Scaling API-first – The story of a global engineering organization
Whither Twitter
1. Presented by Roman Koshykar
Liaison Librarian to GCCIS, Wallace Library
in conjunction with the Center for Professional Development
April 28, 2009
2. Today’s agenda
Crash course in Twitter
What is Twitter good for?
Some examples of Twitter use at RIT
A little bit about blogging (Twitter’s big brother)
Explanation of RSS – the technology that makes all
this possible
3. What is all the chatter about?
What is ?
1. A free, web-based social networking service
2. An annoying, time-wasting fad
3. The fastest growing social networking site of 2009
4. The best-known example of a micro-blogging system
5. A great way for mobile computing users to
communicate
4. Twitter is all of these things!
Yes, even the “annoying fad” part
Let’s look at these characteristics one by one (in no
particular order)
5. Twitter is a social network
The 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’ posts
Twitter is NOT instant messaging – it is not a real-time
conversation
6. Twitter is a micro-blogging system
Micro-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”
7. Twitter is mobile
Mobile computing is huge – even bigger outside the
United States
People 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
8. Twitter is growing exponentially
Twitter was only created in 2006
The Internet demographics firm Quantcast tracks Twitter
usage – let’s look at some stats
End of February 2009 – 6 million users
End 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
9. Twitter is an annoying fad?
Well, decide for yourself…
One of the articles on handout – the Psychology of
Twitter
Twitter 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
10. 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!
11. Let’s talk Twitter
Twitter users have developed their own terminology
Twitter (n): the name of the world’s most popular
micro-blogging service
Twitter (v): to post something on Twitter – also has the
infinitive form Twittering
Tweet: a post on Twitter
Someone who posts on Twitter is a Twitterer or a
Tweeter (I’ve heard both)
12. 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
13. Time to have a look!
Test Twitter page set up for today’s session
http://twitter.com/SampleForTest
I’ll log in and show you some of the basic features
14. Time to have a look!
A couple of personal accounts from my co-workers
http://twitter.com/Chrislerch
http://twitter.com/bizlibrarian
Updates on Twitter from RIT departments
http://twitter.com/RIT_InfoSec
http://twitter.com/RITNEWS
You’ll end up discovering others by looking at who is
following these Twitter feeds!
15. Try it for yourself
Beginner’s guide to Twitter (listed on your handout)
16. 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
17. 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
18. Some popular blogging sites
Blogger – Google’s popular blogging site
LiveJournal – oldest blogging site, structured like an
online diary
WordPress – another popular blogging site
Movable Type – rather than a Web site, Movable Type
is software you install – example is Business Resources
Blog from the Library
19. 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
20. Tying things together
Is 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!