The Big Smoke

When it comes to new technology, I am an embarrassingly late adopter. If I was a prehistoric man, I'd still be soldiering on with square wheels long after the family in the cave next door had switched to the circular variety. But when it comes to Twitter, even I can see the benefits of this terrific, and endearingly personal, networking tool. I can get the latest news from my favourite museums and galleries, follow the best London bloggers, keep track of Mayor's Question Time, or converse with the diplodocus at the Natural History Museum or Dr Samuel Johnson. What's not to like?

Many of my friends and colleagues, who will happily upload their personal details to Facebook or MySpace, still don't get it, though. 'What can you say in 140 characters?' they ask, inadvertently betraying their own lack of imagination in the process. One fellow Time Outer was recently so tickled by a story mocking Twitter in the Onion that they sent me the link – via Facebook, the irony of which appeared to completely escape them.

All of which is a very long-winded way of saying that some enterprising cabbies have now found another great use for Twitter. Tweet a London Cab is a service that allows you to do just that. Thirty London black cab drivers – including occasional Big Smoke contributor and blogger Richard Cudlip – are involved in this new method of hailing cab that has one chief benefit over the existing phone-based pre-book service: there is no central control, all cabbies have access to the account and can allocate calls accordingly, cutting out the need – and cost – of the middle man and providing that all-important personal touch. Follow @tweetalondoncab if you are interested.

Oh, and if you'd been following me on Twitter (@timeoutbigsmoke) you'd have found out about this story when I first tweeted it on Friday.