If you are interested in getting the most up-to-date information when the baby comes, please sign up for our new Gates Family account on Twitter.I realize that the majority of you are thinking, "I keep hearing about this Twitter thing. What is it exactly?" Let me explain.
Twitter allows an account holder to post "status updates" to announcing to the world what they are doing at that moment (up to 140 characters). Other people sign up to “follow” this person's "tweets" so that they can read them as they come in. You can receive them to your RSS feed reader (i.e. Google Reader), but the most popular is to receive them directly to your cell phone as a text message (hence the 140 character limit).
It is a good tool for notifying your group of friends about stuff. As an example, suppose Chandler Bing wants to tell all of his Friends castmates that he is heading down to Central Perk for coffee so that they know to come join him. Instead of calling them all or texting them individually, he can send a single text to twitter and they all get the message.
Now, you are probably thinking, "Big deal - why is everybody so gaga about it?" To be honest, it is also the geeky cool thing to be doing. I’m not totally convinced of its value for most people, but there are some valuable applications in the marketing and political realms, so I thought I should have an account.
More to the point, Twitter’s functionality is great for when the baby comes and I want to send a text message to all of my friends and family announcing what is going on. Instead of texting tons of individuals, I can text my status to Twitter and everybody who is signed up to “follow” me gets the message.
If you want to sign up, this video explains how to get started at Twitter.
You guys are too technological. :) Can't wait to hear if Baby Gates is a boy or a girl!!
ReplyDelete(ps - thanks so much for all of the help you gave John. Guns and all, he had lots of fun. It made me even more jealous that I couldn't come.)