<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/4c5603f1-cb14-4d5a-95e1-9826a01d4eab/1C88ACB2-5180-490D-9647-E16E78F71587/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/the_rise_of_twitter_as_a_platform_for_serious_discourse.php" href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/the_rise_of_twitter_as_a_platform_for_serious_discourse.php" style="font-size: 11px;">www.readwriteweb.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/the_rise_of_twitter_as_a_platform_for_serious_discourse.php"><div align="center"><img src="http://content6.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/www.readwriteweb.com/img/02442804-93A5-42C6-9F9C-8758DB9C8D39" alt="" /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/the_rise_of_twitter_as_a_platform_for_serious_discourse.php"><P>Patrick Ruffini over at TechPresident thinks this could be <A href="http://techpresident.com/blog/entry/20767/the_year_of_twitter">the year of Twitter</A>. He cites downtime that Twitter recently experience when two major news events overloaded the service, Macworld and the US State of the Union address, as evidence of the service's potential mainstream appeal. "While these spikes reveal some troubling capacity issues that Twitter will need to deal with, this is the surest sign that the service has gone mainstream in a way not anticipated by its founders," writes Ruffini.</p> <P>Twitter is fast becoming a serious platform for discourse and discussion. More than a status app, it is being used as a first alert mechanism for the dissemination of news and for immediate discussion surrounding that news. It is the coverage of news events and the continued emergence of citizen journalism that will push Twitter toward the mainstream this year.</P></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/1C88ACB2-5180-490D-9647-E16E78F71587/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content8.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

New from the makers of Clipmarks:  Amplify.com - Don't just share the news...Amplify it!