The flutter over Twitter lately has me thinking about the nature of the land rush mindset. If you've recently followed Web 2.0 buzz sites you'll recognize Twitter.com as the new viral media phenomenon; it's easier to look at than explain, but think of it as a mini-blog where short posts (140 characters max) appear on your cell phone, your IM and the Web. A maximal timewaster, it's also oddly addictive. Usage has doubled every month since it started, and I'll go out on a limb and predict that Twitter will thrive.

Twitter, like eBay, like MySpace and like the dot-com environment itself, is what I call a 'namespace' play. It's a natural monopoly in which usernames are unique. These spaces create 'sticky' audiences. Why? Because, in addition to a namespace's utility, users derive psychic (and sometimes  read more »

The flutter over Twitter lately has me thinking about the nature of the land rush mindset. If you've recently followed Web 2.0 buzz sites you'll recognize Twitter.com as the new viral media phenomenon; it's easier to look at than explain, but think of it as a mini-blog where short posts (140 characters max) appear on your cell phone, your IM and the Web. A maximal timewaster, it's also oddly addictive. Usage has doubled every month since it started, and I'll go out on a limb and predict that Twitter will thrive.

Twitter, like eBay, like MySpace and like the dot-com environment itself, is what I call a 'namespace' play. It's a natural monopoly in which usernames are unique. These spaces create 'sticky' audiences. Why? Because, in addition to a namespace's utility, users derive psychic (and sometimes