The guys over at FlowingData.com Demo Slam put it together and I would just like to say well done. I wonder if this will spawn a trend of animations made with Google Docs in the future? Kind of reminds me when you use to draw a series of pictures in a notebook and then flick through it.

Twitter, the online social networking site is a great example of an innovative company embracing this technology. Although their premise is simple (allowing its users to post text-based messages of up to 140 characters long), they have adopted APIs, which allow other web services and applications to integrate with their site.

Some examples of applications and other sites that have used API’s twitter have provided are as follows:

Another Tweet On The Wall – Enter in a Hash tag it will start to display random twitter posts in a nice flash page one at a time. If the user has posted a link to a picture (also through an API), then it will load the image and display it as the background.

Twitter Updates – I totally forgot, but on my site you can see that there is a section on the side which show my latest twitter posts. It pulls the data through the use of twitter’s API’s.

Twitterrific - Desktop application for the Mac which lets you use all of twitters features, without ever needing to go to the original site. They also provided an application for the iPhone which does similar things.

In fact, there are far too many examples to write down here so if you are interested check out the following sites which have more examples, and tutorials on Twitter API’s.

• Smashing Magazine – 50 Twitter Tools and Tutorials for Designers and Developers
• Twitter API Wiki – The official Twitter API wiki, including resources, helps, examples and further information.

The use of API’s in Web 2.0 provide unforeseen opportunities to the core website. It allows 3rd party developers to use the data inside the website and extend the features, functionality in creative and innovative ways.

Imogen Heap – Hide and Seek (Live at Fearless Music, NYC)

So Imogen Heap has done some amazing stuff as a musician and more importantly she is using Enterprise 2.0 concepts. She is engaging in two way feedback with her fans on a daily basis and has created a sense of anticipation that surrounds her day to day life.  So what has she done? How is she a great example of enterprise 2.0?

She as created a lot of accounts on the web where she allows fans to follow, write comments, give feedback and more importantly she interacts back with everyone (myspace, twitter, youtube, etc) . Imogen Heap is putting a lot of time and effort in communicating what is going on in her life through these technologies which seems to be paying off. Through the use of twitter she keeps fans informed and has even asked them for advice, guidance, ideas in relation to her latest album. Back on myspace you can preview her latest album (which has now been released) and get a feel for the music.

I only knew about Imogen Heaps use of these technologies after reading an article called The New Music Business Model: Imogen Heap at Deep Drive Marketing which is really well written. I recommend you head over to their site and read it as I don’t want steal the light away from the effort put into the post by the author.

So is Imogen Heap takings things to far by letting people know what is going on in her life? I don’t think so, because she is doing so of her own back and enjoys it . I actually prefer the way she is engaging fans compared to Britney Spears. If you don’t know already Britney Spears has a twitter account that has 3,079,749 followers compared to Imogen Heaps 997,892 followers (as of today). So what is the difference between the two? Britney has someone manage the account for her and the tweets are generally broad and informative, Imogen Heap on the other hand are personal. She invites people to help out or give feedback, contribute photos, etc and “talks” to people.

Imogen Heap also has an account on youtube, where she posts video blogs (vlogs) – http://www.youtube.com/imogenheap It is a place where you can see inside of her home as she posts, but also get a look at her latest music as she officially releases it.

So is this method of using Enterprise 2.0 concepts and technology going to change the music industry? Personally I don’t think it will change the industry but it will change relationship between fans and musicians forever. For those of you who are starting a band, this concepts Imogen Heap has used can be applied easily to your group and I wouldn’t be surprised to hear of some up coming stars who get popular through the use of Enterprise 2.0 over the next few years.

Twitter is a micro blogging web 2.0, social networking, latest trend, etc…. site….. that allows you to post short messages (think sms), videos, links, photos ‘Out There’ (the Internet/twitter sphere). If you are more of a video person, the guys at http://www.commoncraft.com have put together a great video which you can watch here – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddO9idmax0o

Or just click play – below:

So in short, it is a way read and share messages from people you know to see what they are up to and also a way to see what the rest of the world is up to. Of course not everyone is doing that, or believes there is a point in doing that. If you have the time, take a look at this interview that David Letterman had with Kevin Spacey: Letterman on Twitter: “A Waste of Time”

It is a great video and well worth the watch. But it does raise the question. Is Twitter a waste of time? Before I answer, I would like to point to another video by Common Craft which can be watched here – http://www.commoncraft.com/twitter-search

or just watch the video below:

So if you had to ask yourself as a business is Twitter as waste of time? I would strongly advise you to rephrase that and put forward the question ‘Can we ignore twitter?’.

I would like to focus on Dell. They have embraced the web, and have been a great example how distribution/warehouse costs can be managed effectively to create a ‘just on time’ business model with its partners. Until this year, they only sold their products online. Now they have changed that and have Dick Smith Electronics, and Officeworks where you can walk into a store and buy a PC.

So what have Dell done with twitter? Embraced it! Here are a few of the Dell twitter accounts (there were at least 20 different accounts I found I could follow depending on my needs):

• http://twitter.com/Direct
• http://twitter.com/DellHomeSalesAU
• http://twitter.com/Direct2Dell
• http://twitter.com/DellYourBlog

Dell has been tracking the amount of people who have clicked through their links and it has raked in a cool $3 million (Mentioned on ViralBlog). With results like that it puts Dell up there in the top 100 most mentioned brands on twitter. For a full list of sites you can check out www.revolutionmagazine.com where you can see the likes of Starbucks taking up first position.

• Blogs
• Blogging
• Blogshphere
• Web 2.0
• Social networking
• Online Interactions
• Enterprise 2.0
• Tweets

Is what it is all about these days. Interactions between platforms, instant communication and feedback. Suddenly a target audience of a few because an audience of many.

I’ve just bought myself an iPhone and have found it incredibly easy not online get online and use, but through the app store. Download a wordpress app to post this article, download a twitter app to see what is going on (I created a twitter account last night) and post (photos included).

With a little bit of work I was able to integrate the two together on my site automatically. So I thought I would share a quick story about how I first used twitter, before creating an account.

A co-worker and I were having lunch outside, enjoying a burger at the the local fish and chips shop (Fish Kitchen) and we started seeing smoke in the air. We all had guesses of what it was and with our bad sense of direction we didn’t get close. On the way back to work we started seeing the news choppers flying over head, we knew this had to be big news and with a tip from a passer by, it sounded like a pub had caught fire.

So we made a competition to see who could find out what was happening first back in the office. I did a few searches on google news. It didn’t turn up any results, so I thought I would try twitter for the first time. With a few searches of ‘pub fire’ I soon found out that it was the Norman Hotel that had caught on fire. A few more tweets and I found out the #hashtag which had been created and I started getting photos of what was happening in real time. I had clearly won the competition and it at least 15 minutes before the mainstream media posted anything. Around 5 minutes later before mainstream media had ant photos. Another 5 – 10 minutes before they posted video from the choppers.

The craziest thing was that it was twitters that had posted links to the news articles as they were been posted, not the media themselves. In a competition to get the news out. Social networking sites like Twitter were miles ahead and it really gave a sense that the power is with the people. I even found that I was really well informed and there were photos the media just didn’t have (A guy working opposite took a photo as he was clearing the area, another one with fire trucks, etc).

Now that I’m on twitter, have an iPhone in my pocket. I’m ready to bring you “the news first”, “as it happens”, because why write it down on paper for just myself?

I just received an email saying that ‘Twittorati‘ is up and running. Now if you were like me you would of made the connection between Technorati and Twitter, and that is exactly what it is. Technorati have branched out from the blogsphere and are now monitoring the latest trends in the twittersphere. Self described as:

‘Where the blogsphere and twittersphere meet’

Twittorati lets you find out the latest tweets, photos, links and blogs to have gone through twitter and displays them in an easy to use interface. This is a great example of web 2.0 technologies combining together to provide a service to consumers and begs the question.

Can you afford to ignore Twittorati?

Of course this depends who you are, but one thing I will find interesting is the war between the most ‘influential voices’ take place and how business will engage themselves on Twittorati. For me, I’ve got my bet that we will see a forever changing top 100 as trends rapidly change in the twittersphere.

Check out these sites and monitor for yourself:

www.twittorati.com – www.twitter.com – www.technorati.com

One thing which I’ve found interesting is that on alexa twittorati currently ranked 75,842 (3month average, compared to 20,400 (yesterday). That isn’t bad considering that it has jumped up by over 19,000,000 spots in after 3 months.