Link for Twitter Theory

Here is the link for my Twitter Theory :

http://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AWW78keiDEz8ZGhqdzlndmRfOGZrYzdoZGZy&hl=en

Theory on Multimedia Authorship

When we think of authorship we may automatically think of paper and ink. In our minds we visualize paperback or hardcover books that are sold in bookstores all across the country. Authorship is the act of writing, or even the occupation of writing. I was oringally taught that authors were the creators and the writers of the novels I read, but with new technology comes new ideas about authorship. As this new generation moves away from paper and pen and uses keyboards and computers to elicit thoughts, multimedia authorship becomes a relevant concept. Multimedia is using a variety of different media forms to produce and create content. Therefore, anyone who uses media to produce their own thoughts or ideas is technically a multimedia author. Because of the popularity of computers and especially the Internet, almost anyone can be a multimedia author. Each and every day people use the Internet to express themselves. From creating a profile on Facebook.com, writing their thoughts through Blogs, or even using Twitter to inform people what they are doing, the Internet has become the most popular medium for people to become authors. The Internet has allowed authorship to be easily available to anyone, and because there are so many more authors today than ever before, our own words are becoming “lost” within this World Wide Web. It is so easy to post our own words and our thoughts for virtually anyone to see, but it is just as easy for people to take what you wrote and use it for themselves. Multimedia has given us all the power to become authors, yet it has also taken the power of our own words away from us. The moment I post my thoughts on the Web, they are no longer my own. They are only text on a computer screen lost among thousands of others. This multimedia world is lessening the impact of our words, because essentially anyone can take credit for what we say or create. Barthes says, “for the good reason that all writing is itself this special voice, consisting of several indiscernible voices, the trap where all identity is lost, beginning with the very identity of the body that writes”. Barthes thinks that the author’s identity is lost from the very moment he begins to write, and I agree that our own identity is easily missing using multimedia. How many times a day do we read writings on the Internet and never know who actually wrote it? As I focus solely on Twitter for my research project, most of the time we actually do know who is saying what because we see their names, however other forms of multimedia are taking an individual’s Twitter message out of context, and using people’s thoughts and ideas to create a bigger piece of art. Sites like Longestpeomintheworld.com are creating collaborative pieces of art by using anonymous Twitter messages. Even entire books are being sold in bookstores with people’s Twitter messages published in them. What we once thought was just an innocent thought we typed out onto the Internet, has become transformed into something bigger and beyond our control. Once we apply our fingers to a keyboard and type out a text, we no longer have control of where our own ideas will eventually end up. In someone else’s mouth? It’s safe to say that multimedia authorship has allowed our own thoughts to freely run wild all over the Internet. Our identity is easily lost, and once we submit our words to text and to the Internet, we’re ultimately left with what we begin with, just a single thought in our mind.

Having Fun With Wordle

Final Research Paper Proposal

Twitter has become one of the next biggest fads to hit the multimedia world. It’s a free social-networking site where people can read and send messages. It works much like sending a mass text message, by using the Twitter website or by using applications accessible on cell phones. Twitter is basically based on the question, “What are you doing now?” In 140 characters or less people are able to answer this question, with a “tweet”, allowing people that they know or do not know, known as “followers”, to read the answer. This newest craze is around three years old and currently has about six million users. Anyone can use Twitter, from celebrities, professional athletes, journalists, to doctors, professors, and students. Big and small businesses alike use Twitter to announce their company’s latest news and for their customers to easily interact with them. It is an efficient and effective communication tool used to send any kind of information.

There are a variety of reasons why people use Twitter, and as Twitter becomes more and more popular the idea of multimedia ownership becomes a relevant question to address. Is a “tweet” copyrighted? Some feel that because a “tweet” can only be 140 characters long that there can be an exception to it not being copyrighted. If someone likes what your status says should they ask your permission first to use it? Sites like www.longestpoemintheworld.com select anonymous people’s statuses to aggregate a poem that rhymes. Who, if anyone, has given this site permission to select these statuses? This site illustrates various anonymous people’s pieces of work coming together to form a larger collaborative piece of art. My question here is who takes credit for this poem, the website itself, Twitter.com, or each individual person?

Not only are people creating websites and using statuses to form such pieces of work like poems, writers and novelists have actually begun releasing their full novels via “tweets”. On July 14, 2009 Matt Stewart announced he was going to release his entire novel, “The French Revolution”, entirely via tweets. This means 140 characters of his novel at a time. Stewart is certainly not the only writer to start doing this, various other authors have been attempting the same idea. Will releasing a novel via Twitter have the same copyrights as releasing a published novel in stores?

Along with novels being released via Twitter, there was recently a book published and released in bookstores called “Twitter Wit”. It was edited by Nick Douglas, who compiled together the “wittiest” tweets he received. Contributors of this book received no royalties, just a free copy of book. In this case who gets credit for this book? How is it right for the editor and HarperCollins to make a profit off of others’ “tweets”?

With Twitter becoming more widespread on a daily basis there are various questions to start considering regarding multimedia ownership. Although “tweets” are only 140 characters long, they are still a person’s thoughts, ideas, and words and ultimately belong to that person. Through my research project I would like to address the idea of who do these individual “tweets” actually belong to and in the end who will receive credit for what.

I will use the following websites:

Crumb, Michael. "Twitter Opens a Door to Iowa Operating Room - ABC News." ABCNews.com - Breaking news, politics, online news, world news, feature stories, celebrity interviews and more - ABC News. 1 Sep. 2009. 14 Sep. 2009 http://i.abcnews.com/US/wireStory?id=8465346.

Grigar, Dene. "The 24 Hr. Micro-Elit Porject." The 24 Hr. Micro-Elit Porject. 14 Sep. 2009 .

Publetariat. "Interview With Doyce Testerman - Twitter As A New Medium In Authorship, Pt. 3 www.publetariat.com." www.publetariat.com . 14 Sep. 2009 http://www.publetariat.com/write/interview-doyce-testerman-twitter-new-medium-authorship-pt-3.

Stewart, Matt . "Matt Stewart: Why I'm Releasing My Novel on Twitter." Breaking News and Opinion on The Huffington Post. 14 Sep. 2009 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/matt-stewart/why-im-releasing-my-novel_b_231385.html.

Tate, Ryan. "You Wrote My Twitter Book, Now Promote It! - Twitterwit - Gawker." Gawker — Gossip from Manhattan and the Beltway to Hollywood and the Valley. 14 Sep. 2009 http://gawker.com/5345292/you-wrote-my-twitter-book-now-promote-it.

The Longest Poem in the World." The Longest Poem in the World. 14 Sep. 2009 http://www.longestpoemintheworld.com/what-is-this/.

"Twitter." Twitter. 14 Sep. 2009 http://twitter.com/.

"West Virginia University on Twitter Home West Virginia University." West Virginia University on Twitter Home West Virginia University. 14 Sep. 2009 http://twitter.wvu.edu/.

Research Proposal on Twitter

Twitter has become one of the next biggest fads to hit the multimedia world. It’s a free social-networking site where people can read and send messages, much like sending a mass text message, via the http://www.twitter.com/ website or by using applications accessible on cell phones. Twitter’s website claims, it is “without a doubt the best way to share and discover what is happening right now”. Twitter is basically based on the question, “What are you doing now”? In 140 characters or less people are able to answer this question, with a “Tweet”, allowing people that they know or do not know, known as “followers”, to read the answer. This newest craze is around three years old and currently has about six million users. Anyone can use Twitter, from celebrities, professional athletes, journalists, to doctors, professors, and students. Big and small businesses alike use Twitter to announce the company’s latest news and for their customers to easily interact with them. It is an efficient and effective communication tool used to send any kind of information.
Universities are also using Twitter to send out information to their students. Currently WVU has around 25 different groups their students can follow. Examples include WVU NewsFeed which sends messages to students about the latest news going on around the university. For the sports lovers, there are groups like WVU Maniacs, WVU Sports Buzz, Coach Bill Stewart, and Coach LeBlanc, which keep students updated on WVU’s sports teams and how or what the players did during practice or in their games. Twitter is a great way for students to keep up-to-date with information about their university. Some of the groups are even centered around specific classes at the university, for example there is a group called WVU CS 101, for students enrolled in computer-science 101. The professor leaves “tweets” about homework and projects that are due.
Another interesting topic I would like to study about Twitter is how surgeons are incorporating Twitter into their surgeries. The doctors “tweet” about what is going on in the operating room to the patients family members. I read an article about a doctor in Iowa recently making headlines by being one of the first surgeons to tweet in the operating room. This allows families and anyone else to follows a patient’s progress as they are being operated on.
The idea of authorship plays an important role when researching Twitter. Some questions that can be asked include is a “tweet” copyrighted? Some feel that because a “tweet” can only be 140 characters long that there can be exception to it not being copyrighted. If someone likes what your status says should they ask your permission first to use? I read a blog where a guy says he uses Twitter to send messages to his friends updating them about scores of games. He questioned if his tweets about the scores, but what if ESPN.com republished his tweet, would that be violating the law? Another question that comes to my mind is the website Sandy showed us called the http://www.longestpoemintheworld.com/. No one said their statues could be used for another website’s purpose, so is this violating the law? Another site that was given to me was http://web.me.com/dgrigar/24-Hr._Micro-Elit_Project/Home.html, where people submitted stories, in 140 characters or less, to be published into an even bigger story made up of other people’s “tweets”. This demonstrates how multimedia can demonstrate a collaborative way of making art.

References
http://twitter.wvu.edu/- A list of WVU's Twitter groups
http://tweeternet.com/- This site describes all the terminology of Twitter and what is and why people should use it.
http://twitter.com/- this is the twitter homepage
http://www.longestpoemintheworld.com/- this is a good example of how people are using twitter statuses to create something bigger
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/02/17/twitter.surgery/index.html- this is an article that discusses doctors using twitter during surgeries.
http://web.me.com/dgrigar/24-Hr._Micro-Elit_Project/Home.html- this site discusses how this man out together a book using twitter statues.