Let me be the first to compare Twitter to PCR

[Duer 157099]

At least I hope I'm the first, but will admit that I have not even Googled to see if that is so. In any case, the idea came to me today.

But first, you ask, what the hell is PCR? Well, PCR (polymerase chain reaction) is a technique used in molecular biology, invented a few decades ago by Kary Mullis who later--in 1993--won a Nobel prize for the development.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kary_Mullis

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCR

The development of the PCR technique was a watershed event for all of the sciences that used molecular genetics. What it enables, essentially, is the ability to amplify a very small signal to the degree where it can be meaningfully interpreted.

And that is how I see Twitter, at least today. It's a tool whereby a very small signal, perhaps just one person with one cell phone in Tehran, can be amplified many times ("retweeted" or RT) until the message is received by those who are looking for it.

[arcadian]

1. Do you work for twitter?

This is a serious question.

[Duer 157099]

4. My first reaction was "Are you kidding"

but I see you say it is serious.

The answer is: No. Actually, it's: HELL no.

Until a week ago I didn't even look at the Twitter page, not once. I dispised hearing about it constantly from the media--and actually, that more than anything was what made it so repulsive to me: that the media just could not shut the hell up about it. I was convinced that they somehow had a stake in it succeeding, because they were all over it, and I could not understand why. However, I was aware of the fact that the only way something like Twitter would actually have any chance of surviving, was via the M$M constantly talking about it. Because a tool like that is only viable when it has critical mass, AND a critical function.

I could tell that it was achieving critical mass, but until last weekend, when I turned on CNN to see what was happening in Iran, and found NO NEWS, that was when I finally went to the Twitter URL to see what it was all about.

I'm no Twitter evangelist, I have just seen first-hand how this tool can be useful in certain circumstances.

[BlooInBloo]

2. I'm pretty sure that's the first.

[Oregone]

3. "Tool" is a precise word to be associated with Twitter

"It's a tool whereby..."