The Many, Many, Friends of Robert Scoble

This photo has been removed from public search by Yahoo NIPSA sucks.

Want to see a visual representation of what Robert Scoble's friends on Twitter look like? Just click through on the photo above. As they say in the photo sharing space, best viewed large. I did a similar version of the above graphic of my own friends on Twitter here, but with over 1,000 friends Robert's graphic looks cooler than mine. If you are on Flickr feel free to put a note on the avatar that is you :)

I've blogged about Twitter before but it's really taken off in the past few weeks -- culminating in what's best described as a Twitter lovefest going on at South by Southwest (that's SXSW in Twitter lingo, have to preserve those precious few characters allowed) this week.

Twitter was the top story on Techmeme earlier this morning. The lead post was from Karoli over at Drumsnwhistles who wrote a nice post saying that she didn't really get the significance of Twitter and then an update saying that she's joining.

Jeremey Toeman isn't a fan either and leaves the first message on Karoli's blog:

"couldn’t agree with you more! To me it’s just something that has got some SHORT-term popularity and will eventually fade back into a “neat tool” people don’t really use anymore.

The reality check is this: life is, for the most part, is dull. I just don’t need to see updates like “sipping a coffee” or “waiting in line to buy a coffee” or “thinking about going to the Starbucks”…"

Meanwhile, Dan McWeeney and Ed Herrmann have built a tool called "prom queen" that easily allows you to turn all of your followers on Twitter into friends. They have a section on their site under the "Who's the prom queen" headline and Scoble is number one right now.

Personally I think Twitter is brilliant but I understand that not everyone gets it just yet. I invited a friend of mine to Twitter on Friday and I got back a single question. Why?

Which is a fair question and for which I think there are a couple of good answers.

First Twitter, as a social network, is another extension of your online presence. As a blogger if you think of your primary online presence as your blog, much of what you can do on the internet can be amplified through the various social tools available to bloggers. Digg, Slashdot, knowing when to pitch a story to top sites like Boing Boing or Lifehacker or Engadget, Flickr, book marking sites, and sites like Twitter represent ways where you can amplify and expand your ideas, thoughts and messages to your friends, contacts and the world.

Second, Twitter is just fun. With a 140 character limit it's super easy and appeals to the natural exhibitionism and voyeurism that seems to accompany the world of bloggers. No surprise that Twitter was created by Evan Williams who invented one of the first successful blogging platforms, Blogger.

Third, Twitter is a great way to keep up with what your friends are doing in the real world and gives you a frame of reference for these contacts when you eventually see them in person. Unfortunately as busy as we all are these days keeping up with all your friends blogs is hard. It requires a tremendous amount of committment. RSS tools and the like can help, but personally I don't always get around to reading every blog in my RSS reader (I wish I could, but sometimes I have to go outside and take photographs).

Twitter, by contrast, is a more concise aggregator of what your friends are up to. Next time I see Robert Scoble or Scott Beale or Chris Pirillo in person, I'll know a little bit more about what's been going on in their life. (By the way Scott Beale has shots of Twitter winning the SXSW Web Award here). Twitter is a quick convenient way to "catch up," albeit in a totally unpersonalized manner, but these bite sized chunks allow you to more easily monitor what more of your friends are up to. And even though much of what on Twitter is the inane (what I had for lunch today, where I'm going to breakfast, what moving I just got out of, etc.), oftentimes it is the inane that serve as conversation pieces that make our off line relationships and friendships enjoyable.

Oh, and oh yeah, if you want to add me as a friend on Twitter you can do that here.

Oh, and Sean Alexander, I hope you get over that nasty cold soon :)

Comments and faves

  1. ★

    Dave Q, dltq, Jon Wood, atmasphere, and 18 other people added this photo to their favorites.

  2. beebo wallace (64 months ago | reply)

    he's all over Twitter and has a lot of great things to say ...
    I love reading his stuff ...

  3. gologozo (64 months ago | reply)

    nice!

  4. Dave Q (64 months ago | reply)

    I can't add a note :)

  5. Thomas Hawk (64 months ago | reply)

    Sorry about that Dave. I just changed my settings, you should be able to now.

    --
    Seen on your photo stream. (?)

  6. NontrivialMatt (64 months ago | reply)

    Thomas, very well said. And I'm proud to be one of Robert's 1,000 closest personal Twitter friends :)

  7. Thomas Hawk (64 months ago | reply)

    Wow, I just added my own note on my own avatar and had a heck of a hard time finding it. It's like those "I Spy" books that my son Jackson loves.

  8. ben- (64 months ago | reply)

    I'm friends with both you and scoble, but you guys add everyone.

  9. mjamieself (64 months ago | reply)

    Yeah, I don't really get it either. I guess some people are just more into blogging, posting, digging, etc. etc. than others. More power to you!

  10. rom (64 months ago | reply)

    hey! That's me at the lower right corner! w00t!

  11. Jon Wood (64 months ago | reply)

    Awww...I don't see mine. :-(

  12. Thomas Hawk (64 months ago | reply)

    Jon, I think that's you in the middle of the 10th row, check it out.

  13. Jon Wood (64 months ago | reply)

    Thanks, Thomas. I sure didn't see it.

  14. Martin Gommel (64 months ago | reply)

    haha, fine ;)

  15. hillary h (64 months ago | reply)

    hey thomas, just curious what you used to get this screencapture. very cool.

  16. Thomas Hawk (64 months ago | reply)

    Thomas, how do you receive twitter updates? IM, SMS or web?

    Web. My cell phone has been dead for about a month now.

  17. Martin Gordon (64 months ago | reply)

    I can't seem to add a note, but I am 3 down and 2 to the right of the bullseye on the top row.

  18. PeteGilbert (64 months ago | reply)

    I can't add a note either, but Im on the top row ninth from the right!

  19. Cliff Cheney [deleted] (64 months ago | reply)

    Great idea. Gave myself a headache searching out my pic.

  20. Dave Q (64 months ago | reply)

    Tagged... 9th row from the bottom, 7th thumb from the left, _almost_ beside billerickson. One needs hawk eyes and solid nerves... or try a lower screen res :)

  21. _sarchi (64 months ago | reply)

    interesting set of credentials

    --
    http://flickr.trulyamazing.de/interesting/tod ay/ (?)

  22. Will Spaetzel (64 months ago | reply)

    That's me five from the right, 2nd last row, you should recognize the photo

  23. !!! k2208 (63 months ago | reply)

    Ole!!

    --
    http://www.maestroalberto.it/2007/03/13/twitt ermania/ (?)

  24. marc1919 (63 months ago | reply)

    little blue and white bulldog second row from the top, one down and three to the left of the bullseye (Malarkey)

  25. Dave Gorman (63 months ago | reply)

    Firstly, I like this image ... I think it's the amount of what I assume are default icons that bind it together in some way.

    On the NIPSA issue: is it a photo or a screengrab? Surely that would explain things. I don't think you're being punished for being critical of flickr, more likely it's a consequence of your popularity.

    There are lots of people posting screenshots and other images ripped from the net that nobody complains about because nobody is looking at them so flickr carries on in blissful ignorance.

    But you are a contact to thousands here and one of the most prolific photographers too so your images will be seen by lots of people quickly... and if it's a screengrab and people bring it to flickr's attention, well, it's going to be NIPSA'd because it's against the TOS no?

    It's obviously a harmless image and it's obvious that you're not presenting it as something that it's not so it's hard to see why anyone would have a problem with it, but then I don't think NIPSA decisions should actually be a judgement call because that would allow things to get personal. Harmless or not, hell, valuable or not, interesting or not if something contravenes the ToS and people bring it to flickr's attention I should think they have to act.

    Or redefine their ToS...

  26. jeremiah_owyang (63 months ago | reply)

    neato

  27. ```/streetart#_+_www.♥.tk ﴾͡๏̯͡๏﴿´´ (57 months ago | reply)

    found the screenshot it in the public search

    signature image,flickR █════███████████───── styled and hosted -_- link to my flickr `guestbook´►gb◄

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