[LINK] USDAFoodSafety is using Twitter.

[Stilgherrian]

On 30/03/2009, at 2:08 PM, Stephen Wilson wrote:
> Tom Worthington wrote:
>> On Saturday I attended BarCamp Canberra 2 at ANU, with about 60
>> Twitter obsessed people.
>> It was a strange experience. A large chunk of the audience was
>> twittering about the speaker, while they were speaking.
> How to explain this type of twittering?  Is it not unalloyed showing  
> off?

No, it's real-time consensus-formation. At least that the allow which  
makes it not merely showing off. It's also about providing a summary  
of the session to people not physically present.


> I thought the 'hey look at me' quality is why it's called "twitter":
> it's all show, like a song bird.

The name Twitter is inspired, as it really is akin to bird call. But  
even a songbird's song is not "all show".

Listen to a dawn chorus. There's a series of "announcements" (tweets)  
which have various meanings. "I am awake and still healthy." "I am  
hungry, feed me." "Hey that's my territory, back off!" "Look I've  
found food!' "Take cover, a thunderstorm is coming."

There may or may not be responses. "I am awake too. we all sound  
healthy. All is well in the forest." "I have food, I am coming."  
"Yeah? Well I reckon it's MY territory now!" "Food? I'm coming!" "Yes,  
take cover! Spread the word!"

Yes, I'm one of Australia's heaviest users of Twitter -- after saying  
publicly in November 2007 that I didn't see what value it would have  
for me because I'm not an attention-seeking narcissist. Mostly,  
anyway. But the dynamics are new. And a lot has already been written  
about it -- although it's difficult to find amongst the lame  
journalists saying "Oh! something new which I don't get so I'll make  
fun of it" stories.

I guess I'll have to compile a few references for the Linktards?

Stil


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