PSA: Don't Twitter from the jury box

The latest Web 2.0 service to take the world by storm is Twitter -- and it's finally hit the point where society hasn't quite figured out how to deal with it.

For the uninitiated, Twitter is a very simple service that lets you "tweet" status updates, announcements, news headlines, or anything else... provided you can do it in 140 characters or less. Twitter works on the web, but it also works via cell phone text message, and that's where it's finding its most interesting uses.

That's also where it's getting people into trouble, most recently in the case (literally) of an Arkansas building company, which had a $12.6 million verdict levied against it in a recent court case. The problem: One juror on the case was sending "tweets" during the trial, with messages like "I just gave away TWELVE MILLION DOLLARS of somebody else's money."

And that, it seems, is a no-no. The company is now appealing the verdict, arguing that the juror "was predisposed toward giving a verdict that would impress his audience" on the micro-blogging site.

The Twittering juror, Johnathan Powell, caught up in the hubbub after the fact, says he understands the company's concern (now that the verdict is driving them out of business), but is surprised by the reaction. And that reflects a deep and profound reality about how Twitter and services like it are used by their faithful.

Powell probably didn't see his use of Twitter as "publishing to an audience," but rather as a high-tech version of his own stream of consciousness. The very nature of Twitter's short, informal posts means that they're often used for off-the-cuff commentary about all manner of subjects, serious and silly. And while the writers often mean nothing by them, those 140 characters can have devastating effect, often resulting in the online equivalent of petty slapfights... and even bigger slapfights.

And now, we see, they can get embroiled in multi-million dollar lawsuits, too.

By the way, you can follow me on Twitter (tweets are sent sparely and judiciously) under user name christophernull. Live trial coverage is strictly not included.