Bret Devereaux

I was thinking about twitter and how I'd describe it to someone who isn't here. And I think I've settled on a conclusion: Twitter is a lot like an academic or professional conference, except without the papers/speeches. Just pure Q&A and Happy hour.

I mean that in both positive and negative ways. On the upside, you can have the electric experience of running into someone whose work you've read or studied and striking up a conversation.

On the other hand, the way followers/following works, you're as likely to see that person 'holding court' and be on the outside looking in, never really getting a chance to get their attention and talk with them.

Meanwhile, the professional back-and-forth of ideas slides between the good-vibes positive feedback you sometimes get a conferences to the snippy, climbing-by-stepping-on-people 'more of a comment than a question' Q&A experiences we've all had.

And the whole thing has that high-school-gossip vibe where everyone (but you) seems to know who we are not-so-secretly rubbishing this week - but if you don't know what the latest is, no one is going to tell you.