Is there such a word as Twitternut? Twitterphile? If so, that’s me. I’ve found Twitter to be a game changer. I’ve loved the ability to connect and converse with a diverse range of interesting folks around the world. They regularly provoke me to laughter and always make me think a little harder about the topic du jour. Best of all, since Twitter is an ever-flowing stream, I can just dip in and out of it when my schedule permits. It doesn’t interrupt. Rather, it invites.
That’s key — I do it when I want to. Unlike e-mail, which tends to interrupt me at the whim of the sender, there is no expectation on Twitter that you will immediately read and respond. I’ve discovered that there’s great freedom in that mode of communication.
All of that changes on Thursday, September 17, when folks can start phoning people in their Twitterverse for free courtesy of the Jajah@call program offered by Jajah, a VOIP company. According to The Next Web, here’s how it works:
You’ll be able to make phone calls via Twitter free of charge to anyone in the world, so long as they follow you back and have JAJAH accounts.
@calls are made without revealing your number and without needing to know the number of the person you wish to call – all you need is their Twitter username.
The beauty of JAJAH is that it uses the Internet to connect two standard phones, thus implementing both the advantage of the Internet as a low-cost service and the comfort of using a regular telephone device.
Suddenly, all those folks you followed back just to be nice can start phoning you. 24/7. For free. Are you ready? If you’ve been playing any of those foolish games to pump up your follower numbers, you’re about to win the booby prize.
It’ll be interesting to see if the advent of free Twitter calls changes the way people approach the whole issue of following/followers. Will the net result be a shrinking of each participant’s Twitterverse? I’m reserving judgment on this until I see how it plays out. However, I’m not sure I’ll be rushing out to facilitate phone calls just yet. Will you?
[Photo Credit: jiruan]
Above and Beyond KM 