“The future is wide open…” Tom Petty

I’ve written about Twitter several times recently, so I’m not looking to tax your patience with another Twitter post…however, there is a story I wish to share that occurred last night at the SEMpdx / pdxMindshare event.

I was chatting with @wayne_rowe and @davidmihm about Twitter. David had been a reluctant holdout to the medium and asked me to describe its value. I had launched into an explanation attempting to make an analogy about our networking event as a microcosm of the whole Twittersphere…when I realized that I had just tapped into a rare vein of verbal acuity where what I was saying seemed to be really insightful and meaningful (I tend not to do well at cocktail hour conversation). After I finished my Twitter riff, I knew I had to attempt to write out what I told David and Wayne.

So here it is recreated to the best of my ability…

Imagine a typical professional networking scene full of well dressed professional men and women drinking and talking…

“(facing David & Wayne)…Look around the room. We’re having a conversation…one of about 50 going on at this event.”

“Now imagine you had the ability to listen in on all 50 conversations simultaneously. Furthermore, you have the ability to participate in any of the 50 conversations that you find interesting. Beyond that, you have the ability to engage any person in the room in a new conversation about any topic you wish.”

“That is what Twitter is about. Twitter is conversation participation omniscience…it is taking the power of what I just described and doing it on a global scale. On Twitter, there are an infinite number of conversations going on that you can participate in. On Twitter, there are an infinite number of interesting people that you can engage in conversation. From Twitter, there are an infinite number of possibilities arising from these conversations.”

David signed up to Twitter today, so I think he gets it :.)

addthis_url = 'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.semportland.com%2Fannouncements%2Fmy-best-explanation-of-twitter%2F'; addthis_title = 'My+Best+Explanation+of+Twitter'; addthis_pub = '';