The New York Times has a writeup on Twitter today and it got me thinking (I still don't have the hang of it - BTW) about Twitter as Social Media.

"….At least one politician has tuned into the service. John Edwards, who has 2,001 followers and 2,082 friends, recently twittered that his presidential campaign would be “carbon neutral.”

After Robert Scoble, who writes a popular technology blog called Scobleizer and who himself has 2,985 followers and 3,045 friends, challenged this ambitious vow on Twitter, Mr. Edwards twittered back that he would, as president, offset his campaign’s carbon emissions by financing alternative energy research."

Could Twitter be a way to keep groups of voters mobilized up to and during an election?   I'm not sure - the technology is so new (Twitter started this year and does not make any money yet).

Guess I haven't caught the Twitter Bug yet, but when I've tried, half the time, it's so slow and not working for me - I just gave up.  Maybe it's just me.  Last month at Virtual Worlds 2007 I was speaking with Eric Rice and he was really happy with Twitter and using it for a lot of impromptu communications when he visited NYC - which people who he'd meet with or things that were happening - things that he could find out about in real time.

But I haven't had any luck with it - and while I do have Dodgeball - I mostly get messages from a group of friends that I meet up with from time time - Dodgeball does not seem to be as interactive as Twitter. 

If Twitter can get it together though - perhaps it will be part of what affects the next Presidential Election - just a wild guess on my part.