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NpTech resource sharing and conversations are getting more and more distributed. This past week there was a lot of Twitter chatter in different nooks and crannies in NpTechosphere. Here's a brief summary:

Send in the Twitter Clouds

Here's a nifty little cloud generator from Adam Cohen's post musing on the future of Twitter. It reminded of a recent thread on a nonprofit tech listserv about Twitter. Looks like the some of the frequent words I use begin with T- Twitter, Thank, Thanks, and Think. What are yours? Would be interesting to see an NpTech Tag Cloud from twitter, probably not as easy to generate as the collective NpTech tag cloud from del.icio.us.

Is Twitter a Broadcast or Conversation Tool?

Nonprofit technology professionals have a split opinion on the answer, judging to the snippets of conversation I've seen in little distributed pockets across the web. Maybe it is both.

Conversational Approach: You actually write original content for your tweets as opposed to using a RSS-powered utility. I wouldn't necessarily call it content, but to you type 140 characters conversations.

Broadcast Approach: Some feel that Twitter is a great way to push short tidbits to people's mobile phones and your followers. Brief messages that 140 character call to actions - sign this petition, donate now, stop by our booth in the exhibit hall, etc. The messages are short, to the point, and can be easily spread or "re-tweeted"

Some strongly feel that Twitter should not be used as a one-way communication tool and that it is about engaging supporters or followers. I'd offer these brief tips:

1. Don't tweet about yourself
2. Be funny, engaging, witty, or share information
3. Ask questions
4. Summarize and share back responses
5. Say thank you

Marnie Webb has a post with some great tips about how to decide who to follow. Tip 2 is great advice, but it doesn't scale if your account is open (on the public time line) versus protected tweets. Also, as your network grows, it starts to take up a lot of time to vet each request. I'd add a 6th point - add your twitter address to your business card.

Twitter Tool Roundup

I've been meaning to explore the tools listed in Jeremiah Owyang's My Essential Twitter Tools. I like the categories he uses: Client, Search, Conversations, Aggregation, Tagging Content, Location Base and Alerts. Marnie Webb has a blog post summary of the twitter tools and tutorials used by her followers with brief descriptions. Anna at NTEN writes about Twitter Links that helps roundup links from Twitter users who are top social media users and makes them look pretty (does it do pattern analysis too?).

Twitter for Organizations

There was an interesting thread on the emerging technology list started by Marnie asking the question, "What powerful non-personal/social uses of twitter can you imagine?." Some excellent pointers referenced in the discussion: Twitter as Tech Support, or Twitter As Customer Service. The benefits to Twitter for internal organizational or team use or community of practice use may include its ease of use to informally share information, get information, ask questions, or get feed back in a timely manner.

The social presence or team building aspect of Twitter is also a plus - for information that is not strictly work or time sensitive, what has been called the social water cooler. It is not so one dimensional like blogs tend to me. It gives your community a glimpse into people's lives beyond the shared professional interests that we have. It can make your connection with people deeper and varied, particularly if you working remotely or if you are in the same physical location but all are busy staring their computer screens for hours without having a gathering point.

The drawback is that Twitter along is not great for retrieval yet. That's where having a place to summarize and tag (blog and social bookmarking or possibly the hash tags) come in.

Some drawbacks. Twitter's public design makes it hard to imagine as an internal or intra-organizational tool - why not just use IM or IRC? Further, even as an internal tool -- that is your tweets would only be read/seen by people in your organization or members of a particular group - are there cultural changes needed. It requires a bit of bravado, comfort with the org-wide exposure, and a willingness to have a constant dialogue going on alongside your work. This is an evolutionary step for those who have been blogging and using the social web, but what about newcomers?

Remember Twitter Is Still Mediated Conversation (if you can call it that)

As the CyTraps Lab Blog reminds us in a marvelous reflection on the trade off between conversations and getting things done - and technology-mediate conversation and face-to-face interaction -- Neither commenting on blog posts, using micro-blogging with Twitter or e-mailing can replace a conversation between two people. Neither tweets nor e-mails are as rich as face-to-face conversations. This long, but thoughtful (and slightly ludite) post offers some tips at the end for setting limits on twitter and social tool use.

What are your best tips for engaging people on twitter? What does your Twitter cloud look like? What Twitter tools do you find best for what task? How can you imagine Twitter for internal/intra organizational team support? How else might you imagine Twitter for nonprofit organizational work?