I may, finally, have gone over the edge. I found myself on Twitter this morning at 5.00 am. I got up early to make a Skype call. There I 
was, a cup of strong black coffee to my left, skype call done and… my right hand shaking with anticipation… I reached for my mouse and clicked on *Twitter.* The familiar Twitter blue screen revealed itself on my Mac and there was @kevinokeefe pumping tweets out from his lair in Seattle. I thought he might be. A number of other US and Canadian lawyers were also about. The UK Blawg tweeps were all fast asleep… but it would only be a matter of time before they surfaced to run amok and riot.
I have been fascinated with the word *Maven*…. as in intellectual property maven, litigation maven….. etc. Maven appears to mean ‘expert’. However, for me, in the recesses of my mind, I regard *Maven* as having a more subtle and sinister, possibly anarchic, feel to it, connoting a degree of cunning. This led me to the thought that I may have to get myself one of these *Mavens*… but where to find one? ebay? When I do acquire one, I shall be a Maven maven… and therein lies true madness.
Turning to another word which fascinates me… *Thought leader*. Where do people cook up these wonderful words? It appears that a *Thought leader* is a very serious maven.Thought leaders are mentioned quite often on Twitter and, no doubt, they tweet about their thoughts.
I then decided that I needed to visit a blog to restore sanity. Scott Greenfield’s Simple Justice was my first port of call. Given the “Vote Early, Vote Often” farce of the ABA Journal Awards (more of which in a post later today), I expected to find a post about this on Scott’s blog. Indeed, there was….
“ABA Blawg 100 Results are Official: Bennett Wins”
Just below this post was another post: Will Twitter’s Popularity Be its Demise?
After reading Sott Greenfield’s subtle and incisive comments on Twitter… I had a look at the comments section and to my delight saw a comment by David Giacalone of f/k/a who is no fan of Twitter – for entirely sensible reasons. I hope Scott does not mind… but I just cannot resist quoting David Giacalone’s comment in full: “If Twitter and LexTweet are fora where we learn what comic strip was funny this morning and what Prof. Althouse had for lunch, it seems like just one more distraction interrupting a lawyer’s thought and work flow. I don’t know which is scarier for clients (or managing partners), hourly-billing or fixed-price lawyers stopping to Tweet (not to mention to do their blawg-related activities and to jump on to “the next big thing”) throughout their workday.”
I’m afraid that the balance of my mind was already tipping in the direction of hysteria and I did not really add to the sensible side of the debate by adding a comment:
“Twitter is so 2008…. already those in the *know* are using a members only service, invitation only, that is so secret … I cannot reveal the name – more secret even than Freemasonry – another very useful social networking system if you are into advancing yourself. I regret that I am not able to let you, or anyone else, know about this new upscale system for networking – but I have only just been ‘elected’ – a little old fashioned…. it was a small plume of white smoke from a building in Rome that let me know I was *IN*… Now…. I must go to a theatrical shop and buy a sword and a black Tricorn hat with a yellow feather… this new ‘networking’ society likes a bit of ritual and regalia… Oh yes…. nothing like a bit of ritual and regalia. Right…. better get on… back to my blog as it is a requirement of membership that all blog posts be seeded with hidden messages based on Fibonacci mathematics.”
But then I saw another comment on Scott’s post about a new social networking site… “BTW, all the techgeeks are now moving on to FriendFeed so expect it to be the next thing.”
So… inevitably… I had to look at Friend Feed. I discovered.. (a) that I could “see my friend’s discoveries” and… even more astonishingly… could have : “Awesome discussions: Discuss that great new TV show, that political editorial, or that hilarious cat video with the people you know.”
I started to lose the will to live. My sardonic response to this was to tweet about Friend Feed. @kevinokeefe was right on my tail like a modern day “Red Baron”
I twisted and turned, as Biggles may well have done in times gone by… but eventually, I had to hold out the white flag…
Charon QC 