(This starts off odd, but stick with me, it ends well)

When I embarked on rebooting my career I knew I’d be leaving behind over 15 years of experience. That’s a lot of information and knowledge to leave behind as a frightening chunk just wasn’t relevant to being a programmer. I had to come up with a way to recapture a huge reservoir of knowledge so I’d be worth something more than a shiny, new college degree. I began listening to tech podcasts. What started out as a few hours here and there grew to 11 podcasts consisting of over 20 hours of audio a week (hurray for a long commute). Into that mix I tossed a dozen or so tech/science websites I read per day and three tech/science magazines.

That’s what it takes to stay informed in an incredibly fast-paced industry – and I say its been worth the effort.

One thing I’ve noticed over the past three years is the quickening convergence of tech into everyday life. It’s radically altering how people interact, more so now than ever before. For example, most everyone I know is on Facebook. A large chunk of those people are checking it and updating it not only several times a day – but several times an hour. That’s a radical change in social behavior, especially when you frame it against those same people basically going from a ‘null’ interaction before to what now amounts to a constant awareness of what their connections are up to. Twitter, which was once the playground of only the techiest of geeks is now a major communication device for everyone from movie stars to protesters in Iran.

One of the podcasts I listen to, This Week In Google (TWIG) went on a bit of a tangent this week. Instead of burrowing down into the detail of cloud computing and the latest Google services, they took a top-down look at where things like social networking, information, privacy, and tech was headed. In all, it was a little bit shocking and exciting, even for someone who listens to this stuff on a daily basis.

The short take on it is we are at a major turning point in how society make use of technology – a radical departure from even a year ago. Moreover this isn’t the technophiles and geeks of society – this is the everyday Joe being able to access and process information at a level unknown to them previously.

The podcast was an interesting game of connect-the-dots of things Google has been up to that, if left unfettered by government action, could crush existing paradigms like Telcos (AT&T, Verizon), Cable (Comcast), and even print media.

This possibility puts the actions of the Swedish government, recently saying that broadband access was now a basic human right, into a new light. Think about it like this: with internet access you can make free phone calls, post job resumes to thousands of employers at once, access information about anything and everything including strangers you see on the street, at a party, or at work, start a company and make a living, store your own data, access entertainment, socially connect and interact with family and friends.

Without internet access – and without the outmoded business models of the existing telcos, cable companies, printing industry, and even the United States Postal Service you are cut-off. Now you might be saying to yourself, “But that can’t happen,” but it can, and it could happen in the span of a few months.

The concept stands to send a few people into panic. It’s certainly a lot of rapid change – and that is inherently scary to many people.

That’s why it’s worth your time to check out this episode of TWIG. As G.I. Joe would say, “Knowing is half the battle!” Understanding just how on the cusp we are of a techno-revolution, of the massive lobbying battle that will no doubt take place by the telcos, cable companies and others to stop it (because they want to keep making money at the expense of progress) – knowing how to land on both feet and take advantage of the resources that are getting ready to be tossed our way is a good thing.

You can download TWIG episode  21  for your mp3 player or listen to it here. There will be a full video of it on YouTube in a few more days, I suspect (only episode 20 is up right now) Video now linked below.

This is some seriously wild shit and you owe it to yourself to check it out! We’re not talking about Disney’s vision of the future 50 years from now. This is awesomeness happening now.

I’ve got a number of friends that would happily classify themselves as geeks. However, I rarely see this passion extend past the sci-fi, fantasty, or horror genre of geekdom. We’re talking movies, comics, games, etc. Not too much of it delves into the tech side of things.

Most of them having gaming consoles rather than a gaming PC. Most of them have regular phones instead of a smart phone. Many of them have jumped on Facebook, but almost none use Twitter – and that part is a bit of a shame.

Once you get past the garbled and uninformed hype put out but entities like CNN and actors like Oprah or Ashton, you get to see what this tiny, useful tool is all about.

140 characters of stuff you care about from people you are interested in beamed directly into your brain (or phone) is how I like to think of it. Say you like comics and want to know ASAP when an artist you particularly enjoy has something published. That’s something Twitter is good for.

I follow an inordinate amount of science-type people because they either publish or find the latest and greatest articles to read – and publish that in their twitter feed.

Twitter wins the battle over other social media concepts because it lacks the significant signal-to-noise ratio of things like Facebook and Myspace. You don’t have to worry about ‘friending’ people. You don’t have to worry about time-stealing games, stupid quizes, and the vast amount of malware (trojans, worms, viruses) that uses Facebook as a vector to get into your computer. Twitter is information distilled.

That’s why there’s been a rush by both Google and Microsoft to sign deals to aggregate the data streaming through the Twitter network and use it for their vast search engines. Twitter’s current rate of growth really does point to a service that will be able to reflect the pulse of the globe – in real time. That’s some serious sci-fi shit right there.

I encourage you to give it a spin. First, sign up for a twitter account here. Once you are signed-up you’ll want to find some people that are worth following. Think about writers, artists, or organizations that you would be interested in knowing what they are up to (you can follow me by clicking on the Follow Me button on the right hand side of this screen). Use Twitter’s search function to find out what those people’s twitter accounts are and click on the follow button.

If you have a texting plan, Twitter can send updates from those who you follow directly to your phone. If you have a smart phone I recommend Tweetdeck. It’s a good way to organize and keep track of tweets.

I was fairly skeptical of what kind of experience Twitter would provide. I’m honestly impressed after a few months of use. I’ve found articles I would have missed out on, and amusing insights on the people and organizations that I follow.

Give it a shot!