Twitter less demanding than email

The online networking service Twitter is an "antidote to information overload'', its co-founder Biz Stone believes.

Twitter has been at the centre of more controversy this week, with All Blacks Corey Jane and Neemia Tialata revealing their dismay at being dropped for this weekend's test against England via Twitter.

Their remarks broke team protocol because they came before the official team announcement.

Stone yesterday addressed an audience of hundreds of education experts at the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) in Doha, Qatar.

He said the 19.2 million users of Twitter should "feel free to ignore everyone'' on the service.

"Email is demanding of your time.

With Twitter instead, it's recipient driven. You decide. If you don't want to reply to someone, you don't care, it doesn't matter.

"You use it at your leisure, you use it when you want to and if you don't get to those people, then too bad for them.'' Users of Twitter post messages of up to 140 characters on a personal page.

Other users can opt to follow whoever they please in order to see that person's updates.

Stone told the Doha audience that Twitter set different expectations compared with email.

"You may want to become aloof and tune out of Twitter for a few days. When you come back in, you're not punished, people aren't angry at you," Stone said.

"There is just a different expectation you can reply if you want to but you don't have to and I think in that way it's become somewhat of an antidote to this information overload and it's become a tool that we can go to when we need to and we can step away from when we don't need it anymore.''

People became "more informed'' and "more engaged'' as a result of using Twitter, he said.

"And when they're more engaged with one another, then they become more empathetic to the plight of others around the world.

"When we all become more empathetic then the world becomes a smaller place and I think that we all become more aware that we're global citizens and we become more involved in the world and not just in our own area.''

The WISE summit was held over three days this week and included about 1000 delegates from 120 countries.

- © Fairfax NZ News