So Much to Say

Disparate circumstance beneath all of our dignities to explain have resulted in a bit of a lag time between posts. It happens, right? Sometimes you sit next to your team and no one has time to share news even then. It’s at those times that, when you have a free moment, you have to commit and hold a micro-meeting right then and there, get caught up, see who’s hemorrhaging, see who has excess capacity.

There are myriad things to talk about, but the biggest impact came from the smallest place last week, when a Berkeley grad student was released from an Egyptian prison because of Twitter. Mr. Buck is justifiably concerned about the fate of his Egyptian cohorts, who weren’t so lucky as to be born American. After all, when you can mobilize an army of well-funded white people with a single word, it’s more a testament to the young man’s capacity for clear thought in the face of armed police.

But there is more to say, because it highlights the value of Twitter and “status blogging” in general. Forget the world-changing, free at last piece (although that’s exciting), it has immediate ramifications for your team right now. I can’t get the time to blog, but EASCI is tweeting away, providing some highlights, interacting. Your team hasn’t seen you for a week, but if you’re all using a Twitter account as a private channel for team members, you can all at least still feel in the loop. Email suffers from the “not at desk” syndrome, even on smartphones - but Twitter is quick, and you can distribute a single text message to the entire team/project group/workforce. That’s a big deal, particularly when something is urgent.

Like “ARRESTED.”