Tweeting the red pill

News of this Matrix-style delivery of the Twitter stream of Japanese tweets came from Biz Stone in the semi-regular email for the Twitter community. We can expect an English version tomorrow. (Somebody, somewhere in the world of Web 2.0 will make that true, right?)

It similar to a project I wanted to do with Richie in an effort to connect spaces over distance. I want to create a custom RSS screensaver that collects tweet feeds from the Informatics community and run a visualization on a big monitor in the Design House. There are already quite a few HCI alums and students tweeting their daily minutiae, and I don’t think it will be difficult to convince others in our local design community to do the same.

The screen saver application would run on a (preferably plasma!) screen, showing by default the latest entries of those in our community whenever the monitor isn’t in use for small group presentations or collaboration. We could bring some of Kay Connelly‘s pervasive expertise into the mix and make it smart enough to know when people are paying attention, putting the monitor to sleep while they are not.

This kind of status sharing strengthens communities by bringing the presence of others presence into your own space. I get a kick out of knowing that Apurva is updating his portfolio, Matt is exhausted, and Tif is ready to end work and go outside. None of them are in my office right now, but these are the kinds of things they might tell me if they were. Even though the distance between Eigenmann and Woodlawn isn’t measured in terms of states, it might as well be.