To Wit: Twittering - washingtonpost.com

The Post examins the Twitter phenomenon in layman's terms. While I think Twitter itself is more useful and important than the article claims, it's a good overview. The real value of Twitter is not the service or the communication itself -- it's the people that you follow. If you follow people who have intelligent things to say, be they professional, personal, etc, you can glean value from their communication. Something like instant crowdsourced news/analysis/thoughtstream where you have total control over the crowd.

The conclusion that Twitter will prevent people from living in the moment has been leveled against every new method of communication and recording ever invented and as such is banal.