Filed under: Web services, Social Software, Microblogging, Twitter
In response to Gladwell's assertion that the American civil rights movement would never have gotten off the ground if people had just tweeted instead of taking action, Biz points to Chinese campaigns for citizens' rights that coordinate over Twitter, and he says that Twitter is the only place the Chinese activists are free to discuss certain topics. He also offers the pithy observation that Paul Revere's famous phrase, "The British are coming!" was a lot shorter than 140 characters, and it contributed to the success of the American revolution.
Biz's last sentence perfectly sums up his argument, so read this if you don't feel like reading the whole article: " Lowering the barrier to activism doesn't weaken humanity, it brings us together and it makes us stronger."
Maybe revolutions will be tweeted after all. What do you think of Twitter-based activism?
Biz's Stoli Ad
Can Twitter Predict the Stock Market?
Researchers at Indiana University analyzed Twitter data to determine people's moods, and they compared that information to changes in the stock market. Using two different sentiment-analysis systems (The Google-Profile of Mood States and OpinionFinder) they measured " happiness, kindness, alertness, sureness, vitality, and calmness" on Twitter, and they found that they could use the info to predict daily ups and downs in the stock market with 87% accuracy. Don't get too excited, though: MIT's Technology Review is a little bit skeptical of the methodology. (By the way, the mood that best mirrored market activity was "calmness.")
Qwerly is a Better People Search For Twitter
People's Twitter bios often don't tell you everything you need to know about them. Qwerly fills in the gaps by letting you search any Twitter username for that person's other public accounts across social networks. For example, putting in my username turned up my Wordpress blog, and it even found some more obscure accounts like Plancast. If you're not sure who someone on Twitter is, or how you know them, Qwerly is handy way to find out.
Littlecosm Combines Twitter Client and MMORPG
The latest buzzworthy Twitter client isn't as much a Twitter client as a creative new take on the massively multiplayer online roleplaying game (MMORPG) concept. It's called Littlecosm, and it's a project by well-known developer Yongfook, who founded Open Source Food and created the lifestreaming service Sweetcron.
Not much is known about Littlecosm at the moment, but Yongfook has said this:
It'll be interesting to see how Littlecosm shapes up, and whether it catches on. It's not out yet, but you can sign up for a launch notification at littlecosm.com.I'm taking the explorative / leveling concepts from MMORPGs and combining them with some high level themes such as good vs. evil, and the passage of time. Twitter data is particularly suitable for those latter themes. When we're angry, we tweet. When we're happy, we tweet. And it's all recorded on a timeline. I'm using this data to shape the game world.
Greater Manchester Police Tweet Every Report for 24 Hours
Last Thursday, the police force in Greater Manchester, UK, decided to tweet every single call they responded to over a 24 hour period. It took two staff members to handle the project, and they hit Twitter's posting rate limit so often that they needed four accounts to keep things going in close to real time. The hashtag #GMP24 tied it all together.
The project was a way of showing how much the police do in one day, to promote the department in the face of budget cuts. Sounds like they proved their point, too, if they respond to so many situations that even Twitter can't keep up.
Twitter Tuesday - Biz Stone's big week! originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 19 Oct 2010 17:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink�|�Email this�|�CommentsCharlize Theron
Anna Faris
No comments:
Post a Comment