Supporter-led commentary on Town games via Twitter? Could be fun. Chris Rand has started an experiment and wants some volunteers with Internet-capable mobiles on Saturday to help take it to the next stage.
Every now and then something comes along on the Internet which is popular enough to become part of the furniture - a website or application you can't imagine being without, such as Facebook, YouTube or iTunes. Twitter looks set to be the next thing to reach that critical mass.
At the moment, people are just working out what Twitter does (and doesn't) do well. Although I was instinctively averse to the whole concept, I've gradually become hooked as I discover what I can get out of it.
‘Twittering' is, in effect, sending a text message to the world (or at least, that small part of the world which has signed up to your ‘Tweets'). Earlier this week, I thought of something I'd really like to see happen. Wouldn't it be fantastic if you could read a stream of Tweets coming in from supporters at a match, while it was in progress?
I've occasionally phoned friends in other parts of the ground (or had text exchanges with them) to see what they thought of something. Having straightforward access to a stream of thoughts from others around the ground, through Twitter, would be great. And of course, for those who weren't at the match, it'd be even better - like having one of those BBC minute-by-minute text updates, but written by supporters and opinionated.
So, as an experiment, for Tuesday night's match against Burnley, I decided to see how practical it was to ‘Tweet' from a match. I set up a dedicated Twitter account - at http://twitter.com/ITFC_live - and managed to get a dozen or so people around the world to follow what I wrote, just so I didn't feel it was quite so pointless.
I discovered two things: firstly, you probably wouldn't want to send more than half a dozen Tweets from a match, or you'll end up too often missing all the good bits while hunched over your mobile. Secondly, the Internet connection at Portman Road is not great (at least not on my elegant but primitive W880i, and it seemed even more patchy for those with iPhones).
However, it was quite fun to post a few thoughts, and I'd happily do it regularly. But to make this work, I think we'd need at least a dozen supporters around the ground offering to send a few Tweets each. The next step is to extend the experiment on Saturday by getting a few of you to join me in Twittering. Email me at chris@chrisrand.com if you'd like to volunteer. You'll need to be at the game (obviously), you'll need to have an Internet-capable phone, and you'll need to be able to produce comments of the quality you'll see at http://twitter.com/ITFC_live (which isn't exactly taxing).
I suspect that one day we'll just take it for granted that there'll be a Twitter stream which most of the ground will be contributing to, and we'll look back at this article and laugh at how quaint it all seemed in 2009. But for now, we need some pioneering spirit!
PS: The Twitterati amongst you may be thinking: "Why do you need to Tweet through the Internet - why can't you do it by text message?" The answer is that each Twitter account currently only allows Tweets to come from one mobile number, which is a real shame. An alternative which has been suggested is for supporters to post on their own Twitter accounts, but to use agreed ‘hashtags', so followers just need to round up Tweets with that tag. However, I suspect this is a non-runner because it's a nuisance to keep adding hashtags to your Tweets, and the concept of following tagged Tweets is going to be too fiddly for most people. I may be wrong.