Now that I’m using Twitter, I’m having the damnedest time explaining it to anyone else. When I describe it, I always get blank stares followed by “I don’t get it.” What I need is a short description (Tweet length of less) that describes the real value of Twitter. This seems so easy for other technology:
Email - send letters and messages around the world, instantaneously, and for free
Instant Messaging - real time online conversations
SMS - send a short message to any cell phone owner without worrying about where they are, what they’re doing, or if you are interrupting them
Facebook - easily keep track of old and new friends
Hulu - quality TV online when I want it
I could go on, but I think you get the idea. What do I say for Twitter? “like SMS but mass broadcast?” “short conversations with anyone?” “status updates for all your friends?” “like a chat room on the web?” I’m drawing a blank, but any ideas would help. How do I pitch Twitter to a non-user?
If you haven’t watched the show, here’s the deal: A bunch of chefs all get together in a kitchen where they compete against each other for a reality show style prize. Each week, one of them is voted off the island *cough* kitchen, while the last one standing wins their own restaurant (for a year). The catch is that during each episode Gordon Ramsay screams at them incessantly while they’re cooking, and there’s not so much voting as just Gordon picking whomever he hates the most.
Ramsay is what makes the show so great. He’s been awarded twelve Michelin stars. Twelve! The man could probably setup shop in a cardboard box and get a Michelin star. He’s absolutely passionate about food, quality, and customer service. Watching him run a kitchen is like watching a true master craftsman do what he does best.
The contestants are a different story entirely. Every week the two teams compete in a challenge, someone wins, someone loses, and the losers have to perform some kind of punishment. Most of the time, the punishment is extra prep or kitchen cleaning. These punishments are almost always related to a typical restaurant task, but the amount of griping from the losers is usually insufferable. You would think that they had to clean septic tanks or something. They’re almost all chefs, yet none of them have passion for what they do!
If you love food, then you should love being with food. You have to do extra prep? Great! You love food and that’s what chefs do! You have to go pick vegetables from a field? Great! Thomas Keller grows his own produce for The French Laundry so that he can always have the best food in the kitchen.
Be passionate! Losing on Hell’s Kitchen should be like winning.
By the way, if you want to watch, you can catch episodes on Hulu. In fact, this gives me an excuse to try Hulu’s embedding feature. Here’s a nice video of grown men throwing tantrums because they have to go pick food from a field.
While it’s on my sidebar, I really want to point out the Silicon Alley Insider; a blog run by one time securities analyst now banned from Wall Street for life Henry Blodget. He made some bad calls during the dot-com era, but Wall Street’s government mandated loss is our gain - SAI is an outstanding wealth of technology business analysis. Blodget’s post titled Hulu: Great Product, Still Screwed is a perfect example that captures the unsettling economic problems facing NBC and News Corp’s soon to be released online video service. (Disclosure: I posted a comment on the Hulu post).
While Blodget’s thoughts are well reasoned, I should also add some positive perspective. I have a beta membership to Hulu and I have to say the service is outstanding. The video quality is great, the ads aren’t terribly intrusive, and the interface is decent. My biggest complaint is that searching for videos is more challenging than I would prefer, especially for shows like Saturday Night Live where there are literally hundreds of clips available. Still, as far as legal online video goes, Hulu is the best thing going right now and leaves iTunes in the dust by virtue of being 100% free.
Which leads me to my next question about why I would even want to own a TV. With so much quality media online, does the traditional TV even matter anymore? I, for one, am not planning on buying an HDTV any time soon, and might even take the opportunity to just throw away my old TV when the digital switch happens next year. What are your TV plans (there’s a poll here if you don’t see it in your RSS reader):
Your TV plans for the next year?
I already own an HDTV (33.0%, 2 Votes)
I'm planning to buy an HDTV (0.0%, 0 Votes)
I'm planning to buy a converter (or have one already) (0.0%, 0 Votes)
I'm throwing away my regular TV and switching to the Internet (33.0%, 2 Votes)
No TV for me, either online or offline (33.0%, 2 Votes)
For anyone who watches 
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