The CreateSouth Conference, in my opinion, was a resounding success. Oh sure, there were last minute schedule changes and minor technical glitches. But the proof of concept came through in a spectacular fashion. The energy was certainly there. You also couldn't go 5 minutes all day without somebody saying the word: Twitter. I was right there with them too. Twitter is why this blog has gone relatively quiet. But in a good way.

At one point in the afternoon, I saw Professor Pope fire up his MacBook, and signed up for a Twitter account on the spot. Just so he could be in on what the buzz was about. "I think I can use it to make quick notes to myself while I'm reading", he said. Oh you can certainly use it for that. But rest assured the social aspect of the service will eventually catch your attention. Suddenly you'll see the power in it's simplicity. As a matter of fact, it's so simple and unrestrained the possibilities are nearly limitless.

That's the part I find fascinating. Twitter means many different things depending on who you talk to. There's also all kinds external 3rd party services that ride on top of Twitter that add yet another dimension to this deceptively simple mechanic of sending your 140 character thoughts into the cloud. I've briefly touched on what Twitter means to me in the past. But it has certainly grown into a much more integral part of my daily web experience since then. I'm currently using Twitter for several things...

Productivity- This is a tough one to type with a straight face. But honestly, with the Sandy Twitter Interface, I'm back on the GTD wagon. It really doesn't get any easier than typing "d s r Project analysis report @inbox" and "d s r Haricut tomorrow afternoon" Granted, it may be a zero sum game when you factor in the time I waste spend on Twitter. But I'd argue that Google Reader is a bigger time waster than Twitter is for me.

Blogging- A lot of you don't know I've been blogging for 5 years. When I first started, I was constantly "mind blogging". Through out the day, I was writing entries in my head. A lot of times, these thoughts didn't have enough meat to post them on the blog. It takes me a long time to write a blog entry. For example, this one has taken me nearly 2 hours and I'm sure I'll spend at least another hour editing it. Twitter gives me the opportunity to express myself without the self imposed pressure I have when writing for the blog. I'd love to find a nice way to pull my best tweets into a blog entry for those of you too afraid to Tweet, but I'm not compelled to do that just yet.

Social Networking- Twitter is the very essence of what I liked about the MySpace social experience, but without the MySpace stank on it. I can have public conversations and lurk on other people's conversations (c'mon we all do it). Hopefully things will go past the early adopter stage and I can reconnect with old friends that I had on MySpace. I won't go back on there. I only have a dormant Facebook account because people kept importing their email address book and I was tired of getting invites.

Audience- By participating in the social aspect of Twitter, I'm certain I have more people listening to me on Twitter than screwtheman.com. I had something similar when I was on MySpace. But so many people on MySpace were stuck in that bubble. It seems much more feasible that someone will hop from my tweet to my blog. When the people I follow on Twitter post a link, I will more times than not check it out.

Education- Since I've bought my MacBook Pro, I've become progressively more interested in writing software for OS X. Following well known and experienced Mac developers gives me the ability to eavesdrop in and understand some of the joys (and frustrations) of the business. I also find out about all kinds of interesting things I would never have been exposed to in my typical web routine.

Support- This is also tied to my new Mac experience, but I find it incredibly helpful when I shout a frustration into the Tweetsphere and near instantly get a response from other souls. I've actually gotten official technical support from multiple software companies via Twitter just because they were keyword tracking their product name.

Mobile Experience - Between TwitterBerry and instant messaging running on my Blackberry Curve, I get a nice lightweight Internet experience when I'm on the go. When I've got some time to kill, it's much easier to check my Twitter than to fire up the Opera Mini browser and trudge through the mobile Web.

My usage of Twitter is still evolving. When I first signed up, I thought there was no way I could follow any more than 20 people. Right now I'm at 82. A great majority of them only Tweet occasionally. I don't follow someone lightly, either. I'll review their past tweets to see if it's something I actually want in my stream. I'm also pretty quick to un-follow someone if I deem it necessary. The great thing about the follow/unfollow mechanic is it doesn't require approval from the other party. So it takes the conflict out of managing your social graph. Which means you're in total control of your signal to noise ratio.

Something I'm coming to grips with is not staying caught up and processing every Tweet. It totally conflicts with my inbox zero sensibilities, but I think it's better to learn to dip from the stream of fresh water than to sip from the small puddle.

What does Twitter do for you?
Why aren't you on Twitter?