particularly NPR/PRI) has embraced it whole-heartedly with the iPod-using masses on the bandwagon as listeners...nobody's watching/listening to the crap put out by the "technorati" and average joes. It's embarrassing to be "pioneers" and get completely steamrollered by traditional media, and ignored by the general public. Or, they think that because it's failing for them, it's "dead" for everyone else; there's this insipid belief amongst the technology-using loud-mouths that the world revolves around them. If everyone's blogging about how great jam-and-sausage sandwiches are (or more amusingly, blogging about how everyone is blogging about it), it MUST be true, right?
I can't stand video/pod casts (or worse, "video blogs") by Joe Shmoes, or even the "big" "bloggers". Usually they take about 5 minutes to express an opinion or convey a bit of news that could have been written in one short paragraph I could have read in about 20 seconds.
The whole thing reminds me about the comparison between Walmart and online companies; a single Walmart pulls in more profits in one DAY than most silicon valley companies do in a YEAR. That's how completely insignificant most "Web 2.0" crap truly is.
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Re:not sidelined- just failed for the 'technorati' (Score:5, Interesting)
"...nobody's watching/listening to the crap put out by the "technorati" and average joes. It's embarrassing to be "pioneers" and get completely steamrollered by traditional media, and ignored by the general public. Or, they think that because it's failing for them, it's "dead" for everyone else; there's this insipid belief amongst the technology-using loud-mouths that the world revolves around them."
Or stated another way, the strengths of good writers and editors, top-shelf music, professional voice talent and an international news-gathering organization bring more value to any audio program than is possible for some guy living in Mom's basement.
Duh. Film at eleven.
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Social games (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Social games (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Social games (Score:5, Interesting)
They're not serious, are they?
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Re:Social games (Score:5, Insightful)
As for the rest of us, social networking sites provide an easy (and thus well-utilized) way to maintain real-world relationships when people aren't nearby to hang out. A lot of us make good friends in college, but then move all over the country for jobs. Social-networking sites provide tools to help keep in touch, keep on top of what our friends have been doing, etc., so the relationships don't just die out. Much like people used to do with letters, but since the required effort is much smaller, people have the time and ability to keep many more friends in the loop.
And then when you do get a chance to meet up with people you haven't seen in a while, it's not as weird. Having no contact with someone for years produces awkward social interactions when you do, as anyone who's attended a 10-year high school reunion can tell you. But if you've been occasionally communicating via social networking (or other means) during that interval, you still feel like you know the person.
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Podcasting (sideline?) (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't know what the fate of Twitter will be. It seems like it's not doing anything complicated, so even if the concept lives on, it might be that Twitter itself goes under.
On the other hand, I'm not sure what's being said here about podcasting. I think the hype has certainly died down, but the hype on the internet in general has died down too. Gone are the days where people thought putting up a website automatically meant earning millions of dollars.
I know some very non-technical people who download free podcasts of popular radio and TV shows to play on their iPods instead of listening to the radio. They aren't bragging about it or even talking much about it unless you bring it up, but that's only because it's become common-place enough that it's not interesting anymore. Sure, there are lots of people who don't listen to podcasts, but there are also lots who do.
Not that I have anything investing in the argument. I don't really care whether podcasting is a "sideline" technology. I'm just not sure what it means to call podcasting a "sideline" technology. It's not a rarely-used technology, though.
Wait, what? (Score:5, Insightful)
iTunes is used by bajillions of people worldwide, and the Podcast button is right there, prominently displayed. There's all kinds of content, from public radio shows that I can now enjoy whenever is convenient for me instead of whenever they're broadcast on the air, commercial stuff like NBC Nightly News, tons of independent stuff running the gamut from utter crap to sheer genius, great comedy like The Onion Radio News and the Weekly Radio Address, and probably more I haven't bothered to look for yet.
Of course I understand that many people aren't interested in any of this, and that's fine, but Podcasting is certainly not a failure.
Do I just not get it? (Score:5, Insightful)
Now I look at Twitter, and I have to wonder, has the "not getting it" finally started to overwhelm me? Is it possible that Twitter isn't something other than just broadcast instant messaging for the ADD crowd? Could it actually be something more than taking social networking to a pathetic extreme, where informing your friends of your breakfast choices and bowel movements via SMS somehow seems like a good idea? Am I going to be relegated to shaking my fists and yelling at kids to "Get off of my lawn^H^H^H^H Internets!" like some sort of crotchety old miser?
Re:Do I just not get it? (Score:5, Informative)
Twitter is not "just broadcast instant messaging for the ADD crowd" or "taking social networking to a pathetic extreme".
Twitter is useful. I've found work, I've found contractors, I've found new music, I've found new web apps, I've gotten breaking news before major outlets, I've crowdsourced for opinions when making purchases, I've met new people, discovered new restaurants, and I've used it as a personalized 411 in any number of situations.
I suppose if you and your 3 friends join and just post messages about when you're taking a dump then it's pretty useless. But if you use tools like twittermap.com (http://twittermap.com/maps) to find local people then you can get information about road closings, weather conditions, and other relevant local info. And the situations are endless where it comes in handy to have a local support network of people you are in touch with.
And aside from the local network benefits, you have a real good chance of communicating/networking with some major players/influencers like VC's, A-list bloggers, politicians, celebrities, company founders, etc, etc...
So, if you don't like information, new music, or web technology then don't use twitter. Meanwhile, I'll continue with listening to some cool muxtapes (http://muxtape.com) I discovered through twitter recommendations.
Peace.
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Re:"Podcasting" - the new name for MP4 (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:"Podcasting" - the new name for MP4 (Score:5, Insightful)
a Web-based audio broadcast via an RSS feed, accessed by subscription over the Internet
As you can see, there's no mention of 'iPod' in the definition of the word; nor has there ever been. Now, the etymology of a word is very different to its definition, and I'll grant you that etymologically speaking, podcast wasn't the most correct word to describe this technology, but if you look at the etymology of most of the words we are now using in the English language, you'll see that we are using many of our words in a very convoluted manner. Quite often, the definition we now associate to our words vastly differs with what etymologically the word should mean.
Reading today's news articles, I'm sure when we read: Zimbabwe's Wildlife Decimated by Economic Crisis, we don't think that they are systematically killing one out of ten wildlife species in Zimbabwe, even though that's what etymologically, decimate should mean. Now, why should it be any different for podcast?
Languages are living creatures, they evolve and change. At the end of the day, language is a means of communication, and if by saying podcast, both me and you are referring to the same thing and communicating effetively, not only is podcasting not wrong, it is quite an apt and unambiguous word.
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