There is an article on the Beeb (BBC) about the "hyper-connected" generation . It has quotes from Biz Stone co-founder of Twitter and Jyri Engestrom, founder of Jaiku. It muses about microblogging and the multicasting of one's life 24/7. Is this state of connectivity better or worse for us? For productivity? Engestrom says, "In five years time being hyper connected will become a necessity to be an active participant in the social world".

We wouldn't go as far as to say that. People should and will have the level of connectivity that suits them.

What do you think?

Here is the full article.

Pete Cashmore has a blog post that covers this well with a screenshot so I won't repeat the details here. 

This brings up the question, where does the line get drawn with others copying? Being copied is supposed to be the ultimate form of flattery but.. facebook put twitter-like functionality, now bebo, next My Space, Flickr and everyone else (guessing here!). The good thing for Twitter is that they have momentum and a community starting around their service. They also have the brand name so I think it would be difficult for a new standalone Twitter to be successful. A Yahoo, Google, Facebook, My Space could come out on top though, the ones with the existing users could. We will see.