140Char

A few things have caught my eye over the last couple of days, so here’s a bit of a micro-update:

Matt Balara writes about an interesting case of being followed on Twitter, and highlights some etiquette issues and changes in how people are interacting in the modern world.

Seesmic has a new Nokia N95 client which not only allows you to upload and view videos from the service on your phone, but also reply to friends videos, build a threaded conversation and post to Twitter with a video link. More details and a video demo at Loic Le Meur’s blog.

The Twitter Song is still gaining fame for songwriter Ben Walker, and over 200,000 views on Youtube so far. Plus appearances on BBC Radio 5 and National Radio New Zealand.

Techcrunch takes a look at the very interesting Twittermoms.com. It’s not a mommy Twitter clone, but a Ning based group for mothers who already use Twitter. It underlines why many people think Twitter should introduce groups, like new enterprise blogging tool Present.ly.

And finally, you can enhance your Tweets and save characters with Twitterkeys.

So far, much of the focus on microblogging has been on text, with the one major exception of Seesmic. But using Seesmic as a producer requires a certain amount of effort. It also lends itself to video blog type discussions.

Hence interest around the private alpha launch of 12 Seconds, limiting video uploads in the same manner as Twitter and Plurk et al limit the amount of text.

Updates are by webcam or mobile phone, and there’s no scientific reasoning disclosed behind the 12 second limit, although apparently “Our patent pending Electro-Tear-Duct Prongers have determined that exactly 12 seconds of video is the ideal amount of time to keep anything interesting.”

What is also quite interesting is that the people behind 12 Seconds are open about: “The more we can get 12seconds off of the 12seconds.tv site the better. We are building a platform for video status. We want these clips to be anywhere you are, or at least anywhere you want them to be.” So widgets are already available for Myspace and blogs, and more distribution is doubtless on the way…

It’s worth taking a look to see how much information can be conveyed in 12 seconds via video. My only question about the service is that it successfully replicates the upload portion of microblogging - but are there mechanisms for replying to people, and forming groups? Those are the things that have driven Twitter, Friendfeed and all the famous social networks. If I see 12 seconds that are worthy of praise, comment or argument, I want to be able to respond directly via the service - not have to track people down by alternative means.

Take a look at the site, and share your thoughts below…