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Twitter

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Saved by Brian Croxall
on October 27, 2008 at 10:40:16 pm
 

Twitter

 

Now that we’ve spent some time discussing media systems that are partially connected and incomplete, we’re going to start experimenting one that is radically connective: Twitter. Twitter is essentially a blogging platform. Its basic prompt is the question, “What are you doing?” People all around the world are constantly posting what they’re doing on Twitter. There’s something but with a peculiar feature: you’re only allowed to post entries that are 140 characters long.

 

Why this particular length? Well, Twitter was designed to work through cell phone text messaging. Explain also that you follow people and that they follow you. Updates come to your phone (or online) instantly. You get real time updates from your peers and others you are interested in knowing what they are doing. Everybody’s page has an RSS feed.

 

Here’s what you need to do.

  1. Go to http://twitter.com
  2. Register for an account.
  3. As part of the registration process, you will be given the option to see if you have any friends already using Twitter. You can put in your email address and password from Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo!, MSN, Hotmail, and AOL, and Twitter will search your address book and compare it against their records to see who else you know is already online. Note: Although I believe this is safe to do, you should assess your own feelings concerning putting in your password here. You may skip this step.
  4. And then you can immediately start posting what you’re doing from online.
  5. However, you will also want to link Twitter to your phone (http://twitter.com/devices).  You’ll need to enter in your phone number starting with “+1.” Thus, if your cell phone number is 404-727-4264, you would enter “+14047274262” into the box.
  6. Once you’ve done this, you will receive a code on the screen. The code will be a series of letters. To complete your activation of your phone, you will need to send that code to the number 40404.
  7. Once you’ve activated your phone you will be able to not only post to Twitter from your phone, but also get updates from the people that you are following on your phone.

 

It is important to note: Text messaging fees will apply to posting to or receiving updates from Twitter on your phone. I don’t want anyone going to any great expense for this assignment. If you don’t have unlimited text messaging, I’ll expect you to still use Twitter from your phone for 3 days. You do not need to follow everyone in the class, but you should follow 5-10 people for this time. After that, you can feel free to use only the web version—just write me a note.

 

Who should you follow?

On any individual’s page, you can choose to follow that person (twitter.com/briancroxall). The option is right beneath his or her picture/image. Click on that button. You can then choose if you want to receive device updates from that individual.

  1. Follow me: briancroxall
  2. Follow our class’s feed: 389mediatheory
  3. Follow everyone else in the class (figure out who they all are based on who is following 389mediatheory).
  4. Optional (the others are required): And find some other interesting people to follow: barackobama, marshallmcluhan, hotdogsladies (Web humorist and blogger, Merlin Mann). You can also follow different services to get updates from them, like CNN or PMOG.

 

Other interesting ways to use Twitter.

  1. There are a number of desktop applications. A popular one for Mac OS X is Twitterific. Twitterific is also available as a free application for iPhone or iPod Touch. Another good desktop application (and the one that I use as it is cross-platform) is Twhirl. Installing Twhirl will require you to also install Adobe's AIR platform. It's lightweight and free.
  2. You can sync your Twitter updates to your Facebook status and vice versa. Just install the Twitter application on Facebook.

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