Alan Gutierrez

Here is a dashed off list of things to like about Twitter.

1. You stay connected without disconnecting from the world around you. I’m not a Blackberry user yet, but this shows me the appeal. I don’t mind stopping in the street to Tweet. I don’t feel like a self-absorbed cell phone user, filling the air with half a conversation.
2. Twitter is an effective digression. It is keeping me productive by giving me an outlet that is finite. Rather than check CNN or BBC, and get lost for hours. I read the recent Tweets.
3. No title. That is wonderfully liberating. You do not have to think about a title. You simply have to think about your short, 140 character message. You simply tweet.
4. Narrowcasting at it’s narrowest. I enjoy little updates on other people’s days. I like basic tweets about what a person is doing. It is good to know that Mitten is listing to her ten year old expound on storytelling, that Dave Coustan is eating apple slices for dinner, that Edward Vielmetti is toying with Twitter as a to do list.
5. There are no tasks in Twitter. It is not an inbox. I do not have to dread opening it. No place to inject an obligation in 140 characters.

Edward Vielmetti sent me a link to Hurricanes at Twitter. Which might be reason enough for you to join, if you are a New Orleanian.

Karen Gadbois strikes me as the right person to spur Twitter adoption in New Orleans. She’s a master of the away mesage. She posts away messages in GMail that make you wonder what’s up. It’s never with a link either, so you have to look at the Northwest Carrollton blog, search Google or NOLA.com, or simply send her a message and ask.

I don’t know if she’s proficent at text messaging, but the web interface is simple enough. I’d like to get one key New Orleans denizen going, because our away message network works pretty well for us.

With a few key people, a New Orleans Twitter network could do a lot to keep tabs on our shifty government.