I am often asked how I track new developments and information about Exchange, Office 365, Windows or the other technologies in which I am interested. My response is “by using Twitter intelligently”.

There’s no doubt that an extraordinary amount of dross is generated and shared daily on Twitter. People who feel the need to communicate the smallest detail of their lives in the most open manner do so by tweeting incessantly. These people are to be avoided as life is too short to be swamped by an endless stream of inbound drivel.

On the other hand, it is possible to make a targeted use of Twitter to create a stream of interesting material generated by people who operate in any particular area of focus. The hard part is to identify people who generate a high percentage of useful information in their Twitter stream as this can take some time and trial and error to sort out contributors who flood the network with copious but repetitive or useless contributions from those who know what’s going on and can help you to keep on top of things.  The nature of the medium is that some of the tweets sent by anyone are less than serious, but I think that you can make a good selection of contributors who have a strong track record of useful commentary on topics that you care about. At least, that’s my goal.

Here is my basic list of independent commentators that I use to keep my finger on what’s happening in the Exchange community. I pay attention to these folk when their contributions pop up in my Twitter stream together and find good content in their blogs. Hopefully this provides a good initial set to build your own stream. You’ll probably add some of the Microsoft sources such as the famous Squeaky Lobster or the official Microsoft Exchange source plus maybe some covering Office 365. I am always happy to hear of a good source, so reply to this post to let me know your suggestions!

Follow Tony @12Knocksinna