Robb Montgomery

Chicago Tribune editor quits her job today - and I found out through Twitter.

My dear friend Charles Apple does not Tweet on Twitter but he is somewhat surprised by all of the small talk taking place on the Internet - Who has time to Tweet, update your FB status and do all of the other things you are supposed to do?

I mean that is how I was alerted today that Chicago Tribune editor Ann Marie Lipinski was suddenly quitting the paper.

It just takes a few thumb clicks to insta-publish a breaking alert like this. that’s the power of microblogging. It’s instant.

The good news that some of this talk can be automated and since it is small talk - it can be done with your mobile while you are stuck in a boring meeting or sitting on a bus somewhere. So microblogging gives you the option to use time you were already wasting away.

Microblogging is really not a new idea. The social internet is built upon a lot of small talk. Really small data streams that you can produce in many ways. Here are a few examples from my “microblogs.”

Last.fm is good to show because it works automatically . . .

– last.fm

You tell last.fm to track your listens and it let’s you publish your tracklist to friends. the point is to discover people who like the same artists, discover new ones and get up-to-date information about your faves. e.g. News of new music releases, special events and concerts.
And you can put a little widget like this in your blog or Facebook profile - all driven from the microblogging you do while listening to music.

Waiting at the airport or killing time in a taxi? That’s the time to Twitter.
— Twitter

BTW, the 140 character limit of Twitter is based on the max length of a SMS (text message in a mobile device.)

Another automatic microblog narrative - this time for mapping (Web geeks call that ‘geo locating.’) You tell Plazes what you are doing (It already knows WHERE you are doing it)
– Plazes

To see how useful small talk like this can be, just look at the widget that automatically draws an animated Flash map from data. Data that took mere seconds to enter.

Of course your Facebook status produces an RSS feed so you can publish your current status anywhere you like - to Twitter or even your blog.

Here’s where the magic happens.
You can connect or otherwise ‘mashup’ your microblogs

You can use twitterfeed to ‘listen’ to your facebook status RSS feed and post updates automatically as a tweet. As seen here.

Are you with me so far, Charles?
If you would like I can set your blog up to show your current Facebook status in a little spot on the sidebar. Though personally I’d like to install a last.fm widget there to see what you will be listening to while you crank out the new edition of Sporting News Today.

Small talk goes a long way on the internet - just look at how Charles’s legendary birthday wishes evolved - from simple salutations to fully-illustrated and annotated “This Is Your Life” bios.