Kristin Scott

Ok, I’ve been on Twitter now for about two weeks, and I think I have the hang of it now. At first, Twitter seemed rather overly-simplistic (the page layout is very basic); it certainly lacks any aesthetic appeal - aside from offering the ability to change background color, it can’t be personalized. But after having tweaked my twitter a bit, adding both IM and mobile devices, for example, I can better appreciate the application.

After having used Facebook now for a while, Twitter at first seemed like a slightly higher-grade, status update program (Kristin is: tweaking my twitter). And to some degree, that’s pretty much what it is — each twitter entry can be up to 140 words (one long or two short sentences), so there’s not much else you can do but write very brief updates or send a link or two for others to peruse. It also offers updates to devices (cell phone and/or IM), so that you can receive constant updates of those you are following. Of course, I would imagine that this could become quite overwhelming and quickly intrusive if you are following a lot of folks). But I think it’s easier to follow random people that you just find interesting, whether professionally or personally.

With Facebook, you have to have a profile, be affiliated with a school or group, and so its less likely that you’ll befriend someone you don’t already have a connection to (even if it is through six degrees). Twitter allows you to search by terms (i.e. culture) and browse members you might like to follow (much like how many people choose blog feeds to follow). I’ve seen it used as a professional updating system (i.e. a colleague of mine will post links to conferences, musings on teaching, or new software/technological applications) and for personal/social reasons, such as just updating friends and followers on daily philosophical musings, experiences, events, and so forth. Most I know on Twitter (not many yet) do both. The most cool thing for me is the ability to text a short update from my cell phone that then shows up on the website (and/or to others devices, if they have them turned on).

And then there’s Mambo . . . no, not the dance, but the open source content management system (CMS) that can serve a number of different functions. So far, that’s about all I know . . . I’ve downloaded the system to my domain, as well, and will spend the next several weeks (perhaps even months) determining how it might be of use. While it can be used for a blog, it’s a lot more complex than a blog, though from initial impressions, it doesn’t seem to difficult to manage. I’ve not yet done anything to it, but you can see how the system/structure is set up by going to my mambo: http://kristinscott.net/mambo. I’d love to see how others are using it. If you have a mambo website you’d like to share, I’d be really interested in seeing it!