Microblogging has emerged as a new form of communication which draws together both the Internet and mobile device users. Subscribers describe their current ‘status’ in short posts limited in length to 140 characters, the length of a mobile phone text message.
Although far from being the only such program, Twitter has emerged clearly as the dominant micro-blogging platform. Reports estimate between 3 and 5 million users of the service as of December 2008 (1), a figure which will already be considerably higher.
What do twitter users get?
- Chatter: the original idea – what are you doing now?
- Conversation - limited by the lack of threading. Direct messaging is possible but only between following followees.
- Sharing of information, mostly URLs, but to blogs and other media as well as music.
- Reporting and sharing of news.
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Twitter in Plain English from leelefever on Vimeo. |
This video reduces twitter to its micro-blogging definition, while its uses are actually much broader and user-determined. (3) |
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Not everyone takes to Twitter, in fact, many people just don't see any point. This skeptical view of Twitter comes from John Stewart on Comedy Central's Daily Show. (4) |
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