Suddenly, it would seem, the UK has fallen in love with Twitter. IT Pro and PC Pro are reporting on it, the BBC are talking about it, The Guardian is reporting on it, and the Telegraph has reported on it, to name but a few.

Celebrities including Jonathan Ross (BAFTA Salad anyone?), Stephen Fry (stuck in a lift), Lauren Laverne (on The Culture Show last night), Robert Llewellyn (Carpool on Llewtube) and Phil Jupitus (How is that hand sign coming along?) are findings ways to incorporate it into their busy life styles. Other celebrities are quickly catching on (and up) with the benefits Twitter has to offer.

Even I have written about it (Is Twitter the new Id?) after recently rediscovering its Twitteriness.

The simplicity of Twitter is something that should not be underestimated and gives over complex systems a run for their money. I won’t go into the details of how it works other than to say once you start Twittering, and following other Twitterers you may discover some its deliberate limitations somewhat refreshing. Having to really think about what you want to say so it fits into the 140 character limit is something that only really comes with a lot of practise.

Twitter following is one-sided and unthreaded which can often give a beautiful chaotic nature to conversations where you will be party to disjointed messages from your chosen follower without the immediate benefit of seeing other Twitterer messages sent to them.

I have found Twitter to be great for sharing, and learning, tidbits of information and entering into a more immediate discourse on subjects that interest me at any particular time. Preparing articles and blog posts can be aided by discussing finer points or obtaining further insight. You could do something similar with Google, but where Google is often a lonely and solitary searching experience (trying to find the right words), Twitter offers a more human experience where clarifications and refinements can be made quickly and helpfully from a community of people who want to share.

Like all good sensations an economy has built up around Twitter offering all manner of add-ons, extensions, and analytics to try and plug gaps and offer features or combinations of services - I put ten of my favourite into this list (10 Must Have Productivity Tools For Twitter ) though this list has risen to about 15 since I made that post.

I am off for a Twitter now so if you are passing by say hello @jasonslater

I recently commented on a post by Rory Cellan-Jones, on the BBC dot.life blog, and the BBC removed it issuing me with a very nice warning

“Dear BBC Blog contributor,
Thank you for contributing to a BBC Blog. Unfortunately we’ve had to remove your content below. Postings to BBC blogs will be removed if they include contact details such as phone numbers, postal or email addresses…[snip]…Please note that anyone who seriously or repeatedly breaks the House Rules may have action taken against their account.”

The post titled Is blogging dead? talked about how social networking and micro-blogging is supposedly killing blogging which I don’t particularly agree with. Anyway my comment is here (hopefully IT Pro won’t pull it!):

“Twittering, or micro-blogging, often gives an interesting heads up, or lead in, to a fuller article the reader can follow if they wish. In this way there is room for both - for example on my Uk based technology blog at www.jasonslater.co.uk I post full articles but also provide a much briefer post to twitter.The platforms, languages, and levels of interaction may change but discussion is alive and well and its great to see you blogging about it.”

No phone numbers, postal or email address included - oh wait - I did include the URL to my blog - could that be the reason? There were about a dozen other posts all with URLs pointing back to blogs (some with names in) so at the time I didn’t feel I was doing anything out of the ordinary and I felt my post was in line with the subject matter. I asked the BBC to clarify exactly why they pulled my comment and thus far they have not replied.

So, is Blogging dead? The BBC are certainly do there bit to help.

I wonder what Rory Cellan-Jones would make of it? Oh, yes, I can’t ask him can I?