I've mentioned before that I was on Twitter and I know that for some the question is still out on whether or not it is of value. For me, it's like any other tool, it depends on how you use it. If you're trying to use a hammer to dig up a garden, you can probably get it done, but it's not going to be very efficient. Twitter is the same way, except it's more along the lines of a Swiss army knife: it can be used multiple ways for multiple things. For instance, Steve Jones blogged about how it gave some levity to an otherwise forgettable day.
I use it mostly to stay in contact with others who are using SQL Server and it does a good job of that. For instance, I was able to learn about the changes in Windows Server 2008 Core with r2 from Jason Massie. It looks like it'll now support SQL Server since it has enough of the .NET Framework to permit it. This is good news. It also lets me help others out. For instance, someone was struggling with using PHPMyAdmin to upload an SQL script to a back-end MySQL database. Because of the searches I have in place, I saw that tweet go out and I was able to send a link back to the GUI tools Sun/MySQL provides. Later, Brent Ozar commented on my blog post detailing the incident indicating Quest's Toad product was free. Speaking of Brent Ozar, he posted a tweet this morning with a link indicating some press on GM's plans with respect to its various car lines. I drive a Saturn, so while it's not SQL Server related news, it was still news I was interested in.
Twitter isn't without its headaches. It can be a constant source of interruption and it has to be managed like any other tool (such as email). Also, there were a couple of times last week where we saw a failure in the Twitter API which caused everything to lag by at least 30 minutes. But all in all, Twitter has become a valuable tool for me to get more information on the tools and products I use and how other people use those same tools and products. And that's good information to have, indeed.
If you haven't gotten on Twitter and are wondering who to follow, you might check out the following links:
