Sorry For "Twittering" My Thumbs on This Assignment. Aha. Aha.

Web 2.0 is a term originally coined by Tim O’Reilly. According to O’Reilly, Web 2.0:
“…is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform. Chief among those rules is this: Build applications that harness network effects to get better the more people use them. (This is what I've elsewhere called "harnessing collective intelligence.")” (O’Reilly 1)
Admittedly, that definition requires a little unpacking. The key element of Web 2.0 is the idea of “harnessing collective intelligence. O’Reilly regards Web 2.0 as a movement wherein business attempts to adapt its needs to the unique features of the web. Meaning that it utilizes open architecture and open source programming in making web site content accessible and modifiable by its user base. O’Reilly provides several examples of companies that embody his fundamental tenets of Web 2.0, namely eBay, craigslist, Wikipedia, Skype, and dodgeball. (O’Reilly 2)
Twitter is on the forefront of a movement known as “mini-blogging.” Essentially, it allows users to text, IM, or post via the web brief updates concerning events in their everyday lives. Posts are limited to 140 characters–so waxing poetic is difficult–and are generally intended to provide practical information about the user’s status (e.g. “at the bank and then getting dry cleaning” or “econ until 12:30, lunch at Einstein’s after”). While the vast majority of Twitter blogs are self-run, there are a number of exceptions when it comes to celebrities and, more recently, political candidates.
Twitter has garnered a great deal of criticism for its simplicity; many see it as nothing more than a way for young adults to humor delusions of grandeur, narcissism, and popularity. Clive Thompson of Wired Magazine, however, feels differently. He argues that, if anything, Twitter is a collectivist service, which allows friends and family and coworkers to stay that much more connected. By monitoring Twitter updates, one can know who’s overstressed and best to avoid and who’s “on a roll.” Twitter, Thompson claims, only seems ridiculous on the surface, when reading single entries from random blogs. Once people begin to actually use it, so they inevitably begin to appreciate the added dimension of social awareness that it provides (Thompson 1).
Conceptual criticism aside, Twitter has suffered from a number of technical problems since its inception. First and foremost, Twitter has begun to develop a reputation for being unreliable. In 2007, the service boasted an uptime rate of only 98%, meaning that it was down for almost six days over the course of the year. While this might not sound like much, Twitter’s users have voiced considerable outrage on the matter, proving that many people have come to truly rely on the service for social-connectedness (Caverly 1). Another concern with Twitter is security. Courtesy of SMS spoofing services offered online, which allow users to send text messages “from” the number of their choice, individuals can effectively update the Twitter account of anyone whose phone number they know (Dhanjani 1). This is how many individuals are able to simultaneously update the same Twitter blog for a celebrity or political candidate.
In spite of its flaws, millions of users remain enamored with Twitter. After all, it’s a free service with absolutely no advertising. Moreover, security concerns are relatively minor: there’s just not that much damage that can be done by hijacking someone’s Twitter account. Since going public, Twitter has seen the rise of over one hundred competing services, many of which offer more advanced features. Nevertheless, Twitter remains the masthead of mini-blogging.
For those interested, I created a Twitter account (https://twitter.com/daelphium) under the name daelphium. I don’t really know how I feel about the whole thing, I get the feeling I’m far too private to make full use of Twitter. Plus I don’t really know anyone who uses the service, or at least if I do, I have yet to locate any of them. Still, it’s new, and it’s pretty, so we’ll see.

O’Reilly, Tim. What Is Web 2.0? Retrieved March 1, 2008 from O’Reilly Net.
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html

O’Reilly, Tim. Web 2.0 Compact Definition: Trying Again. Retrieved March 1, 2008 from O’Reilly Net.
http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2006/12/web-20-compact-definition-tryi.html

Caverly, Doug. Twitter Downtime Revealed, Ridiculed. Retrieved March, 1 2008 from WebProNews.
http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2007/12/20/twitter-downtime-revealed-ridiculed

Dhanjani, Nitesh. Twitter and Jott Vulnerable to SMS and Caller ID Spoofing. Retrieved March 1, 2008 from his personal blog.
http://www.dhanjani.com/archives/2007/04/twitter_and_jott_vulnerable_to.html

Thompson, Clive. How Twitter Creates a Social Sixth Sense. Retrieved March 1, 2008 from Wired Online
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/magazine/15-07/st_thompson