And that’s what brings me to my feature request: I’d really love a function similar to Flickr’s galleries.  In my dream of this feature, I can pull together delicious links into little knowledge galleries.  These galleries would have a unique link, a way for me to republish in other places and (if I’m really getting fancy) a print to .pdf feature.  In a way, I guess, I’m asking for some of the features H2O Playlist to be built in.

Can we have this?  Please?

And, if you need something like this too, how are you getting that need met today?  Pulling it together on a wiki page (that’s what I often do)?  Sharing an Evernote notebook?

1. Twitter is actually a lot like riding the bus. Some of the people who cross your path are, well, not people with whom you’d choose to become lifelong friends. On twitter, they may be spammers of the obvious Twitter-is-going-to-ban-them type, or they may be less obvious — simply single-minded about their real estate sales. SEO magic, or social media mojo. They may also be amazingly inappropriate. Your tolerance for these people on the edges of the conversation is probably close to your tolerance for them real life. You can simple ignore them. You can block them (it’s under actions on the user’s profile page). You can try and engage and get them to make more sense.
2. You don’t have to read it all. Twitter isn’t like that. It’s not email. That’s part of its beauty, actually, but also part of what can be overwhelming. There’s a public timeline, there are the updates from the people you follow. Read what you want. Dip in and out of the stream. But don’t worry about it. Seriously. That said…
3. Replies are where it’s @. Use them and read them. People can flag a public message for your attention by simply putting “@username” in the entry. Pay attention to those. You can see them, logged in, via the @yourusername on the sidebar of your profile page. It’s not just about reading those things. It’s also about pointing out things for others. @username inserted in their post will make sure they see it. So, for example, if you wanted to make sure that I saw something from you, you would just add “@webb” to your tweet.
4. Spread the good stuff. Someone else tweet something that you really want to share? Do it! Simple begin with “RT @username” and follow it with the orginial message (you might have to do some shortening to get into the 140 character limit) and send it along. The RT indicates that you are retweeting something and the @username give credit.
5. You don’t have to read it all. Yes, yes, I know. People broadcast. They are jerks. You don’t know why they are following you. Hop up to number 1 on this list and read that again.
6. Find your tribe. Search is your friend on Twitter like it is almost everywhere else on the Interwebs. Use search on the profile page to find, via keywords, conversations that may be useful to you. When you do find one that strikes a chord, save it. Saved searches will appear right under the search box.*
7. Follow people who are interesting to you. Don’t worry about whether or not you know them. Don’t worry if they have a gazillion twitter followers or two. Follow people because you know them. Because you like what they are saying. Because you care and might want to engage in conversation.
8. Introduce yourself. Do it in your bio. People actually look at those. After all, they want to know that you aren’t a spammer. Give a bit of context and a link. And you know, you can do the twitter version of a handshake: use the @ to tell someone what interested you enough to follow them.
9. Make sure you have the d. You want to send a private message. You can if the twitter user is following you. Just put a “d” and then space and then their username. Private messages are nice for messages that are, well, private. But also for those quick thanks or nice to see you or that reminds you kind of post. But do everyone a quick favor: make sure you’re private messages are marked up properly. After all, you don’t want all of us calling you at 10am tomorrow.
10. You. Do. Not. Have. To. Read. It. All. Really. Really. Really.

* Over time, you’ll probably move this process to desktop or mobile twitter clients. But let that come. No need to start in the deep end if you don’t have to.

Photo Credit: Flotilla, taken by James Jordan

So, I asked.    And I started thinking: Why do I think it’s so important for my pal to tweet?  Is it just because I like Twitter and I want her to like it too?  Is it because I like anything new and shiny?  Am I seduced by the stories of social change via twitter?

@maryvale‘s answer pushed my own thinking farther.  She said, “Twitter’s openness distinguishes it from the others you mentioned. She can connect with thousands at a time, and it’s easy to engage.”

Twitter is more open.  Sure, as my pal pointed out, it’s self-referential and insular. Really, what social network isn’t?  But email, Facebook, and text messaging all depend on people knowing each other.  They create, to borrow from Clay Shirky, bonding capital.  They are tools to help you get to know the same people at a deeper level.  Twitter helps you create bonding capital, sure.  But even more it is about bridging capital. It is a way to get to know other people — people you didn’t go to college with, don’t work with.  People who don’t share the same taste in music or have kids in the same play group.  And that, combined with the easy casual connections, are big part of what is attractive to me.  That is, in fact, why I love Twitter.

Of course, that very thing, the press of people and tweets, that makes my friend, and others, so skeptical.  Okay, she tells me. I’ll try it. As an experiment.  But I can ignore people right?  I don’t want the yadda, yadda, yadda.

Now here’s the big thing about Twitter: You don’t actually have to pay attention.  At least, you don’t have to pay the attention to everyone, not all the time.  As Dave Winer writes, “Park yourself on the riverbank and watch the news flow by. If you miss something, not to worry, if it’s important some new story will refer to it.”

I think it more like wading into a river. You get in. You stretch your arms out.  You know a lot about the river. You know how fast the water is moving. What temperature it is.  You know all of that, even though you don’t feel every molecule.  You know it just because you are in the river and you are letting it flow by.

But, probably, that isn’t practical enough.  More practically, a politician can subscribe to some others doing work in the same area.  Politicians like @gavinnewsom, @barbaraboxer, @askgeorge, and @schwarzenegger. Find more in Politicians who get Twitter…and some who don’t.

So, sign up for those people.  And then spend some time on the Twitter home page using the search box.  Put in things related to interests — political or not and save them.  Come back and check on them. But don’t worry about reading it all. It’s a river.

And then engage.  A bit at a time.  This will provide the basics to get your started.

To the skeptic part?  Don’t expect it to be all meaningful and directed.  Spammers will friend you. Block them. Ignore them. Whatever you want to do.  Don’t think that you will get thousands of followers in a few days.  And don’t think that it is going to make a change today. But know that it is a good way to meet new people, participate in a variety of conversations, and bring those new people into your network.

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