I realize you expect more in-depth content on my blog and I promise to get to that eventually. It seems my recent job change to product management is making me focus more on the big picture. Damn business people! Anyways, people who attended SharePoint Best Practices conference in San Diego may have heard me now infamously proclaim “I hate Twitter. If ur gonna blog, blog, if ur gonna IM, IM.” However, funny that may be, it reflects my naïve understanding of Twitter at the time. Not long after making that bold statement, I found myself becoming a voracious consumer of Twitter. You can pretty much find me on it all day long. Why the sudden change? I realized something after giving it a second try – It’s helpful. Twitter is not just an ego outlet. It’s a place where I can find answers. I read an article recently in one of my scientific magazines that suggested that people don’t just learn to use tools. Tools become a part of their brain - An external extension of the mind. In that respect, you can see Twitter as a way to plug in many minds, perhaps thousands, together to form one large hive entity. (Ominous sounding on purpose – Just because I’m a somewhat demented soul) Jokes aside, it’s amazing what you see, hear, and understand after just connecting with a few likeminded individuals on Twitter. Since joining twitter, I’ve planned out several new non-SharePoint products, linked up with VC’s, done product planning for my Quest efforts, helped people with their Quest products and procurement, learned bad things about my competitors, got my questions answered, kept track of the happenings in my particular areas, and received several expensive software products for free. The power of this thing seems limitless and it will only get more powerful as time goes on. So long as the user base continues to increase and contribute. And don’t think you have some obligation to contribute to twitter. It’s extremely lightweight. The real beauty of Twitter is its conciseness and disconnectedness. It’s communication without the obligation. One late night, a few weeks ago, SharePoint Joel and I theorized that God must use Twitter. It’s a way to filter out the noise yet be very well plugged in and make things happen when needed - perfect for managing the universe and trillions upon trillions of beings. The bottom-line: use Twitter. You need it. It’s real productivity. It’s real collaboration. You can find me at twitter.com/mikewat.