Lee H. Goldberg – Green Power Community Leader, TechBites

I knew I was behind the times but it became especially apparent this morning when I discovered the orange juice I was drinking had its own twitter feed and I didn't.  Heck, even many silicon vendors are giving you the opportunity to breathlessly await their latest Tweet about whatever new chip or app note they want to push that day. Nevertheless, I’m hesitant to join the lemming-like rush to compete with a few million fellow-Tweeters (Twits?) for a few seconds of your precious time. I’m already blogging on this site as well as making (semi) regular posts to my accounts at LinkedIn, Plaxo, and Facebook so, before I complicate my life with having to post to yet another social media feed, I’d like to share my concerns and get your thoughts on the matter.

I’m hesitant to join the Twittering masses because it’s tough to imagine that anything I have to say is so interesting or important that you have to know about it the nanosecond I post it. I work very hard to make sure that things I post are as useful as possible (or at least amusing) but it seems to me that the gory details of Linear Tech’s latest PWM controller can wait until the next time you visit my home page. I also worry about adding to the noise floor of your personal infosphere. We are all barraged with e-mails, texts, and the other digital distractions of the modern workplace and I’d like to think that most of what I do here at TechBites is stuff that lowers your noise floor by filtering and analyzing the raw spew of information to produce something that’s coherent and relevant to your life. With that in mind, it’s tough to imagine that getting a Tweet with my latest thoughts on Smart Grid technologies will do anything more than add clutter to your mental in box.

I also wonder if coming up with clever things to Tweet about is an efficient use of my limited biological processing resources. On a good week when all my synapses are firing in the same direction, I am good for perhaps two creative thoughts. Should I devote these rare bursts of coherent thought to making snarky comments on Ed Begley Jr.’s latest eco-gadget or spend it trying to give you some insights on where the green power industry is headed this year?

Don’t get me wrong, I do think that there are some compelling uses for Twitter. If I was young, single, and socially-minded, you can bet I’d be following my high-living brethren’s Tweets to help root out which underground club was having a 2-for-1 drink special that night. If I was a die-hard music fanatic, I’d probably be keeping with the on- and offstage exploits of my favorite indie bands. As for me, I’ll probably also temporarily subscribe to several Twitter feeds when I attend the next big tech conference or O’Reilly event but most of what I do does not require real-time interrupts from strangers. Since I’m not helping coordinate a sales team or political uprising, I think that most of my communications can be handled with old-fashioned near-real-time technologies like texting blog posts and RSS feeds.

But I could be wrong. So, before I completely reject the idea of posting regular Tweets, I’d love to ask you a few questions. If enough of you feel that Twitter is a useful tool for the working engineer I’ll be happy to make a few Tweets of my weekly editorial ramblings. Here’s what I want to know:

 1 – Do you use Twitter?

2 – If you do use Twitter, is it for professional or personal activities – or both?

3 – Do you do more Tweeting or following?

4 - Is there anyone, or any company/group/institution that you especially enjoy following?

5 – If I did start Twittering, would you consider following me?

6 - What kinds of things would you want me to Tweet about?

7 – Is there anything important about this whole Twitter thing that I forgot to ask?

 Well, that’s it. Please post your comments on this blog – believe me I’ll be paying attention to what you say. You can also send your comments, questions, and would-be Tweets to me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it