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Whither Twitter?An Introduction to Twitter, blogging, and RSS
Presented by Roman KoshykarLiaison Librarian to GCCIS, Wallace Library
in conjunction with the Center for Professional DevelopmentApril 28, 2009
Today’s agenda
Crash course in TwitterWhat is Twitter good for?Some examples of Twitter use at RITA little bit about blogging (Twitter’s big
brother)Explanation of RSS – the technology that
makes all this possible
What is all the chatter about?
What is ? 1. A free, web-based social networking service2. An annoying, time-wasting fad3. The fastest growing social networking site of
20094. The best-known example of a micro-blogging
system5. A great way for mobile computing users to
communicate
Twitter is all of these things!
Yes, even the “annoying fad” partLet’s look at these characteristics one by one
(in no particular order)
Twitter is a social networkThe premise of Twitter is that each and every
Twitter user is to answer the same question over and over again
WHAT ARE YOU DOING RIGHT NOW?Twitter is highly social, and every Twitter
user can follow other users’ postsTwitter is NOT instant messaging – it is not a
real-time conversation
Twitter is a micro-blogging systemMicro-blogs are just what they sound like –
short-form blogs where content is posted in very small chunks
Twitter limits you to no more than 140 characters in a single post (that includes spaces and punctuation)
Twitter has been called the Web’s equivalent of the Short Message Service (SMS) – more commonly known by cell phone users and teenagers everywhere as “texting”
Twitter is mobileMobile computing is huge – even bigger outside the
United StatesPeople with iPhones or BlackBerries can post to their
Twitter accounts and read other people’s Twitter posts using their mobile devices
Laptop/desktop Twitter users interact with Twitter’s Web site; mobile phone users can get Twitter posts via text messages; smart phone users download a special interface (called an “app”) to their device to use Twitter
The most popular mobile Twitter app is called Twitterific
Twitter is growing exponentiallyTwitter was only created in 2006The Internet demographics firm Quantcast tracks
Twitter usage – let’s look at some statsEnd of February 2009 – 6 million usersEnd of March 2009 – 15 million users (estimated)
Twitter’s user population grew 2 ½ times in one month!
Twitter has become so popular, there are many examples from this year and last year of the site crashing due to heavy use
Most famous example – Macworld 2008, when Steve Jobs gave his keynote address
Twitter is an annoying fad?Well, decide for yourself…One of the articles on handout –
the Psychology of TwitterTwitter pros: its popularity shows that it fits a
niche in the world of online communication; it’s a public conversation medium
Twitter cons: it defaults to public conversation (you have to turn on privacy features yourself); since it’s continuous and nonstop, you can easily feel like you have missed something – like walking into the middle of a conversation
What is it good for?
According to Twitter’s own site, Twitter is good for real-time updates to your friends and family
New York Times tech reporter David Pogue has a good example of Twitter’s usefulness
More from David Pogue (short video)Twitter’s been all over the news this year –
read all about it on your own!
Let’s talk TwitterTwitter users have developed their own
terminologyTwitter (n): the name of the world’s most
popular micro-blogging serviceTwitter (v): to post something on Twitter –
also has the infinitive form TwitteringTweet: a post on TwitterSomeone who posts on Twitter is a Twitterer
or a Tweeter (I’ve heard both)
Let’s talk Twitter (advanced)Hash tagging: the practice of tagging Tweets
(that is, assigning them an identifying keyword called a tag) with a hash mark (aka pound sign). Twitter users can search these hash tags on the Twitter site to find Tweets about some particular topic (#rochester or #rit, for example)
At replies: @ sign followed by a Twitter user name identifies a Tweet directed at another Twitter user – helps you have conversations with others via Tweets
Time to have a look!
Test Twitter page set up for today’s sessionhttp://twitter.com/SampleForTestI’ll log in and show you some of the basic
features
Time to have a look!
A couple of personal accounts from my co-workershttp://twitter.com/Chrislerchhttp://twitter.com/bizlibrarian
Updates on Twitter from RIT departmentshttp://twitter.com/RIT_InfoSechttp://twitter.com/RITNEWSYou’ll end up discovering others by looking at
who is following these Twitter feeds!
Try it for yourself
Beginner’s guide to Twitter (listed on your handout)
Really, Twitter is blogging?
Blogging is a much more established practice than Twittering – been around for roughly a decade; probably caught on around five years ago
The idea is the same – you set up a personal site (they provide the framework) and you write about and post what you are interested in (you provide the content)
Blogging sites often offer more features – commenting, ability to post images, embed video or sound clips
Really, Twitter is blogging?Biggest difference between Twittering and
blogging – short form (only 140 characters!) vs. long form
Twitter users have come up with creative ways of getting around the character limit
Use of link shortening sites like TinyURL – allows you to take a very long link and shorten it, so as to use many fewer characters
“Serial Tweets” – post things in chunks – there’s no limit to the number of Tweets, only to the length of each Tweet
Some popular blogging sites
Blogger – Google’s popular blogging siteLiveJournal – oldest blogging site, structured
like an online diaryWordPress – another popular blogging siteMovable Type – rather than a Web site,
Movable Type is software you install – example is Business Resources Blog from the Library
How do they work?The technology that powers Twitter,
blogging, and other social web sites is called Really Simple Syndication (RSS)
RSS is a technology used to create “feeds” on the Web; these feeds allow for continuous publication of news, blog posts, Tweets, podcasts, and many other types of Web content
Brief video (about 3 ½ minutes) will serve as an introduction to RSS
Tying things togetherIs your head spinning yet?It’s ok – Social Web technologies are largely
about having fun, but most importantly, they are about staying connected
Any one site (say, Twitter) may not be around forever
But the idea of short, rapid status updates has found its way into other Social Web technologies
Facebook’s latest redesign has a suspiciously Twitter-like home page when you log in!
Thank you and stay connected!