If you take a look at my bio page you'll see that I use Twitter.  It's a great service and I have completely replaced Dodgeball with it.  I am following a bunch of people including Leo Laporte and Robert Scoble.  Today I got a tweet from the Scobleizer stating that he doesn't like direct tweets.  This made me ponder the usefulness of such a service, well the direct portion of it at least.

A direct tweet is when a user on the Twitter network directly messages another user on the network.  A typical tweet on Twitter is send to all of a users followers, not just one person, but the service allows for that direct communication too.  Right after the Scobleizer sent his tweet I e-mailed him and stated my view of liking direct tweets.  We went back and forth a couple of times and it really made me question the purpose of direct Twitter messages.  I like the idea that any user on Twitter can add me as a follower and then directly contact me if they have a question or comment.  They know that I'll get the message on whatever device I'm using to send SMS tweets.  I think there's also a perception that those with a mass following will not answer their e-mail in a timely fashion or will simply ignore most messages unless they come from  trusted source.  This makes direct tweets useful for the followers because they know that the person they are trying to contact will get their message.  It makes it problematic because now anyone can SMS you.

Scoble said he didn't like direct Twitters because the service is too slow.  It is.  I e-mailed Scoble and he got back to me in seconds.  I literally mean seconds.  Most people are not that fast at e-mail, so I think he is the exception not the rule.  Does having slow speed really take away from the ability to stay in contact with anyone on the planet?  Isn't having a communications channel that anyone can use worth the small amount of time it takes?  Or does having a system like this open a can of worms that will make everyones life a mess?  In a world where I can get sued for having coffee that's too hot, do I really want to be able to communicate and say anything to anyone at any time?  Or are we in a world that needs to be made smaller by creating new methods of communications so we can better understand each other?  What I'm really getting at is:  how useful are direct tweets in todays world of push e-mail, VVoIP and IM?