About two months ago I met someone who introduced me to Twitter (www.twitter.com). I went to the website, registered, and checked it out for a few days but I was not very interested in knowing that people thousands of miles away were having a cup of coffee. So, I left the site and did not return until last week, when a colleague suggested that we start a circle of DBA’s on Twitter, so that we could share information a little more easily.
So, last week I went back to the site, started following a few friends that I know from PASS, and before very long I started to understand that I was part of something very, very good. Twitter is perfect for our community, as it allows us to share quick thoughts, ask quick questions, and trust the responses because you can control who sees your posts.
As a result of my using Twitter in the past week I have been able to get info on SQL 2008 being released (and how you need Visual Studio 2008 SP1, which is not released yet), info on DNS and SQL injection attacks, info on system stored procedures and functions, as well as some general commiserating. I have also been able to get more in depth information on things like DPM, as a result of a quick post from @BrentO which led to me sending him an email that resulted in a longer discussion. I had DPM on my radar for a while now, but being in contact with Brent on Twitter made my research easier.
I think Twitter is a great tool to complement the myriad of blogs and newsgroups out there already. If you have a community of people that you want to ping periodically throughout the day, then Twitter is a good place to start. And yes, at times I feel as if I am part of the Borg Collective, but I can turn off my Blackberry any time I want.
Aye, I was much the same way when I first heard about Twitter. But since signing up and actually using it, I’ve been very glad to have done so. A lot of smart people interacting all the time.
Yeah. Death to NNTP plz. 🙂