Twitter for Computer and Network Security
Are you following me on Twitter yet? Why not?!?!
Are you still trying to understand the value of exchanging 140-character status updates with the world? I did as well at first. I orginally created my Twitter account a while back. I followed the ‘tweets’ of a couple other people and I got to learn things like ‘flight delayed. waiting at airport. why don’t they have free wifi?’ or ‘overslept this morning. need coffee. I hate Mondays’. I then let it lay dormant because it seemed like a useless novelty.
Eventually I came back though. There is something to be said for hundreds or thousands of people sharing random thoughts. There is a social inertia to the whole thing. I also determined that while many of the tweets are random thoughts about breakfast, or stop signs, or being tired of snow and winter, Twitter is also a very useful tool for sharing more pertinent information as well.
The majority of the tweets I send out on my Twitter account are related to information technology and computer security subjects. I use Twitter to give a heads up when I post new blog entries here on About.com or on any of my other blogs. I use Twitter to notify people when I will be speaking on a radio show or presenting a webcast or conference. I also share breaking news when I see relevant tech headlines but don’t have the time to blog about it or write my own perspective on the topic, or pass on (a.k.a. ‘re-tweet’) other tweets that seem to be valuable or interesting information.
Twitter is gaining momentum. Major news outlets like CNN use it to interact with users and discuss news topics. The Barack Obama campaign, and now the Barack Obama administration, embraced Twitter. According to this PC World article, many technology and information security companies have also jumped on the Twitter bandwagon and have embraced as a means of engaging customers and sharing information quickly.