When I see posts on Twitter on CIO.COM, talking about Twitter's Potential for Business Users I know that microblogging is getting enough traction to go mainstream.
Jack Dorsey started Twitter to
make a more "live" LiveJournal. Real-time, up-to-date, from the road. Akin to updating your AIM status from wherever you are, and sharing it.
(see twttr sketch).
When they chose to limit the size of each message to 140 characters they wanted to allow quick SMS updates from anywhere, but that was the move that I believe resulted in Twitter being a genius product: forcing the users to update in quick, sharp notes, teaching them to summarize only what they have to write, and more importantly - allowing people to quickly consume all the data from all their contacts, so all you need to do is have a quick look on the site (or favorite aggregator or desktop client) and you know what the status is.
I saw an article Haaretz (Israeli newspaper) once describing it as extending your presence, or your body, to include your friends, in a way that you'll feel your friends in the same subconscious way you feel your legs, hands, etc. I liked this concept.
Once the concept caught, and people started using it in all kinds of ways, all kinds of user interfaces, and through different types of software (XMPP updates, web sites, desktop clients, different aggregators, etc.) it was only a matter of time before we'll see the enterprise catching up on the new concept. This continues the general trend of Enterprise 2.0, where the web leads the way and the enterprise adopts the most successful or needed parts of this progress, a trend of which IBM is one of the leaders with Connections and Sametime products.
The real question is what parts of the microblogging concept will catch in the enterprise? Which parts will give us the greatest advantage when we deal, unlike the open Internet, with real people that can be authenticated, with software the the CIO office can control if needed (everyone using the same technology or client, if needed), etc.
I love Twitter, I love microblogging, and I can't wait to see what the future holds for this technology.
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