The importance of being on Twitter

Telegraph.co.uk has an interesting piece of analysis on Twitter by Robert Colvile. Its interesting because Colvile seems to have largely missed the point.
In describing Tweeting as "a chore for the overloaded web surfer - another means of being bombarded with useless information," Colvile hasn't quite done justice to what is already an important social media tool.
Twitter's suddenly found itself in the media limelight (again) after Mike Wilson twittered away while escaping from a burning plane that crash landed in Denver. While terrorists held Bombay hostage, locals were tweeting eyewitness reports. At a less extreme level, Dubai Tweeter Binmugahid is looking at setting up a Twitter-based traffic alert system to help users get around the city's chaotic traffic. Twitter was used extensively during the US elections by candidates, journalists and ordinary people.
My point? Twitter is not just "a chore." When used properly it can be an important source of information. Whether or not you receive loads of "useless information" is entirely up to you because you decide who you follow and who you don't.
And yes, Twitter is full of people who want to share an evaluation of their lunchtime sandwich in 140 characters or less. But then, that's the most wonderful thing about the Internet...you don't have a gatekeeper who decides what gets said online.

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