@TomRHicks

is how to reach me on Twitter. I'm following a couple of breweries, Mo Rocca from CBS Sunday Morning and Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, CoeBRAI, Lonnie Zingula, and Lance Armstrong. Lance is very active on Twitter and it's neat to see his comments during the Tour De France, which just finished it's third stage today.

I've only ever wanted to us Twitter to follow others and be entertained. I stayed away from it for a while before I finally jumped in last summer. I rarely check it but will spend some more time on it during the Tour. I know it has been used to track trends and news and those are the only two ways I can think of it being used in an educational setting. It's purely social to me so I struggle to see how much educational value it has. I do think it would be interesting to analyze the type and frequency of individuals' comments though.

I've recently stated that I think Twitter will be dead or irrelevant in two years due to its meteoric rise, supersaturation in our culture, and lack of purpose (outside of being social). I still believe this but also think that some other Web 2.0 tool will capture our imagination before that two years is up and Twitter will be relegated to a niche product again.

What isn't interesting about Web 2.0?

Who would have ever imagined that high school reunions would slowly start to die after 2010 due to Facebook? Who would have thought that flu outbreaks could be tracked by analyzing what people are searching for on the web? And I don't think anyone could have imagined that we would interact with our idols, enemies, politicians, and celebrities directly through a bird-themed website.

Web 2.0 is upon us and what interests me most is the speed in which information can be distributed while being interactive/collaborative at the same time. For example, I read the blog The Consumerist on a daily basis and due to their ability to reach a large population on the Internet many people get their consumer horror stories resolved quickly via many Web 2.0 avenues such as YouTube and Twitter due to other readers' tips and advice. This is a prime example of how people can connect over similar interests or passions to make life better for everyone as a whole. Now, that's not the case for every blog but that's an entirely different discussion.

I enjoy connecting with others so I use Web 2.0 to gather news and information that I can use to share with my friends, colleagues, and family.