The Reply to My Twitter Manifesto

If you haven't read my original Twitter Manifesto, I'd appreciate it if you read this before you watch this:



Even though I spend way too much time defending Twitter, I still have a sense of humor about the whole thing.

My Day on Twitter

People don't understand Twitter. More specifically, people don't understand why I like Twitter. So, I thought I would spend a little time making my case for this odd little service with no business plan that forces you to articulate a thought in 140 characters (or fewer).

I follow 23 Twitter feeds. Tonight I have 64 people following my 140-character words of wisdom and inspiration. About half of the feeds I follow arrive via text message on my phone, so I'm always up to date. I have my device setting to off for the other half, and I tend to read them all at once later in the day.

The information I get from Twitter is sometimes immediately useful, sometimes quite insightful, regularly bemusing. All of this is mixed with those posts the haters like most to point to, the mundane. But it's the mundane that creates a full portrait of the people we follow on Twitter. Those 140 characters add up to something rich.

So, here are just some of the things I've learned from Twitter in the last 24 hours:

I started the day off with a tweet from @mwesch thatled me to videos he's linked to for his visions of the future class. Very cool to see what AT&T and Apple were anticipating in the early 1990s:





One of the comments on the "What Would You Do?" Apple ad was "end gay people." That got a couple more tweets going and a link to this (which I also posted on my Twitter feed and Facebook page):



A little later Wesch also gave us a shout-out for the final project of one of his students. And they say the Internet is all fluff:



Students are doing brilliant work, and it's out there for all of us to see, not just for the teacher. This is a fundamental shift to higher education (well, education generally), and a very positive one.

Meanwhile, back at my Twitter feeds...

My colleague @Holden is wrapping up one position before he starts another (and let me just say how thrilled I am about that. This was his first tweet of the day:

holden Going through old emails, looking for anything of use to my successor. And it all looks so much like, well, you get thrown in and you swim.

And the folks @Passing_Strange (one of the best theater experiences in my life) tweet great lines from the show a couple of times a day. Life changing? No, but how awesome it is to be reminded of a life-changing experience a couple of times a day.

And then this little exchange had me smiling forever. It's funny, but it's also kind of quirky brilliant.

KeenanBlogger loves that you can ask questions on twitter and SOMEONE out there will answer. hehe i'm just gonna start asking stuff that is so easy

KeenanBlogger to find out on my own but I'm too lazy to do. What's the weather like outside my apt in Chicago, zipcode 60601?
about 9 hours ago from web

KeenanBlogger HA! Thanks @JarviMac, @soulofayoungman, @stewartyu! hmmm now if only I could figure out what color underwear I should wear...
about 9 hours ago from web

KeenanBlogger Blue it is @sashanks323! OMG Twitter is so the new magic 8 ball
about 9 hours ago from web

KeenanBlogger RT @jilltwiss, Twitter followers once told me how to tell if my arm was broken (using a tuning fork, to boot). And that's a HARD question.
about 9 hours ago from web

Twitter is the new magic 8 ball. Andrew Keenan Bolger, you may recall (but probably not) is my current reigning blogger of the year. He pukes creativity and wit, all with a strong social consciousness.

Then there was Hair. My day got off to a pretty nice start when I received a tweet from Hair on Broadway that the revival cast recording will drop on iTunes on May 26. Let the sun shine in!!

And if that weren't enough, later in the day I got a tweet alerting me to Hair Radio. This is a media player that plays songs from the 60s and from every cast recording of Hair. I've heard "Eyes Look Your Last" from the British Company, "What a Piece of Work is Man" from the film, and lots from the original broadway cast.

I learned a few things about people I'm interested in. And a few bizarre things. Really Bizarre!

So, this is my Twitter manifesto. I like it! People who blog about how useless it is, especially when they haven't studied it or even used it, especially when they're academics, just haven't given it a serious look. Sure, we're still waiting for a business model. Sure, there are moments where I think, "I can't believe that cost me 15 cents." But I have had such a rich experience and appreciate all the tweets my buds have sent over the last months.

Best of the Year: The Web

This was the year I said goodbye to a number of sites that became so advertising laden they took forever to load on my browser. But that's the worst of the web, isn't it?

I'm not sure why the best of everything is coming in twos this year, but today is another twofer. And the award for the best of the year in World Wide Web activity goes to Lifehacker and Andrew's Blog.

I've been a casual visitor to Lifehacker for sometime. But 2008 was the year it topped my rss reader. Perhaps I became afraid that without checking it everyday I'd be overwhelmed by the number of posts. No, that's not it. What I discovered was that there is something useful every single day, and I don't want to miss it!

Lifehacker bills itself as "tips and downloads for getting things done." That's about as dead-on a description as I can provide. While technology is a major factor in what Lifehacker provides--and this is a particularly Mac-friendly site--the information goes well beyond the technical. The site is filled with information on do-it-yourself projects, on how-to's. The information on computers is also amazingly useful.

In this year, I downloaded a free program to protect my passwords and private information, learned what supplies needed to go into a basic cleaning kit, how to repurpose my old iPod, essential and discounted apps for my iPhone and so much more. Lifehacker became the essential site for finding cool things that would help me out and would make me cool because I would share them.

And now for something completely different....

Something is happening in the University of Michigan's Musical Theater program. The MT program has a fine reputation and has produced some of our finest actors working in New York. Lately, some of the more recent grads from the program have taken things to the Web. Besides a few random videos I came across on YouTube, my first in-depth contact was with the fantastic Web series The Battery's Down, the musical story of a struggling actor in New York. You can see all of season one's episodes online, and season two starts March 1, 2009.

One of the Battery's Down regulars is Andrew Keenan-Bolger, a UMich graduate with long career for a 23 year old. He was Jojo in Seussical, along with a bunch of other New York credits prior to his UMich days. He's currently in The Grinch in its Boston engagement. Keenan-Bolger maintains Andrew's Blog, a compelling video blog that provides an intimate look into the life of a young musical theater actor.



Andrew's Blog is part video blog, part performance art, part performance capture, lots of camp and a whole lot of fun. Keenan-Bolger is charismatic and open. His vlog is a little offbeat, which makes it more interesting. I love the fact that you're never sure whether it's Andrew Keenan-Bolger or Andrew Keenan-Bolger playing the role of Andrew Keenan-Bolger. Here's a sample of Andrew's Blog from his visit to Rosie's Cruise last April.



Keenan-Bolger has a well-defined web presence. From the inspired URL of his blog: http://keenanblogger.blogspot.com/ to his creative, if a little busy, MySpace page and the UMichMT YouTube Channel, Keenan-Bolger is fearless in getting his life onto the Web.

For a well-rounded virtual life, Keenan-Bolger provides a varied presence rich in both content and form. And for that, he gets my vote for the best of the year.

The Hammer is My Penis

Those who know me know that I never missed an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Angel during their multi-year runs. I was not originally a fan of Joss Whedon's Firefly, but a friend subsequently introduced me to the DVDs and I got to see the episodes in order. They're terrific. So, I would be totally remiss if I didn't point the way to Whedon's latest, super-fantastic gig (no, not Dollhouse, that's six months away) Dr. Horrible's Sing-along Blog. Available for viewing at DrHorrible.com or for downloading at iTunes, Dr. Horrible is a small web project Whedon and family undertook during the writers strike.

Neil Patrick Harris stars as Dr. Horrible, a wannabe criminal mastermind who also wants to get the girl of his dreams. The doc has to do something really horrible to get into the Evil League of Evil, while fighting his nemesis Captain Hammer (a laugh-out-loud Nathan Fillion) and getting the girl, Felicia Day. Oh yes, and this really is a video blog and a musical.

Whedon writes the score with his brother, and it is stronger even than the Buffy musical "Once More with Feeling." Harris is a fantastic, nuanced Dr. Horrible, and Day and Fillion, particularly Day, provide wonderful support. The story is funny, but more than funny, and the music and lyrics drive the plot in very creative ways.

Dr. Horrible is shown in three acts of about 13 minutes each. All three episodes are now available online. The few friends I've shared it with so far have all responded the same way: "That's the most awesome thing I've seen on the web in a long time." And it is!!

Best of the Year: Internet

Sure, I could divide the Internet into its various components. Recognition for the best commercial site, the best social networking site, the best news site, the best queer site. But that would take a heck of a lot of time and totally misrepresent the fact that there is only one place I go every day without fail: Modern Fabulousity. ModFab has great taste, solid reviews, keen insight. And it's all mixed in with a whole lot of fun and hotness.

We might disagree on a thing or two. He owes me $35 for Fuerzabruta (I was only fifty percent of the way there with him) and I had no doubt that Sweeney Todd (the Tim Burton version) was going to blow me away. And I still can't figure out how he doesn't get Pushing Daisies. But ModFab is a blast to read. It connects me to some of the best music on the web and to some other great writers on the web. And he's a proud, stand-up-and-count-me gay man. That makes him a great role model, too.

Gotta give a special shoutout to Blue Hampshire. Being new to the whole New Hampshire thing, no site has done a better job of keeping me informed about the candidates and my new home state.