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.
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Hi Ashley! I think you did a great job of describing what Twitter is and who uses it and how they use it. I literally just got on Facebook and had no idea what Twitter even was until this past summer. I guess you can call me computer illiterate. Some of the concerns I have about Twitter and one in particular is the statement you made about the CS 101 class that posts homework and announcements on Twitter. I personally doubt I will join Twitter anytime soon and would I have to join if one of my professors thought it was a great way to keep in touch with students. Do you think there is a line to draw where using Twitter might be a little premature in some areas like Universities and not the best way to communicate with students? I do think that Universities using Twitter to alert students of the events going around campus or staying on top of sports etc. is great and innovative, but maybe not quite ready for the classroom. On the other hand, I think the fact that a surgeon is alerting a family of the progress of their loved one is great. I think in certain circumstances Twitter is a great new way to communicate. I am asking these questions out of curiosity and also because I am very ignorant to Twitter, but your proposal was very well written and thought out and provided a lot of information to an outside source like myself.
ReplyDeleteI am not a member of Twitter, so the idea of a doctor tweeting about a surgery was bothersome to me. Does the surgeon first have to receive permission from the patient? Is this violating some kind of privacy policy? And what happens if something goes wrong? Also, since Twitter is open to the public, it is strange that someone would follow a stranger's invasive procedure. Like I said, I don't use Twitter, but my questions might bring up something interesting for you to incorporate into your project.
ReplyDeleteTwitter is an awesome subject for this project. It seems all of the sudden, it is EVERYWHERE. every tv show i watch, "follow us on twitter" or store even restaurants. People today feel the need to always tell people what they are doing and where they will be. Looking back to instant messenger when even if you weren't going to be home all day, an away message was put up giving details to where you would be, who you would be with, and how they could reach you. Myspace soon took over followed by the infamous Facebook! Twitter is a simpler spin on facebook, where you can still post pictures, talk to friends, and tell them where you will be. I think it might be interesting to research why people today feel the need to be so dependent on these social networks, why they are addicting, and why it seems no one can live without it!
ReplyDeletei have a Twitter account, and i love it! most of the time i just feel like a creep because i am perusing through peoples Tweets looking at what they are doing and how they are feeling. it is like people watching in the mall or the park! Except this way the people you are watching are the Twitter profiles you view and the park or mall you are in is the Twitter domain on the internet. i do, however, find it a bit strange that my tweets could possibly end up on websites like the longest poem or that mashable haiku maker.
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