Conversationblog

Interesting report here from Reuters how Twitter was used to break a story hours before the mainstream media got hold of it.

Dave Winer, a well known blogger, asked his Twitter ecosystem (people who subscribe to his updates) if they knew something about a possible explosion in Falls Church, Virginia. Soon other people on Twitter told what they had seen or felt in and around that area.

It was 90 minutes later when official media reported what actually happened - thereby confirming what several people reported already through Twitter.

Of course it helped that Dave has such a huge following on Twitter (more than 9000 people) but this is again a case of social media being faster than traditional media.

I have used microblogging for conferences and regular updates myself and while at first I didn't really see a use for Twitter or Jaiku I now see more and more practical business cases popping up.

Here's a good overview on how journalists can and are using microblogging tools. For corporations I can think of applying the principles to internal communications, urgent situation updates, crisis communications and more.

What do you think ? Still the biggest waste of time ever...?