Time to start tweeting, India?
Seems that the social networking site Twitter is generating quite a bit of buzz not just in the tech world, but also in the political sphere.
Ars Technica reports that The Library of Congress (LoC) (research library and cultural arm of the US Congress) has announced an ambitious plan to archive every single public Tweet made since Twitter started in 2006. Apparently, this will serve as a cultural history of our times based on our new habit of tweeting whatever is on our mind.
Would that excite you or not? :) Inquisitive minds want to know.
Incidentally, the same article notes that the LoC has archived a limited section of data of The Web since 2000 and already has 167 TB of web data.
Webmasterworld also has an interesting discussion around a BBC Interview with Evan Williams, co-founder of Twitter. Noting that The White House Press Secretary is also a twitterer, he says that "Twitter will be a fundamental part of how people interact with their government".
Closer to India, that ought to make Shashi Tharoor feel justified! Incidentally, I quite like the guys tweets, which make him a much more real and sympathetic person than your average cardborad cut out, politically correct politician. For a hilarious view on tweeting in India, read this article by Sameer Halarnkar in Hindustan Times
According to PCMag, Twitter is also planning new features including the ability to add specific locations to Tweets. With Twitter acquiring the Tweetie app for IPhone, and the new Blackberry Twitter App, do you (or I) really have an excuse to not be on Twitter any more?
Last year PluGGd.in featured this survey of Twitter Users in India on their website showing that even among a more evolved user base, people are still figuring out what to do with the service.
Among the same evolved TG, it would be safe to say that other networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn are more clearly positioned in their minds and serve more specific purposes.That's exactly my position - what do I have to say that is different from what I say on my blog or on Facebook and what's more, I don't even think most of my friends are on Twitter. No followers, no reason to tweet.
Maybe you (and I!) need to start thinking what we want to twitter/tweet about. Especially if it's all being archived for the future generations. Turning History into Ourstory, anyone?
Ars Technica reports that The Library of Congress (LoC) (research library and cultural arm of the US Congress) has announced an ambitious plan to archive every single public Tweet made since Twitter started in 2006. Apparently, this will serve as a cultural history of our times based on our new habit of tweeting whatever is on our mind.
Would that excite you or not? :) Inquisitive minds want to know.
Incidentally, the same article notes that the LoC has archived a limited section of data of The Web since 2000 and already has 167 TB of web data.
Webmasterworld also has an interesting discussion around a BBC Interview with Evan Williams, co-founder of Twitter. Noting that The White House Press Secretary is also a twitterer, he says that "Twitter will be a fundamental part of how people interact with their government".
Closer to India, that ought to make Shashi Tharoor feel justified! Incidentally, I quite like the guys tweets, which make him a much more real and sympathetic person than your average cardborad cut out, politically correct politician. For a hilarious view on tweeting in India, read this article by Sameer Halarnkar in Hindustan Times
According to PCMag, Twitter is also planning new features including the ability to add specific locations to Tweets. With Twitter acquiring the Tweetie app for IPhone, and the new Blackberry Twitter App, do you (or I) really have an excuse to not be on Twitter any more?
Last year PluGGd.in featured this survey of Twitter Users in India on their website showing that even among a more evolved user base, people are still figuring out what to do with the service.
Among the same evolved TG, it would be safe to say that other networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn are more clearly positioned in their minds and serve more specific purposes.That's exactly my position - what do I have to say that is different from what I say on my blog or on Facebook and what's more, I don't even think most of my friends are on Twitter. No followers, no reason to tweet.
Maybe you (and I!) need to start thinking what we want to twitter/tweet about. Especially if it's all being archived for the future generations. Turning History into Ourstory, anyone?
Twitter serves specific needs through its functionality. its growing user base is a testimony to its effectiveness as a vehicle.why should nisha or anand be careful because their tweets would be archived ? it is a different matter that we ought to be conscious of the trail we leave on the web. twitter is referred to as micro-blogging. there is an audience for sound bites..Twitter can co-exist with Facebook
ReplyDeletewhile i enjoy reading your post i noticed a large number of links in it. although the links may be relevant,these can potentially take away the reader to another page and not bring her back to your post. i advise moderation in the number of links :-)
ReplyDeleteAnand, thanks for reading and commenting. Will take note of your comments on excessive links :) I think I added them rather more enthusiastically than usual in this post!
ReplyDeleteOn the subject of Twitter, I agree that Twitter is hugely popular. My observation was more that in India, it does not seem to have the huge popularity of Facebook, and I wonder why.
with celebrities making controversies through Twitter, this service will attract attention at least in urban india. you could sign up for an account and post links to your blog regularly.also should you have statistics on visitors posted publicly ? doesn't this blog deserve less clutter so that your writing gets more glow ? :-)
ReplyDeleteFascinated to read ur comments on Twitter. May I add something that I heard abt Facebook from a HR professional? He says his company checks out the profile of all the people they shortlist for jobs on Facebook.Someone said to me that at an interview one of the panelists actually called him on his cellphone(on the spot, so to say) and rubbished the rather silly caller tune that was heard!On CBN today, a youthful MP claimed that Twitter was new age communication.(For God's sake, Tharoor is 54!) What price visibility? How 'new' do you have to be to keep up with all those newtons? I am interested too, in the psychology of tweeting and networking, which seems to me to be going overboard, at least judging from the links and invites that clutter my mailbox regularly now. And my head really spins to imagine all the clutter there in cyberspace!
ReplyDeleteAnand, sorry for not replying earlier, was busy over the weekend. To answer your question, I am ashamed to say, I have misplaced those account passwords. As soon as I can remember them, I will disable public stats. You're right, there is no need to display them for sure!
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, thanks for commenting. You are right that prospective employers do try to hunt you down through networking sites so it pays to keep your profiles clean and clutter free. But social networking is a reality of our lives now, and I think we stand to lose more than we gain through not doing it.
ReplyDeleteCertainly agree that there is a lot of clutter in cyberspace with millions of internet users venting several times a day about stuff that's on their minds!