[staff] My Life on Twitter, Annotated
I am constantly being asked by people either one of two things.
- People not on facebook: "Why do you waste your time on Twitter?"
- People on facebook: "I have no idea what half your updates are about."
In response, perhaps to throw fuel on the fire, I thought I would collect some of my favorite tweets from April and collect them in a bitstrip comic (so everyone can now ask: "Why are you making digital comics..."):
Now, on to some analysis of the "why waste time on this when I am suppose to be working," tweet by tweet:
Sometimes twitter, as a micro blog, is a place I can let off some steam. It is also a way to let my colleagues know that, for example, this might not be the best time to ask me for help while, at the same time, keeping them up to date on an important proposal.
Putting an @ symbol before sometimes name means you are talking about someone already on Twitter. Media Masters is a Global Kids program and I was sending out public appreciation to my two staff who were leading the session I joined. This appreciation would be seen by my staff, the 200 people who follow me on Twitter, the 300 people who follow me on Facebook who receive my Tweets as through Facebook status updates, AND anyone who chooses to follow either staff's names on twitter.
Before an interview with Mimi Ito last month, she commented that she now uses Twitter the way she once read blogs: to keep up to date with the news and ideas that affect her field and areas of interest. By following colleagues, friends, and luminaries I am joining a community who have decided to share information of value to those they know. That quote above came with a link to Henry Jenkin's site so anyone who is interested can click to read the original. I read anywhere from 4-12 things a day that I learn about exclusively from Twitter, things that are important to my work but, in the past, I would never have learned about, and, if I did, not for months.
"rt" means to retweet. Retweeting is taking something someone else wrote and sending it out on your own tweet stream. In this case, it is a tweet from, supposedly, the giant whale at the Museum of Natural History. They are usually quite funny and, occasionally, about whales. I retweeted this one in the same way I might make a joke in class if I get bored. I also want to be seen within my tweet-network as someone who "knows" the cool Twitter feeds to follow.
The hash sign, #, is a way to tag your tweets to associate your tweet with others on the same topic. You can follow associated tweets, for example, by going to search.twitter.com. These are great ways to have a backchannel at conferences. #DML referred to the Digital Media and Learning conference for HASTAC grantees, of which we are one. Two of my staff were preparing to talk at the conference, in person, while I was joining remotely, using Second Life (my avatar up on a screen, plus voice). I posted this to let those at the event using the hash tag as a back channel know that I was about to join them.
Part mini-blog to deal with the embarrassment, part-making a joke in class.
Global Kids is running a conference next month. Many of those who follow me do so for professional reasons and I created this tweet to help create some buzz around it.
As with the above tweet, I want to create buzz around our games-based learning program, the Playing For Keeps Capacity Building Program, by tweeting an update about the latest training we led for the New York City Public Libraries. In addition, I knew more than half of the librarians in the room were on twitter; during the training I followed their tweets - learning who was hungry for lunch, for example - and wanted to share with them my state of mind.
GameLab is a game design company in NYC with whom we closely work. They went out of business. Very sad. Since many who follow me work closely with them as well, yet live outside NYC, I felt an obligation to be their eyes on the ground. After this post I twittered photos from their closing sale. These tweets eventually made it back to GameLab's cofounder, who eventually told me he had heard about and appreciated them.
Intentionally being public about how I manage my work/family responsibilities.
"HUD" = Housing and Urban Development. Two of my staff members spoke at their Dallas plenary with me online through Second Life. I posted for the similar reasons as I posted the one about #DMC.
I posted this for the same reason I posted the quote about Henry Jenkins, yet rather than me quoting something I was reading I was tweeting something I was hearing live, at an event.
This one is simply an opportunity for me to creatively express myself, in 130 letters or less. Digital haiku, as it were.
Comments
you're awesome!!!!
I think you should reference this for all the peeps reading this who don't get Twitter and just don't want to: http://current.com/items/89891774_twouble-with-twitters.htm
The above link goes to a piece on CurrentTV. it's an animated piece on "what is twitter" It is a negative commentary on it, but at the same a brilliant deconstruction.
Enjoy!
Posted by: Dave Malouf | May 5, 2009 10:16 PM