At a local level, it seems like a great way to absorb the reactions & opinions of the everyman. Get a few opinions about a high school football game, or get a quick quote w/a link to an article out on twitter.
Very cool potential here, but not much more than boring link feeds out there.
I found it was great for finding starting points on a story, particularly the search functionality. I'd search for the term, or find groups of people who were active in the area I was on, and follow up from there one-on-one, either with DM, by Googling them for contact info, or even an @reply. I was never a fan of using micro-posts as a quick-hit soundbite though, because without some research you don't know who it is or how comfortable they are with that voice in the public.
