140Char

Want to find the wisdom of the past in a different way to searching? iWise is an interesting new venture which has launched in a pretty comprehensive way to help you connect with the wisdom of the world.

Found via Techcrunch, it looks at first glance like a ‘Twitter for dead people’, with topic lists on popular themes, and the ability to follow famous quotable characters.

You can Tweet out good quotes, see searches from the Web/Twitter, receive private DM’s in your Twitter feed, use the free iPhone app, or use the API which ties into the semantic search engine that powers the service.

Which is all pretty effective, but the use of Twitter as an entry point, while familiar, does lead to unfavourable questions.

Whereas Wolphram Alpha attempts to reorganise knowledge in the manner of the familiar search interface, or Twine appears as a semantic service in the ‘social bookmarking’ family, iWise look like a blog site front end, married to the Twitter-like ‘Wisdom Tree’.

And there is a good range of sources. For instance, alongside the expected appearance of Einstein come the likes of Bruce Sterling or Peter Doherty (Peter? When did the controversial singer become so formal?).

The problem is that by proving a microblogging platform to consume wisdom and quotes (and provide your own after checking they don’t already exist), you’re led by the Twitter-like interface to expect more social interaction.

And wondering whether it would have made more sense as a lightweight Twitter app, rather than integration as a feature of an apparently heavyweight semantic search engine.

Microblogging is eminently popular, but if the success of forums, blogs, social networks and now microblogging shows us, the usability experience of functionality tends to evolve into a common approach which leads to certain expectations. And if you’re going to play around with that, it’s going to have to be something pretty radical and shocking.

I’m sure there’s a linguiphile somewhere who will complain about my use of serendipity, but I’m willing to risk it to illustrate how microblogging not only gives a valuable return on the time invested – but sometimes incredibly quickly.

Like many other social media/technology writers and addicts, I’m also a bit of a stereotypical geek, with a passion for pop culture, comics and videogames. Unlike some though, I’m lucky that one of our London offices is right next door to Forbidden Planet, although it’s not good for my bank balance.

Commuting to work in London last week, I happened to tweet that I was going to try and get through a day of working next door to a comics mecca without spending any money – and within about 2 minutes I was advised to follow @Danacea – marketeer at Forbidden Planet! (The recommendation was via @DigitalMaverick).

Not only has it been great to chat around general geekiness and marketing, but I’ve already had some help tracking down a couple of books I’ve struggled to find – and the store now has a public face I identify with it!

And it’s only one example of getting put in touch with the right person, in a matter of minutes after I posed a question. And although I had an advantage by mainly looking for tech/marketing people, if you look at the sheer number of new people to Twitter every day, it’s becoming easier and easier to find someone for whatever niche you need. I wouldn’t be surprised to find local plumbers etc on there in a matter of weeks and months!

Plus I’m still proudly showing off the brilliantly trashy Karate Kid ‘Sweep the Leg‘ T-shirt I ended up buying when my willpower gave in -

Sadly it’s out of stock online for you mere mortals…