A group of social networking mischief-makers are bringing a panto to Twitter for the whole world to see.

If you’ve never been to a British pantomime, here’s what to expect:
 

• A central cast of actors take common themes and familiar stories, and twist them in new ways
• Men play women and vice-versa
• Old jokes are updated with topical humor
• Everything has a second, and decidedly naughty, meaning.
• The audience is expected–nay, commanded–to participate.
• Famous people show up unexpectedly.

 
It’s a perfect prototype for Twitter, with 140-character repartee and fast-flying innuendos.

And on Tuesday, December 23, a cast and audience are coming together on the microblogging network to put on the first Twitter panto. In true social network style, there’s only loose direction and gentle nudging from the directors. The brainchild of social media consultant John Bounds it’s an interesting holiday experiment.

There’s an interesting response from Chris Hoff over at Rational Security to my GigaOm piece about cloud computing and security. Chris makes some great points (and flagged a good study on computer fraud that refutes some of what I said.)

Worth a read. What do you think? Are clouds less secure than in-house computing? The usual answer seems to be “it depends” — but what does it depend on? Can we come up with some rules for what’s safe to do in a cloud and when?

Maybe I can convince Chris to come to Vegas and get into a pointed argument about cloud computing risks.

Twitter-like micromessaging is a relatively new communications model, with unique characteristics that affect how we use it and what’s appropriate. It’s an RSS feed for people, a way to directing the attention of audiences, and a means of reaching the famous without burdening them with an obligation to respond.

In short, Twitter is a human API. It’s being defined in real time in front of our eyes, through an amazing example of Internet Darwinism.

I’ve been spending a bunch of time on Twitter lately, partly because it’s fun, and partly because of the community management and social networking portions of a book I’m writing with @seanpower. Here are some observations so far.
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I wrote a piece for GigaOm on the gradually forming Google strategy for applications. Here’s the short version: Google Apps + App Engine + Chrome + Marketplace = Appexchange for small businesses.

The piece got referred to in a post by Enrique Dans, who blogs in Spanish. Naturally, I wanted to see what he’d said in the post, so I figured I’d put it into Babelfish and get a translation.

Sometimes the Internet says it better than you can: “Google has had 95% good news and is prepared to put all the meat in the spit.” I might stop and reflect on just how much technology was involved in that — writers in two countries, RSS feeds and linkbacks, translation.

Nah, putting all the meat in the spit is just awesome.

I use an email client on my iMac. When it can’t get to the server, it still works. But sometimes, on a slow day with an unreliable network like the one I’m on right now, I don’t realize that I have mail waiting for me. The disconnect between by client-side logic and the server-side data camouflages the fact that the network isn’t working.

By contrast, when I use GMail’s web interface to read my mail, I know when I have new messages. Because Google controls the processing (on its servers) and data (right next to them) the two are connected. No camouflage there: If the network sucks, I know it.
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