Category: twitter

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Twitter use strongest among US minority groups

In the US, minority groups are twice as likely to use Twitter according to a report from The Pew Research Center.

BBC News reports:

African-American and Latino adults in the US who use the internet are twice as likely as whites to use the website Twitter, a survey has found.

The Pew Research Center, a Washington-based think tank, found that 13% of Latino and 18% of African-American adult internet users use Twitter.

Of all US adult internet users, 8% use the micro-blogging site, Pew found.

For me one of the key things from the report was:

Minority groups visit the site more because they are younger and use mobile technology more often, the centre said.

It has often been said that Twitter was for older people (like me) and Facebook was used by younger people. I have read quite a few reports and articles that state the opposite now.

Twitter is not as big as Facebook in the US or the UK, I wonder though if the ethnic  and age make-up of Twitter users in the US is reflected here in the UK?

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Twitter community angry about joke tweet prosecution

Today has seen Twitter taken over by the joke that earlier this week, after losing his appeal, Paul Chambers who was fined £1000 made earlier this year during the snow.

Dara O’Briain was among many who posted the following:

Crap! Robin Hood airport is closed. You’ve got a week to get your shit together, otherwise I’m blowing the airport sky high!! #IAmSpartacus

As you can see from the screenshot, another 95 people have retweeted Dara’s tweet. Dara was not along and probably thousands if not tens of thousands people tweeted the same thing…

Actually if you think about it, if a million people on Twitter sent that Tweet, all were fined, that’s £1bn that could be used to offset the spending cuts… A little bit of politics there!

There has been much written about the #IAmSpartacus meme today.

BBC News reports – Twitter anger over bomb tweeter

Guardian says – #IAmSpartacus campaign explodes on Twitter in support of airport joker

Channel 4 News writes – #Iamspartacus Twitter campaign takes off

It has also reached America, well you would expect that with Twitter.

LA Times – Twitter joke goes bad, users protest by evoking Spartacus

CNN – Mass Twitter campaign supports airport threat tweeter

The original tweet was a stupid joke, not a threat, a joke. The fact that two judges could not see that says a lot about how little the establishment understands social media. The protest may show, if Paul appeals again, that this was a joke between friends and in no way was any kind of serious threat.

That nice Stephen Fry has already said he will pay Paul’s fine.

Paul though lost his job because of the prosecution. The sad thing is that I doubt Paul will be the last person to be prosecuted for making a joke on Twitter.

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Twitter Show

Writer and broadcast Stephen Fry is to appear in a one-man show in London scripted by submissions from his Twitter followers.

Read more.

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It’s all about the coffee…

How Twitter is all about the coffee….

Using Twitter to form communities of practice.

A presentation from the Handheld Learning Conference 2009.

Do you Twitter?

Some people have “complained” about Twitter as shallow and lightweight, they have missed the point.

Is Twitter just about following people and reading informative links or is it about conversation and community?

I use Twitter in various ways, saying when I am drinking a coffee,to inform about what I am doing, blog articles and as a backchannel at events and conferences. However telling people is only half the story, the real value of Twitter is the conversation.

Of course really Twitter is all about the coffee. It’s the coffee you drink with colleagues during a break, where you discuss work, but also your commute, TV, films, the weather. It’s the coffee you drink whilst browsing the web and posting links of interesting web site to your blog or in an e-mail. It’s the coffee you drink in a coffee shop, reading the paper or a book. It’s the coffee you drink with fellow delegates during a break or at lunch at a conference. Where you discuss the keynotes, the presentations, the workshops, where you are going next, your hotel, the food, the coffee, what you do, where you’re going, what gadgets you have in your bag.

Twitter is about these moments, but without the physical and geographical limitations. Twitter allows people from different institutions, sectors, different, departments to share these moments. This presentation will look at how Twitter can be used to improve and enhance teaching and learning through the use of Twitter as a community of practice.

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Account closed

I’d done it. My (virtual) life was over. After two years on the online social networking site Facebook, I’d taken the plunge and killed off my account – in Facebook speak, I was “de-activated”.

It hadn’t all been bad; we’d had some good times. I’d enjoyed a bit of snooping as much as the next person and found it useful enough as a way to check out potential love interests, flog unwanted stuff and organise the odd shindig or three.

Could you give up Facebook? Read the full account on BBC News.

David Sugden on his Posterous Blog covers his reaction to the article.

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Twitter confirms major cash boost

BBC News reports:

Social networking website Twitter has confirmed that it has closed a “significant round of funding”.

Co-founder Evan Williams said in a blog post that the site had secured money from five investment firms.

Will this secure the future of Twitter, or with all the possible problems with the networking site mean the death of Twitter?