Twitter gets its share of abuse – for supposedly being the prima facie example of an empty internet dynamic. Innumerable wags will tell you 140 characters don't permit substantive communication but do encourage new levels of insipid personal vanity. Is that true?

I've been tweeting for about a year. I've got a personal account (@3Dsound) and a business account. Twitter works for me as:

•A headline service.
•An aggregator of national, international, and cultural news.
•A door to expertise that I don't have but want to access.
•A source for quirky stuff I'd never learn about otherwise.
•An immediate connection with public figures in politics, the arts and entertainment.
•An opportunity to communicate directly with public figures (and a way to challenge those who are controversial and see how they respond).
•A snapshot of Fort Collins news and personalities.
•A place to see my values and concerns upheld or challenged.
•A place to express (or figure out) my point-of-view.
•A place to broadcast my business's expertise (but not its value proposition).
•A place to introduce myself to new people.
•A worthwhile way to connect and re-connect with friends and family.
•An easy way to post to Facebook and otherwise let everyone know what I'm up to.

Anyway, today is Friday, and on Fridays it's Twitter custom to "#FF", which means it's "Follow Friday", which means I want to recommend a bunch of twitterers whose twitterings are worth your time.

These are a few Fort Collins and other Colorado twitterers who keep me informed and amused on what's happening here (and note it's not easy to tweet locally but engage globally):

@BigMediaBlog (Bigmedia.org and Jason Salzman)

@bmenezes (Bill Menezes)

@BobMooreNews (Bob Moore, who unfortunately no longer tweets as often as he once did, now that he's interim publisher of the Coloradoan)

@COindependent (Colorado Independent)

@coloradoan (Fort Collins Coloradoan)

@csgazette (Colorado Springs Gazette)

@FeastingFC (Feasting Fort Collins)

@HeidiTown (Heidi Kerr-Schlaefer)

@ImNickArmstrong (Nick Armstrong)

@InfinitDee (Dee Baldwin)

@jeremiahtolbert (Jeremiah Tolbert)

@kyle_mccall (Kyle McCall)

@LinkedInExpert (Viveka von Rosen)

@useeverycolor (Bryan A. Collins)

And here's a bunch of other twitterers. They're all famous and support large followings, for good reason:

@BlurtMagazine (Blurt Magazine)

@downwithtyranny (Howie Klein)

@ebertchicago (Roger Ebert)

@FakeAPStylebook (Fake AP Stylebook)

@GottaLaff (Gotta Laff, whose tweets are a little like Woody Guthrie's guitar)

@HuffingtonPost (Huffington Post)

@mashable (Pete Cashmore)

@mcrispinmiller (Mark Crispin Miller)

@michaelpinto (Michael Pinto)

@MMFlint (Michael Moore)

@rightwingwatch (Right Wing Watch)

@TheBradBlog (Brad Friedman)

Electronic media ― Colorado media