Phweet

For the last couple of months I’ve been Twittering as much as I can about whatever’s going on with OneWebDay plans.  (Hey, follow my tweets - OWD is the name.)

Now there’s Phweet, from Stuart Henshall and David Beckemeyer.  It’s making it possible to launch voice sessions with your Tweet buddies.   (For the Phweet tweets, go to their Twitter feed.)

All mellifluity aside (tweet! phweet! schreet!), this is quite interesting.  I set up a session just to see what it would be like, and it seems very easy to use.  They’re saying that it just sets up a single-session URL - you set up the connection by using the Twitter user-name of your correspondent, and you’re off.  Just like IM chat interfaces, there’s no central server being used.

If you want to, you can leave a record of the session on Twitter - and other people can join in the talk-session.  You won’t necessarily know the real identity of the person you’re talking to, just their Twitter identity.  Right now this just works with Twitter (which is certainly good for Twitter and for the people who tweet), but there’s an API for other people to do mashups.

I’m pretty fond of the text-tweet interface, quite an art-form in itself, but I can see how this light, flexible way of talking could be addictive.

Who needs a phone?

July 31, 2008 | Filed Under Uncategorized 

Comments

2 Responses to “Phweet”

  1. Stuart Henshall on August 1st, 2008 1:27 am

    Hi Susan,
    Thanks! Now I expect to see “OneWebDay” phweets. There’s still an art to learn on preparing and reminding the audience, then having the initial call start and then build. I’ve been into so many conference calls that flounder around before people all get there. In a Phweet we may just learn that we expect it.. like the grabbing of the coffee and a little small talk.

    There’s a lag between that first Accept and then inviting others and reposting the url with more details etc. Then keeping it live. Our first call lasted almost 3 hours the other day. It was a fantastic experience. More importantly, we forgot about the technology and just got on with the conversation.

    Events like yours and the build up may well be a great test for what Phweet can do and how to refine it. Look forward to your comments.

  2. Edward Vielmetti on August 1st, 2008 1:46 am

    Susan - just fired up my first phweet session today.

    I’m intrigued by the possibilities.

    talk soon :)

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