I Tweet, Therefore I Am

In yesterday's entry of The Cuban Revolution,  Brian Cuban reflects on some of the differences between this year's playoff series between the Mavs and the Spurs and the one in 2007.  Sure, the teams are different and, according to Brian, Spurs fans are notably less obnoxious.  But that's not what interests him.  Brian is not so much concerned with the changes in the game itself but with the way people are talking about it.  Or, to be more accurate, the way they're tweeting about it.

Where people once sent their game updates to individual friends via cell phone, they now log onto their twitter accounts on their iPhones and BlackBerrys and are able to send those same updates out into the twittersphere.  They can also update fans on new business models for Twitter; for example, Brian posted on his blog the below tweet from brother Mark about how Twitter makes money for the NBA:

Fans in the stands, forget about picking a fight with the big drunk guy in the Spurs hat two rows in front of you.  Why risk life, limb, or worse - possible ejection - for the sake of team spirit?  Try "trash-twittering."  It's safer, and you reach a wider audience.  And why share your game pics with only a few close friends via e-mail when you can Twit-pic your experience across the interwebs, starting with the ride on your brother's private jet all the way through to final buzzer.

(That is, assuming the battery on your iPhone doesn't die.  The possibility was a source of some anxiety for Brian the other night.)

According to Brian, "Tweeting the excitement of the moment was almost as much entertainment as the game itself."  He adds, "I interacted with tweeters around the world who shared  not always my enthusiasm for the Mavs but the Spurs as well and simply enjoyed the instantaneous 'power of the tweet.'"

It is indeed a power -- and one not to be underestimated.  As the world rapidly moves in the direction of first-person communications, the twittersphere is an indication that people don't just want their information firsthand, they want it immediately, and they want it interactively.  By the same token, twitter has created an environment in which people are just as invested in sharing their experiences as they are in having them.

Or, as Brian writes, "The NBA has gone from 'Love It Live' to 'Tweet It Live.'"

Much like everything else.

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