Twitter. Yeah I’m gonna talk about Twitter. I know, I know. You have probably heard enough about Twitter. I know I have. And frankly, I love Twitter.  I tweet (twit, twirp, twalk, whatever) about all kinds of useless stuff. And strangely there are people that follow me. Even more strange is that some people actually respond and engage in conversation. I mean this is really 2.0tastic. Hell, I’ll be honest. When one of my twayings showed up on McAfee’s blog, I could barely contain my nerdborne glee. 

But you know what? I don’t buy it in the Enterprise. Maybe I just don’t buy it in my specific Enterprise, but I can’t see the indoor version of this soccer game. (Whiskey Tango Cap’n Ron? Nate doesn’t like a social technology inside the firewall?!?) 

If I were to execute the physical universe equivalent of Twitter, I would lose the glimmering shard of positive professional reputation I still have. Some of you may disagree that there is any left in the first place, but indulge me. If instead if twyping the random 140 character twoughts as they float through my head, I would just yell them out loud. I can just see the look on my office neighbor’s face when I yell “OMG this hummus is so good I want to put it in my hair” while he is trying to write a proposal. Twotally Twiceless. But that’s essentially what happens with Twitter. And that’s ok out there. But messaging has a different paradigm in the Enterprise.

I (like most) am inundated with messaging at work. Almost all of it is work related, and maybe half of it is relevant to me. But no matter what, people expect me to read it. Even the really useless stuff like deadlines and notification of dress code violations. (What? You haven’t heard of One Sleeve Wednesday?) I mean this is work after all, right? However, there is a significant enough mechanical barrier to entry (even with IM) to weed out some potential noise that I would be expected to read. Like the hummus comment above. I would totally tweet that. In fact I might have already. But would I email or IM that? Probably not.

Introduce a work-focused Twitter and all of the sudden the barrier to entry for “messaging” to “everyone” is potentially gone. Along with any expectation for paying attention. “Wait…you didn’t see my twesignation? It was between my tweet about my tworkout this morning and tweet about my twizzler obsession. Tweird”. 

Now I have a signal to noise issue. Yeah I suppose I could unfollow people or ask them to segment their tweeting, but this is making my (or their) life harder, not easier. So far E2 has done well to make my life easier. But now…I am not so sure. You see I will still have my social network on Twitter even if I miss a few of the most important twannouncements. Will I still have my colleagues or my job if I miss a few tweets from the bossman? If you think yes, try not responding to his/her next email.