I love Twitter
On a webinar today I was talking about how the security industry is evolving to have a "data orientation." Once we understand that the "stuff" of security is data, we can manage it and extract value from it the way we do all the millions and billions of bits of data in our lives. This blog post is an example. Millions of bits of information are being presented to you, but it looks pretty and easy to understand, because of the software applications (Internet browser, blog hosting software), the computer your using, and the network (Internet). That’s the way it is. Security is becoming data. We use computers, software and networks to organize and create value from that data.
We then can share and collaborate in ways never dreamed of before.
Two years ago I wrote a security industry trends piece called Guards, Guns, Gates and Google predicting this data orientation. But Google isn’t the coolest thing. Google means easy access to all data. Real value comes from collaboration. And the "google" of collaboration, sharing and connectedness is Twitter.
Twitter is one of those web 2.0 applications that sounds completely ridiculous when your first hear of it, but after you start using it, you wonder how life happens without it.
With Twitter, you simply create a short mini-conversation which answers only one question: What are you doing now? That’s it. I type up to 140 characters explaining what I’m doing now.
"writing a blog post on how much I like Twitter"
I "follow" other people whom I respect or like and watch what they are doing now.
The other week I wrote this Tweet:
Planning a trip to Boston and wondering who else to visit.
A couple of my Followers Tweeted back saying
Call my friend at the transit authority. Here’s the email address…
and
Be sure to use the water taxi from downtown to Logan, its much faster.
In a million years I never would have thought to ask that particular person whom I should see in Boston. And the Water taxi from downtown was actually a big time saver. Go Twitter!
Now I get useful responses to my tweets when I’m evaluating this surveillance camera, or critiquing that vendor, or posting a new article.
So what are you waiting for? Taste the future of the security industry. Get involved in the future of collaboration and sharing. And "Follow Me" on Twitter. www.twitter.com/steve_hunt
Sounds cool! I’ll try, check me out I am micazeb.
I have heard about Twitter for about a year now and you said it perfectly, at first it “sounds completely ridiculous.” I’ve heard from enough people that I respect about how useful it can be, that I’m plunging in to try it!
Well, I set up twitter so I could follow your tweets thinking I wouldn’t do too much with it. Then some of my friends started following me and things have gotten a bit larger from there.
I guess the jury is still out on whether or not it will be worth it for me, but it’s rather nice for a throw away one line blog post in the sidebar.
Good to (finally!) find some industry contacts on Twitter – great post!