90% of my blogging is now on Twitter...
you'll get like 2-15 alerts on your phone/AIM a day with my links, thoughts, discussions, etc. — I'm thinking of doing a week of Twitter-only blogging.... so, join now!
Context & Ripple Effects
Twitter has gone from curiosity to the dominant topic of tech blogging in a matter of weeks: it was the talk of SXSW 2007, and posts like why twitter matters and Twitter THIS! have spent March debating whether it is a real medium or noise. The same week produced experiments at the edges, including using Twitter beyond social networking for home devices.
Calacanis' move matters because he is a career blogger treating the platform as a full replacement rather than a supplement — 90% of his output now flows through Twitter as links, thoughts, and discussions pushed to followers via phone and AIM alerts, with a proposed week of Twitter-only blogging as the test.
First-order effects
- His existing blog audience must adopt Twitter to keep following him, converting his reader base directly into Twitter users through daily alert-driven contact.
Second-order effects
- Other prominent bloggers face the same calculus; each high-profile defection raises Twitter's network value while straining a service already criticized during its SXSW surge.
Third-order effects
- If established bloggers treat short-form status updates as primary publishing, the line between blogging and microblogging blurs — attention shifts from destination sites to a stream of pushed updates.
The trend: Publishers and bloggers are migrating from long-form blogs toward real-time microblogging platforms, with early-adopter influencers like Calacanis setting the template.