Twittercize: A New Take on What Twitter is “For”

Despite all bloviatons to the contrary, nobody knows what Twitter is “for”–any more than we know what a 3G phone is “for.” New technologies are developed, we play around and see what they can do, the technology is developed further, the cycle repeats. Users, over time, determine what a technology is “for.”

Which brings me to Twittercize.

This mini-service may seem a lightweight fluff that’s irrelevant to the way Twitter is most widely used. But it demonstrates aspects of the microblogging platform that I haven’t seen before–and that suggest new possibilities for what this annoying, persistent, fascinating communications platform can do.

The Twittercize profile sends Tweets every hour that describe a simple one-minute exercise you can do at your desk. A recent example:

Table Flips: Forearms under a table or desk, palms up, press and hold for five. Repeat 10 times! about 13 hours agofrom web

That’s all it does. It’s run by a writer in Denver who seems to be winging it and figuring out what he’s doing as he goes.

What strikes me is that Twittercize exploits three aspects of the platform that are rarely put into play.

1. Location [at least for web-based Twitter use]. Twittercize knows where you are.
2. Profile. Twittercize knows how you live. Desktop Twitteurs almost by definition are deskbound wretches, quietly cultivating repetitive stress injuries and the minor pathologies that result from butt-in-chair syndrome. Easy movements and stretching exercises can provide relief.
3. Timing. Twittercize knows when you need it. By sending updates every hour or so, Twittercize acts as a prompt timed to your needs, not its broadcast schedule.

Twittercize knows where you are, who you are, what you need and when you need it.

Right now, most people use Twitter to broadcast stuff when it occurs to them or when things are published elsewhere, essentially without regard to the audience and what it needs. I wonder whether creative people can look at the Twittercize model can figure out interesting ways to take advantage of those aspects of the platform.

And, along the way, continue to expand the definition of what the heck Twitter is “for.”