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 It’s a question that’s asked every day. Isn’t Twitter that thing that people do on theirphones? Isn’t that people writing about what they had for breakfast? The answer tothose two very specific and limiting questions is “yes” but for those that use Twitter it ismuch more. What should you use Twitter for? The answer is up to you. However, inbasic terms, you might think of Twitter as Facebook stripped down to mere statusupdates (Q: What are you doing/thinking right now?) but more public and searchable.So, you might write about the Grand Slam breakfast you had at Denny’s, but you mightalso write about how the ground just moved as many did during the 2008 earthquake inChina that preceded the Olympic games. Many did and for those following Twitter thatevening like Twitter user @scobleizer did, the magnitude and breadth of the quakesimpact could be tracked from its epicentre to outlying regions. In fact, this data wascoming in in real-time as Chinese twitterers updated their statuses and described whatwas happening around them. As a consequence @scobleizer broke the story at leastan hour before the wire service, CNN and even the US Geological Survey!People that are plugged in, that get the news and niche chatter before everyone elseand those that lead opinion in their own community use Twitter. As more and morepeople connect to Twitter, communities form based upon interests and communities arebridged by those that share other interests. While @scobleizer writes about tech news,he is also followed by those that write about politics, about sports and even about localbreakfast restaurants.How is Twitter different than blogging? Blogging requires time, effort and keeping anaudience interested, while Twitter is a sort of “micro-blogging” meaning anything youwrite is kept to 140 characters! While you might think that this is initially limiting, itactually lowers the threshold of participation for discussion as people that blog may puthours into putting an article together, Twitter is based upon immediacy and brevity.More people join the conversation when everyone has a better and easier chance ofgetting a word in. Since Twitter is inherently social, it is easy to build thoseconversations because Twitter makes it easy to follow others and to be followed!Where is Twitter? Twitter is not limited to the web. You can update your Twitter statusfrom a web browser, from a mobile phone via text message, from a Blackberry or evenfrom your desktop. Are you still sitting on the runway as the airline abuses your bags?Send an update from your phone. Killing some time as your significant other shops?Blackberry it. Join in conversation with others as you go about living your life. Beonline while you’re “offline”.
 
 RightofTwitter.ca is a project of the Manning Centre for Building Democracy(@manningcentre) and was conceived of and designed by Stephen Taylor(@stephen_taylor). The Manning Centre’s mission is to build right-of-centreinfrastructure in Canada so that governments that are elected are more likely to reflectprincipled, common-sense values. Twitter is community-based and is part of the socialmedia sphere online, and political participation is also thrives on community and socialparticipation. The Manning Centre, with RightofTwitter.ca aims to communitize theright-of-centre Twitter community in Canada to help us find each other, to engage indialogue and to spread our ideas through other communities bridged through Twitter.Go to RightofTwitter.ca to get a snapshot of the online right-of-centre Twitter communityin Canada. If you want to join and engage in dialogue, follow the Tweeps (Twitter folk)on the list by clicking through and following them from your own Twitter account. Youcan also go over to the #roft chat to see the latest Tweets (Twitter status updates)written by the RightofTwitter (RofT) community and those participating in the discussionwith us.
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