The Twitterization of Conversations

Yesterday I filmed a video about the half-life of conversations. When I started blogging back in 2000 a blog conversation could go for a week or more. Those days are long gone. In this video I cover why, and show you some ways that tools can be used to lengthen the conversation’s half life (which, on Twitter, can be as short as five minutes).

This video caused a conversation to break out on FriendFeed.

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Filed under: technology @ 4:22 am | 11 Comments

11 Comments

  1. Interesting Video | Scobleizer: Half Life of an Online Conversation | The Fearless Blogger Says:

    [...] also included this video in his recent post “The Twitterzation of a Conversation“) photo credits:  fire hydrant by Joseph.S, whale tail by Brajeshwar licensed as [...]

  2. Marc Meyer Says:

    Robert, The emergence of so many social nets has decreased our attention span but increased our interest in more things, and more communities-but also has reduced the types of participation, or the depth of that participation.

  3. You have 8 seconds to comment « toni.org Says:

    [...] leave a comment » Robert Scoble shows how various services are causing online conversations to become more real-time and less permanent. [...]

  4. Ari Herzog Says:

    I’m with 100 percent. Not sure why this would spark debate. Is logical to me.

  5. Today’s Geek Links : Wesley Donehue Says:

    [...] Scobleizer: The Twitterization of Conversations [...]

  6. Shiva Says:

    @Ari and @scoble

    Is it logical?! I would think that this half-life is very personal. For people like Robert, the half-life is really small (only a few seconds), since that is his reading pattern. I still know a lot of people who don’t use feed, don’t use twitter etc.. and their half-life is still several days.

    Personally, I mark items I want to process more, as part of a custom feed I create using instapaper and process them over the weekend. Of course this means that I can’t really be part of the conversation instantaneously, but I do get the time to go back reflect upon the content.

    I do agree that FF’s grouping of conversation is way more useful. I think twitter needs to address that somehow. (I can almost sense a new tool for twitter here.)

    Get in touch with me if you have an idea for a tool here.

  7. Jas Says:

    Another comparison post on FriendFeed and Twitter? Yay…

  8. Arasmus Says:

    Micro-blogging is the substitution of Narrative with “Isative.” The death of Narrative has dropped us all into a stream of present-sense impressions sans conclusion. We live now like characters of stories past with no indication of our fate beyond the next Twitter.

    http://www.arasmus.com/microblog/2008/11/25/blooming-terminus.html

  9. Steven Barchetti Says:

    Hey Robert

    I agree with your findings that the new tools are getting better.

    With that being said, I do believe it is our responsibility as users to help the developers expand and improve on the platform that they have put out so far.

    It is always great to follow your input, because you get to see some much technology first hand with your travels and interviews.

    I don’t think the developers even realized what was possible with some of the application we now have in the market.

    I just hope they continue to make them better, because everyone will benefit!

    Steven

    King Of Finance & Social Media

  10. Loan Modification Says:

    Of course its natural. not only are there more people on the planet than there were back in 200o for example, but there are more blogs and most importantly more important stuff that absolutely needs to be posted. It makes you wonder how we ever survived back in 1999.

    (Also I wish to extend my condolances (alltohough 8 years late) to robert, for NOT having had thousands of friends online back then.)
    ;-)

  11. eTc :: El blog de Marketing en Español » Blog Archive » Twitter y su uso empresarial Says:

    [...] importante como Shel Israel le va a dedicar un libro. Como comentaba Scoble estamos viviendo la twitterización de las conversaciones. Entradas [...]

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