As many of you know, I’m a partner and director of technology for a publishing company based in San Francisco, California. One of our flagship properties is the Bay Area Women’s Journal, an on-line lifestyle publication with a primary focus on issues and topics of interest to women in the San Francisco area.

The Journal started life as a hardcopy publication, with a Web version available as a convenience for our readers.  A couple of years ago we decided to stop publishing the physical journal and deliver the publication exclusively via the Web.  That proved to be a wise and timely decision – BAYAREAWJ.com has been a big hit.

Now, we’ve released a new product that positions us on the leading edge of the current trend in publishing periodicals – an online digital edition in a familiar magazine format.  Click here to take a peek at the digital version of the SF Bay Area Women’s Journal! http://www.bayareawj.com/san-francisco-womens-journal-magazine/ And be sure to click through the pages.  Not only will you find the content interesting, but I think you’ll agree that with today’s technology it’s fun to read magazines online!

Now…  I have truly seen the light! Twitter has become an indispensible source of real-time news and information. But I know there are still many skeptics out there and I completely understand.  For me, a major breakthrough came when I realized that it was all about who/what sources you choose to follow.  For example, if you follow news sources (CNN, NYT, etc.) you get real-time news feeds. If you follow people in your profession, you get an early view of developments and a finger on the pulse of activity in your field.

Today I found an outstanding article in the New York Times, “Why Twitter Will Endure” (got it from a Tweet I received, of course), written by David Carr. (See http://bit.ly/4IpTAT) David does an outstanding job of explaining why Twitter has become such a key enabler for an informed and action-oriented lifestyle.

I posted the link to this article on Twitter, but that’s a lot like “preaching to the choir.” If you saw my Tweet…. then you’re using Twitter!  I’m sending this little piece to those of you who still don’t see any value in joining the Twitter community.