When tasting gets global over the Internet there is no boundaries to what people can collaborate about. TwitterTasteLive is an interesting phenomenon. This is an article I wrote in the January issue 2009 of Urban Lifestyle Report - New Media.

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Picture: Richard Mackney
a different kind of
internet buzz -
the one that comes
from drinking wine...
LINDA PIERRE
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Blog: http://lindapierre.tumblr.com/
As the Internet population keeps on
growing the national boarders looses
their value, it might sound like a cliché but that doesn’t make it any less true. I’m talking about the power of
communication across the world, no matter in which country you hook up your laptop.
Services like Skype makes it easy for people to stay in touch across boarders Anyway it was on Twitter I first heard about Twitter Taste Live, a community for
without spending a fortune on phone bills. We use blogging tools to speak our fellow tweeters that are very interested in wine, beer or cigars. The part that got
mind about political issues, share links or just upload photos. If you feel like you my attention was not that it was a niche social network, because there are plenty
need an instant response to a thought or a question, try using video services like of those, but that it actually gathers people around the globe at joint tastings.
12seconds.tv or seesmic, or micro-blogging services like Twitter or Jaiku. Not the traditional wine-, beer- or cigar tastings of course but by using Twitter
instead.
I recently came across an interesting site called Twitter Taste Live . Yes I admit, I
am a Twitter freak and should probably need to check into “twitter rehab” one of
these days. But for taking the temperature on what’s going on in the world of the
web at this very moment it’s just so much fun to use. And addictive.

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All of a sudden I saw the hashtag #ttl frequently used in my Twitter-stream. At first
I didn’t get it, what was I missing (you know I just can’t handle not knowing all about
these things)? Then it hit me that a live tasting event had begun and people where
participating and showing it by using the same hashtag. The people over at Wine
Conversation had listed three wines to the tasting called “Beyond the Trade” and
the British Twittersphere eagerly participated. Normally you don’t have to be in a
certain country to participate, all you have to do is to buy the wine bottles, beers or
cigars listed for the tasting and just go nuts. With the glass or cigar in one hand and
the other hand typing away at the keyboard. Maybe nuts is the keyword here, but
you got to love people who are passionate about these things.
This event though was a bit different. It is actually a physical event taking place in
London and now also for the first time live on the web using social media as the
tool of choice. For those sitting at home alone, or in groups, a box with all the wine
bottles were home delivered so that they could participate. Richard Mackney was
Picture: jpcolasso
one of the eager ones trying the later version and filming it for us to see afterwards
as well. What did we do for fun before the Internet I wonder...
What if we could collaborate like this more?
There’s no limit to what that could help people (and companies) to achieve don’t you
think? World peace might be taking it a bit too far I guess, but solving problems and
helping each other out in difficult times are something we see more and more of.
Hm, I’m gonna think some more about this for future issues of this report. I have to
wrap this up since I just spilled some red wine on my Macbook Pro and @garyvee
just dissed my favourite Syrah on Twitter!