The virtual dressing room

When I first started to use twitter it seemed like an ideal tool for dancers. It effectively let dancers trade directly text messages with customers without having to give out their phone numbers. It also let them broadcast their work schedule. Natalia also pointed out another benefit of twitter, a person can only get so disgusting in 140 characters. While it can't complete defeat a psycho customer, it can at least hobble him. I’ve noticed another use for twitter, the virtual dressing room. Dancers tweet all over the country about how their night is going, problems they are having, things customers have said. Imagine that, twitter being used for social networking.

From my perspective as a customer the tweets are really interesting. There is a side to dancing you don’t get to normally see. One of my favorite tweets was from a dancer who commented “I’m not taking off an $80 bra for a two dollar rack” or something like that. I’d give the proper citation for the tweet if I could find it again. I have to admit how much a particular outfit costs is a question that has never crossed my knuckle dragging mind. Not that this is some sort of great insight into the minds of dancers or customers but it something new. I really believe the more you learn about something the more enjoyable it is. Usually, there are a few foods I could have lived without learning what they are made of.

I have to turn off the little chime on my phone to notify me when a new tweet gets sent. Dancers tend to stay up far later than I do. I got tired of hearing my phone going off at 3am in the morning. Now I get to wake up in the morning and review the tweets from the previous night. I still think twitter is still an excellent way to promote and communicate with customers. Some of the clubs seem to have embraced twitter as well. Stars Bridgeport kind if went in both directions. At first they were advertising different specials, then they went crazy and pretty much turned into spam. I was getting so many tweets I just started to ignore them. Eventually they fell silent. I haven’t seen many tweets recently from Stars Bridgeport.

Some of the images I see on twitter picture web sites range from funny to disgusting. A few images taken at clubs are probably illegal and some of the image comments border on libel. I was kind of shocked that something like this would get posted. A lot of folks don’t really get how quickly a tweet can get forwarded or the fact a tweet is a permanent record. I protect my tweets mostly to avoid the spammers that still try to twitter. Protecting your tweets really doesn’t do much. Once a tweet is sent anybody who receives it can resend it with the originator's handle still intact. Plus any links associated with tweet will get retweeted as well. I don’t think the dancer who sent the original tweet ever thought that her protected tweets would go beyond her followers. I also don’t think it occurred to her that once people were able to view her posted image they would be able to browse all the images she had posted.

There have been a few cases where people have sued for defamation over a tweet. I don’t know if they have been successfully prosecuted. Most have been throw out as frivolous, but it will probably only be a matter of time. Twitter is considered a public forum by the court system.

The Qik

For a new way to get yourself into trouble on the internet I’ve discovered an application that lets you turn your smart phone into a web cam. It’s called Qik. It is absolutely simple to use. You can download the app for free from iTunes or Android Marketplace. You setup an account like twitter. I’ve created an account for me (www.qik.com/pdxstoney). You run the Qik app on you phone which starts the camera and anybody logged into your account page can watch your live feed of your phones camera without any special software. I’ve actually used it at work to help debug problems real time. I can pull out my phone point it at some piece of equipment I’m trying to debug and get advice the support engineer.