Thoughts on Twitter

I prepared this originally for a gathering of the "The Village", a networking group in Houston. The conversations occurring among the members were far more interesting than these meager thoughts, so I kept my silence that day. Since a few kind souls asked about what I *would* have addressed in the talk that day, I'm posting it here.

"Twitter - How to use it and not alienate the very people you're trying to reach."

Definition

Twitter is defined in Wikipedia as "a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read each others' updates, known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters, displayed on the author's profile page and delivered to other users - known as followers - who have subscribed to them. Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or, by default, allow open access."

Well, fine, but what is Twitter, really? I suspect that if you were able to dig down and get the true meaning of Twitter, it would be just a bit different for each Twitterer.

How can you use Twitter? Twitter is just a tool. Any benefit from it is due to the way it is used - and that is likely different for each Twitterer.

1) Some folks follow only real-life friends, perhaps 2-10 people. With those numbers, it's quite possible to read every tweet that comes by.

2) Some folks follow a few, but by virtue of being celebrities or tech leaders, they may have hundreds of thousands, even millions of followers. (See aplusk (Ashton Kutcher) for one example)

3) Others follow other twitterers with similar interests. Often this starts small, but can quickly grow into hundreds or even thousands as one discovers more folks with similar interest. Obviously reading every tweet every day would leave little time for things like sleep.

This is my mode of using Twitter. I think of the Twitter stream as a river flowing past. Once or twice a day, I'll dip a toe in to see what's happening right then. The conversation may lead me to look at what a few individual Twitterers have said. Time spent: 2-15 minutes.

Now that you have a sense of what Twitter is (in a broad sense, at least), I'd like to give you tips that may make your Twitter experience a bit more enjoyable and productive. These will take the forms of "Do's" and "Don'ts". I think you'll likely be able to tell which is which.

1) Imagine a cocktail party, where you are *not* the host and don't know any of the other guests. Would you arrive and immediately start taking over the conversation?

Of course not. (I hope not, anyway.) And yes, I know that I've just done exactly that here, but in this case, I'm the "host". ;)

More than likely you'd *listen* for a while, to determine the type of crowd and the sorts of conversation that were acceptable in that environment.

Only after learning a bit about the people would you offer anything more than idle chit-chat.

Twitter is like that cocktail party - a really *big* cocktail party.

2) In order to learn a bit about the people who use Twitter, start to follow a few folks to see how they are using it. These may be people you know or complete strangers. A mix of the two is a good way to begin. You'll find that some of the people you follow tweet things of value to you & some (possibly many) don't. Unfollow the ones who don't interest you. Then see who the others are following. It's a good way to discover others who may interest you.

3) There is no one *right* way to use Twitter, but there are *wrong* ways to use it. I know that you marketing folks know this, but sometimes the rest of us need a reminder: "Marketing is *not* advertising!" Try to provide some useful information in what you tweet - and mention whatever it is that you're trying to promote no more than once or twice a day. Twitter spam is no more appreciated than e-mail spam.

4) Unless you want your only follower to be your mother, try to tweet something other than "Driving to work now." and "Going to lunch now." Again, tweeting some useful information, especially if it's interesting to those of similar interests is the best way to get and keep followers.

Finally, many Twitter pundits suggest that Twitter etiquette dictates that you follow everyone who follows you. I think that's a fine way to begin, as you're likely to find some interesting folks that way. After a while, though, you'll find that many of those Twitterers don't share the same interests as you and that their tweets are... boring - at least to you. Periodically, I "unfollow" Twitterers who haven't engaged me (directly or indirectly) recently. So far, I haven't received any nasty comments from any of those folks.

In short, Twitter is an ongoing conversation among a widely (and wildly) diverse group. Just as in "real life", we can participate (or not) to degree that we choose. Choose wisely.

More Second Life® fun & games...

I've spent an interesting time in Second Life® recently. There have been lots of changes - it looks as though we will be losing our campus island due to budget cuts. I've responded by getting a small space of my own to do some development work. I may be able to host a few small meetings there as well. It's my first time to own land on the mainland, so I'm paying tier straight to the Lindens. This will be a new experience. Now I'll need to do some work there to justify the expense.

I played a fantastic new game in-world last week. It took about 2-3 hours over several evenings to get through it. The KAAOS Effect is an adventure exploration game hosted by Orange, the French telecomm outfit with a significant SL presence. MadPea Productions built the game and provided a significant presence on the sim to aid the early players. The concept reminded me of a very simplified MYST filtered through the lens of film noir. It's the most engaging game I've seen in-world. I don't want to let any spoilers slip, but the game proceeds in a series of "scenes", each of which is represented by a room-sized build. Moving from scene to scene triggers a holodeck-type device which removes the old set or scene and replaces it with the next. It would seem that the approach could be used quite effectively for serious games as well.
The Kaaos Effect , Orange Island (63, 22, 29)

This past weekend, I attended several sessions of the "Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education Conference 2009". Saturday provided a couple of eye-opening presentations. First up was a mini-sim (8,000+ sqm) devoted to the exploration of the teachings of some of the most notable psychological and psychiatric theorists, called (naturally enough) "The Theorists Project". Montclair State University professors AJ Kelton and Edina Renfro-Michel worked with undergraduate and graduate students to create an environment that lets visitors experience the ideas and approaches of Adler, Frankl, Freud, Gestault, Jung, Maslow and Rogers, although several areas aren't ready for public viewing yet. Freud's area includes a recreation of his office and allows a visitor to learn about Freud by conversing with a "Freudbot" while lying on Freud's famous couch, of course! The Freudbot utilizes a link to a web-based server hosting "Freud" using AIML - the Artificial Intelligence Markup Language. The depth of the exchanges with "Freud" rather surprised me. From the office, one can explore Freud's id, superego, and ego by ascending through layers of an iceberg. This is truly one of the most impressive uses of a virtual environment to explore some rather abstract concepts that I've encountered.
The Theorists Project, Montclair State CEHSADP (78, 199, 23)

While the Freudbot was impressive (& I'll be exploring that technology more in the future), I was quite impressed with a new tool being developed by Anne Ogborn (Annie Obscure in SL). She's been designing "guided tours" for SL builds, the chief distinguishing feature of which is that the "guideposts" (my term) are not a permanent part of the build. "The Pathways to Knowledge Quest Framework Tool" parts are rezzed only when requested by a visitor. This "impermanence" allows the same build to be used for education purposes (think museum) and for role-playing (think renaissance faire). An added benefit is that when the "guideposts" with their included scripts and accoutrements are put away, they don't impact the performance of the sim, but are available for use as needed. Again, this is something that I haven't seen in a virtual world before. Annie Obscure plans to have the Tool available soon. I suggest that you IM Annie Obscure in SL for more info.

I'll likely post more as I digest everything I saw and heard in-world this weekend.

Now we can change our Virtual Worlds like we change our pants....

... no, not "one leg at a time".

IBM and Linden Labs (of Second Life fame) have succeeded in teleporting avatars from Second Life to a sim on an OpenSim server. (OpenSim is a project adapting the parts of Second Life technology that Linden Labs has released to Open Source.)

ibm-linden-lab-interoperability-announcement

While very cool from a technological point of view, I see this as a significant first step that is useful in the long run only if the avatar and all associated characteristics (clothing, animations, huds, inventory items, as well as ownership & permissions attached to existing items in each world, etc.) are also available for viewing, if not transferred for actual use. As presented in the video, and given LL's commitment to preserving creator's rights in SL, LL will be cautious about allowing indiscriminate transfer of items between environments. If inventory items are transferred, I'd expect there to be limitations governed by permissions settings (copy, modify, transfer).

As presented in the video, the process seems to work only between SL technology environments. The grid-to-grid nature of this implies an expansion of the "SLURL" addressing system, to incorporate not only the SL domain, but others as well.

I've seen references to discussions about interoperability standards between various VW's (from Linden and others). I'd expect that something along those lines would be necessary before true "web-like" access via non-proprietary systems could evolve.

...and the (random) hits just keep on coming...

There have been a few articles to catch my attention this week. I thought I'd add links & follow up later with a brief comment or assessment.

First, I caught wind (gotta love Twitter) of an update to Fleep's Deep Thoughts, a blog by Chris Collins, aka Fleep Tuque in SL and *many* other SocNet venues. This post "Essayish: Traditional Learning Spaces in Virtual Worlds" is still under development, but provides a sense of Fleep's ability to analyze and comment of issues of interest to me and, I think, many who are interested in education virtual worlds.

Next up, an article in Campus Technology, "Idaho State Simulates Emergency Response in Second Life". This ties in quite well, I think with some of the uses we've been discussing in the Houston Serious Games Consortium.

Finally, while I try not to get political, here's an analysis from e-week of the voting patterns of the three presidential candidates regarding issues important to the IT sector. The voting records cited in "Clinton, Obama and McCain Vote For/Against Tech" break along age lines as one might expect.
No real surprises, but interesting nonetheless.

Thoughtful, kindred spirits...

I continue to be amazed by Twitter. It's become as revelatory as an autumn stroll through the woods, every footfall scattering leaves and disturbing the earth, resulting in new-found sights and uncovered treasures.

I'm most astounded at the way Twitter leads me to new resources, new focal points, new loci of inspiration. In these past few days, I've found @melmcbride and @ehrenc. They feed Twitter in the manner most useful for me - occasional remarks or updates which are then elaborated upon in their blogs.

@melmcbride's blog "melanie mcbride online" gets to the good stuff quickly. She hooked me with her post "[steal] My Social Media Policy". I'm not sure that I agree with all of her points here, but she's forthright in stating that this is *her* policy, and may not be everyone's cuppa. I think it's a perfect starting place for anyone new to social media to avoid that helpless "too much information" feeling.

@ehrenc makes a similar case for a personal approach to social media with the post "The Meaning of Life On Twitter". The voice is lighter and a bit more personal, but the essence of the "Meaning of Life" rings true. The blog One Little Cog ranges far and wide - the latest post dealing with sociological considerations in subway car seating choices.

Melanie McBride and Ehren Cheung - keep overturning those rocks and kicking through those leaves - and then posting the results. I appreciate the little nuggets of info and personal viewpoint that you spread.

Guten Tag

I've had a lot on my plate recently, but I wanted to get something posted, even if it's quick and dirty. Through @SamLawrence's Twitter posts (http://twitter.com/SamLawrence), I found TagCrowd (http://tagcrowd.com/), a tool for building tag clouds. It's intriguing, so I thought I'd see what could be gleaned from my previous postings here. This is the result:

access approaches blog classroom com comments consortium directly diversity either exploration faculty general houston http information interaction interest life linguistic metadiversity metanomics metaverses networking non-traditional participation professors programs projects reasons social socnet students support tech technologies term title tools toster traditional twitter used view web week work world www zebra

created at TagCrowd.com

I'm currently reading "Exodus to the Virtual World: How Online Fun Is Changing Reality" by Edward Castronova.

I'm only about halfway through and I know that I'll need some time to digest it, but I'll try to have some thoughts up by the end of the month. For now, let me say that it confirms my sense that virtual worlds will become a large part of the online environment. Castronova seems to think that VWs will have a much greater impact on our real world societal organization. As with the web in 1994, so with VWs now...

Not all Social Networking works for everyone...

After attending the EduCause SWRC08 conference here in Houston last week (btw - great job, folks!), I've been pondering what, why and whether certain popular Web 2.0 and Social Networking technologies are needed, useful, or even appropriate for our campus. The essence of SocNet tech is that it helps the user to overcome either physical or temporal constraints that limit participation in traditional (time and place constrained) social networks.

On many university campuses, these physical or temporal constraints are felt most keenly by those who are part-time and/or older students. These groups usually have full-time jobs, families or other off-campus commitments which can interfere with classroom interaction and (perhaps even more importantly) interaction with professors and fellow students outside the classroom. For such non-traditional students, SocNet tech can make a decided difference in the overall quality of the educational experience and may even help to determine whether the student is successful in the course.

On commuter campuses or at schools which host a reasonable percentage of non-traditional students, the advantages of tools such as blogs, IM's, tweets, virtual worlds, podcasting, etc. are becoming more recognized and accepted. At my institution, however, we have very few non-traditional students, either at the undergraduate or graduate level. Classes tend to be relatively small and the interaction between students and professors, both inside the classroom and out, is quite high. Indeed, class participation is counted heavily in most professors' grading schemes. In an environment such as this, Social Networking technology is merely a solution looking for a problem. In fact, many faculty members view such technology as interfering with communication between faculty and students. In short, we don't need it. That doesn't rule out possible limited use for some or most of these applications, but there is certainly no need to mount a campus-wide effort to integrate these technologies into the everyday lives of either students or faculty.

The approach that I'll need to take in helping to advance SocNet on campus is to look for niches where such technology might be used to enhance and support normal classroom interaction. One way in which we've begun to use some of these techniques is in the use of audio & video pod- or web-casts to provide general IT information, such as e-mail configuration, network storage access and other services offered by IT.

For now, I see my role as that of a (cautious) evangelist, taking every opportunity to discuss these technological options and probing for the right niches where some of these technologies might be able to augment existing programs.