We are pleased to announce that micro bloggers can now post entries from Joint Contact directly to Twitter! With the Internet world in a craze about Twitter we wanted to explain not only why Twitter matters, but why we think it matters to Joint Contact.
The Concept
Twitter introduces a new concept in online communication known as micro blogging. Unlike a traditional blog, or even a text message or IM, a micro blog through Twitter limits your text communication to 140 characters. Since the message size is limited, people use mirco blogs to send quick messages for communicating status. Online services like Twitter have proven to be an innovative solution for up-to-the minute marketing, as micro bloggers can broadcast quick messages about a new website, blog entry or product launch.
Micro blogging meets project collaboration
By integrating with Twitter, Joint Contact allows individuals to communicate their project status with other Joint Contact users as well as their Internet followers on Twitter. Since people access Twitter messages using mobile devices as well as PC’s, it allows users to receive project messages from any Twitter enabled device. This includes the iPhone as well as popular desktop applications like Twhirl).
How it works
To get started, create a free Twitter account, then add your Twitter credentials to your Joint Contact profile. Once added, you can automatically send the title of any Joint Contact Conversation (aka message or discussion group) directly to Twitter. Why Conversations? This is place where messaging and group collaboration occurs.
The Twitter integration is an option available with any new or existing Conversation. Since Twitter only supports 140 characters per post, Joint Contact paragraph bodies are not included Twitter postings.
The ability to send Twitter messages from Joint Contact also solves another micro blogging challenge – managing your postings. In our example below Twitter messages (Tweets) have been created based on a series of Joint Contact Conversations. Since Conversations are assigned to workspaces, Tweets can be organized by project folder and can also be combined with other actions. Here we see a few Conversations that have been linked to Documents and Images (see icons). These messages were also sent to our Internet followers as Tweets.
The integration of Twitter with Joint Contact opens up a new world of possibilities in the area of project collaboration. For those looking for a more robust Twitter client (and that’s a lot of us) it provides a means of not only being able to track Tweets, but the ability to manage Twitter communications with other related work items.
Note: To learn more about Joint Contact and Twitter check out our latest blog entry entitled What’s your status?
[...] August 4, 2008 At Joint Contact we’ve heard from a lot of people interested our use and adoption of Twitter. While many speculate if Twitter can actually be used for something useful, we are having no problems in seeing how it can be used in our service. This includes the ability to communicate project status, as well as the ability to organize “Tweets”. [...]