Twitterteachers

Eight months and 2537 updates later, I honestly have no idea how I lived without Twitter. I've lost count of the number of adventures I've had because of it, or how many spontaneous lunches, or parties or – let's not be coy here – hook-ups have resulted from a simple 140-character message (that's 140 characters not 160, Nick). I know friends who have been offered jobs through Twitter, I've flown to other continents to attend events purely on the strength of Twitter chatter surrounding them, and I can't remember the last time I Twittered a difficult question that wasn't answered in minutes, often by someone half a world away.

Suddenly these were not just nameless faces on the news, but people who hours earlier had been Twittering about their pets or how they were eating a sandwich, but who now feared for their lives. You can't read that stuff and not realise that, as humans, we're all in this together. And that's where Twitter, unlike Facebook, has the potential to change the world. You don't have to be my 'friend' or my 'contact'. If you're on Twitter, we're connected. You can follow my updates, and I can follow yours. If you want to say something to me personally, just begin your update with @paulcarr and I'll hear you. On Twitter, everyone is equal.

"A killer application of Twitter is conferences and conference reporting."

Academic discussions online often take place on closed e-mail lists, he says, when they should be happening in public forums like Twitter, so that a diverse group of outsiders can join in. "I think academics are actually missing a lot by not being involved in more of these social tools," he told me. "There are a lot of academics who think, 'If it's not coming from some other academic it's not worth a damn,' and that's not right."

"This is great for studying or following events as they unfold, but it is also useful for more traditional research if you can form or tap into a good network."

he joined Twitter hoping that it would help him demystify the job of college president by sharing details from his daily life. "It shows that you're not just living in a big house and begging" for money, he quipped. "You do get out and work."