[LINK] USDAFoodSafety is using Twitter.

[Sylvano]

On Monday 30 March 2009, Jan Whitaker wrote:
> I also just saw your comment about not using mobile devices. Me
> either. I do have an old style mobile, black and white even, and
> that's about it. No net connection on it. I don't mind texting, but I
> seldom call on it. It's an emergency access tool, or an easy way to
> find friends when we're meeting up someplace I don't know.

I'm a mobile and mobile 'net user, without question.  Just yesterday I am 
heading into (Sydney) town for a conference and get an update (via the mobile) 
of strange goings ons in the city with Electricty.  So I tell the cab to pull 
over before being fully committed to the bridge crossing.   I pull up the 
browser, type in 'Hilton Sydney' and get the result via google with one more 
click to the contacts page and make a call direct from the auto hyper linked 
telephone number. 

All clear, not a problem, they have power.  Conference is still happening. 

I can't expect to get this knowledge from the radio, a newspaper or the cab 
driver (who actually advised me that it was pointles because "the whole city 
was without poer"). But I have my own facility to easily derive the info I 
need and make my own assessment.  

The better part a minute has passsed and I tell the cab to continue.

I SMS a colleague coming from another direction - who'd SMS'd me wondering if 
we were possibly afffected - and confirmed all was OK.  I get a confirmation 
SMS back with a request from him to suss out something else that I do while in 
transit, and deal with it. It results in having someone do something that 
would not have otherwise been done, and removes the need for a number of 
counter actions on the part of my colleague.

It really isn't any different than learning to look left and right when 
crossing the road.  

They're just a tool, with practical applications.  

Sylvano


Gnomon Publishing
http://www.gnomon.com.au/