Dharmafly » social networking

Twitter – The Simplest Little Big Complicated Website in the World

Leif Kendall — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 15:05:55 +0000

Twitter: What it is, why you need it, and how you can use it to change your world

What is Twitter?

Twitter is a website that lets visitors write short messages (limited to 140 characters) that answer the perennial question: What are you doing?

Twitter began as a way for employees to communicate within organisations, but gradually expanded as a way for friends, colleagues and contacts to share their news, thoughts and interesting discoveries with each other.

If you want to have a conversation online, you might use email or instant messaging. But if you want other people to ‘overhear’ your conversation, allowing them to join in, then Twitter is the perfect medium.

Twitter is becoming an inspirational source of connections, helping like-minded people unite for social change, good causes and business shenanigans.

Why should you use Twitter?

At first glance, Twitter might appear to be a hyperactive torrent of random thoughts. But it’s much more than that. You can use Twitter to do many things, including:

Let colleagues and clients get to know you as a person
Open communication channels between your organisation and the public
Demonstrate your intelligence/wit/charm/(insert good quality here)
Find new partners, volunteers, members and clients

Why do other people use Twitter?

We asked these questions…

@leifkendall Asking: Why do YOU use Twitter? Why?! #
@premasagar Doing a little research… Tell me, why do YOU use Twitter? #

…which very quickly led to these responses (and more):

@mattlambert Hi Leif – twitter is human moderated search, I get to find stuff I didn’t even know I wanted. Plus, a personal radio #
@helenbaker I use Twitter in the hope of learning something new! I like the trying-to-be-useful Tweets, not the tells-me-nothing ones. #
@TraceyDooley First it was curiosity. Then it was an addiction. Now I intend to build good relations (I hope!) with people AND poss clients #
@ThirdSectorLab I use twitter to learn from all the knowledgable people in the twittersphere and [hopefully] to contribute as well. #
@eggboxrobin Would love to help, but can’t say why I use Twitter in 140 chars! To stay informed, meet new interesting peeps, feel connected.. #
@catherinepope I use Twitter in lieu of real colleagues. The virtual variety is much easier to filter out! #
@theanxy Staying close to people, sharing information easier and faster, discovering new resources from interesting bloggers. #
@cathyma To keep track of the minds of smart people and to share exciting quirks online #
@stevebridger It’s like having better brains on tap, and I work alone, so it helps me feel connected – I call it ‘alone together’
@Robpermeable For tidbits of info, useful urls, and connecting with people in my sector (charity and PR) #
@jellyslastjam Initially to see what the fuss was about, now I’ve been sucked in and can’t help myself. #

As you can see, people have many personal and commercial reasons for using Twitter – but don’t just take our word for it, the web abounds with useful articles on Twitter (such as this excellent one).

One thing’s for sure – now that Twitter has broken into the mainstream, playing its part in citizen journalism, charity fundraising and Barack Obama’s legendary social media success (he’s by far the most followed Twitterer), it’s not going away any time soon.

So, do YOU use Twitter? Why?

Leif Kendall is a freelance copywriter, “micro-storyteller”, proud dad and avid Twitterer.

Twitter Gets Real

Leif Kendall — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 11:29:15 +0000

Twestival unites online friends for charity

Twestival is a global series of local events, happening in over 100 cities worldwide (including London and Brighton), on 12 February 2009.

Twestival bridges the gap between the off- and online worlds. It provides a chance for communities on Twitter (a web service that allows users to share their thoughts with their peers) to meet in person and to raise money for Charity:water, who provide clean water for people in developing countries.

Dharmafly spoke to Amanda Rose, the enterprising organiser who got the Twestival ball rolling, to find out more about Twestival and why Twitter is suited to this kind of crowd-sourced social action.

Rippling messages through the web

As Amanda noted, Twitter allows for a “ripple effect”, letting messages spread and surge through the web. This gives Twestival instant access to willing participants – people who pass on the message and offer to get involved.

Those who are making Twestival happen are ordinary people, choosing to help a good cause after hearing about it through their Twitter network.

Charity:water has been chosen as Twestival’s beneficiary, partly because they are active Twitter users themselves (such as the charity’s founder, Scott Harrison), using it to spread news of their work and to connect with interested parties.

Twitter steps out of the web

Twitter is sometimes characterised as another way for socially-awkward people to avoid human contact (mainly by people who’ve never used it). Twestival is further evidence that Twitterers want their interactions to make a difference beyond the web.

Twestival: a flash-function

So what exactly is a Twestival? It’s a loose idea, varying in nature from city to city. Each Twestival is a rapid-response flash-event, created almost spontaneously by volunteers.

Some Twestivals are taking the form of an “unconference” (a grassroots conference organised by the participants), some are relaxed social gatherings in cafes and pubs, and some will have entertainment and activities. All Twestivals aim to bring together local Twitter communities to benefit a good cause.

Twestival: raising money for Charity:water

At the heart of every Twestival is Charity:water, a non-profit organisation that brings clean, safe drinking water to people in developing nations. 100% of donations go directly to creating sustainable clean water solutions.

The directness of Charity:water’s donation system means that every penny raised by generous Twitterers will help provide clean water to the people who need it most. You can also donate directly on the Twestival page of the Charity:water website.

Twestival in Brighton: @brightwest

Brighton’s Twestival tickets go on sale at 12pm today. If you want to track its progress, follow @twestival and @brightwest on Twitter, and check brighton.twestival.com for more information.

Update: Now sponsoring

Dharmafly is now happily a Twestival sponsor, and we’re giving away some gorgeous raffle prizes.

Leif Kendall is a freelance copywriter, “micro-storyteller”, proud dad and avid Twitterer.

Social Innovation Camp

Premasagar — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 09:39:35 +0000

Social Innovation Camp was a rollercoaster! From the very first evening, when the delegates gathered at the Young Foundation in London, there was a perceptible buzz in the air…

The crowd was a heady mixture of web developers, designers, entrepreneurs and people with all sorts of skills. Although coming from different angles, everyone seemed to have a driven passion for using the web to help solve the problems of society.

The Projects

Six projects had been chosen for the weekend, from over 70 submitted ideas (one of which was my dream for “Social Compost)”:

Barcode Wikipedia – community-driven database of product information
Enabled by Design – product advice and support for disabilities
On The Up – personal development tracking for youth
Rate Your Prison – accountability for prison visiting conditions
Rate My CV – support for marginalised workers
Stuff Share – community network for sharing possessions

Stuff Share

I was working in the Stuff Share team. Our goal was to create a website to facilitate the sharing of possessions – tents, books, power drills, baby gear and all those other bits and pieces we accumulate but hardly ever use – in order to reduce consumerism and increase community. The idea was that pre-existing trusted groups, such as one’s workplace, neighbourhood, hobby group or children’s school, could become a hub for sharing.

We identified a number of hurdles that we’d need to overcome in order to create a successful site – such as how to support trusted relationships between users and how to get people starting to share as easily as possible. The strict time limit dictated that we decide which set of problems to tackle for the first release – and then the build was on…

The Climax

We worked hard until 2pm Sunday, when each group had to give a presentation of their project. A panel of judges then awarded prizes of £2000 and £1000 to help take the most impressive projects forward.

Here is Tom and Seth‘s presentation of the Stuff Share project:

(video permalink)

The Prizes

Alas, Stuff Share wasn’t a prizewinner, but big congratulations to Enabled By Design, who came first, and Rate Your Prison, who were runners-up.

Work is continuing on Stuff Share and is hoped to be launched at stuffshare.com some time in the near future…

Climate Change in Social Media

Premasagar — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 18:28:02 +0000

I am afraid it is no exaggeration to say that what we saw was a hellish scene. [source]

It has been a sobering experience to see reports of the Bangladesh cyclone – and to watch them flow through the Bangladesh River Journey site we built for BBC World Service. The project’s original aim was to expose the very real presence of climate change in Bangladesh – a low-lying land of myriad rivers – and the cyclone’s arrival seemed shockingly symbolic.

While news of the cyclone competed for airtime in the general media, the World Service maintained a stream of often very personal and touching accounts from the Bangladeshi people. Their Flickr photos and Twitter texts acted as informal media channels, adding an extra dimension to the more formal reporting on the World Service website and radio.

Social Media News

This year, the World Service are celebrating 75 years of global media broadcasting. They, and the BBC in general, are about to launch a major website redesign and there is a conscious effort to embrace new media techniques, such as microformats, APIs, social networking and open content.

What is the future for news reporting through social media? Is there greater or less authenticity in such reporting? Share your thoughts below…

BBC Bangladesh River Journey

Premasagar — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 14:00:32 +0000

URL: www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/bangladeshboat

Phew! We’ve been busy these last three weeks! From commission to launch in just 12 working days (and nights), Dharmafly has built a site for the BBC that explores social media and cutting edge Web technologies…

The Bangladesh River Journey is a mashup of posts from a BBC World Service trip to track the effects of climate change in Bangladesh. The trip lasts a month, with photos being posted to Flickr, messages sent to Twitter and journal entries made on the World Service site. The mashup puts all these posts on to a map, letting you navigate around and follow the trip.

The journalists are equipped with a GPS navigation device. Each time they visit a new location, they post their co-ordinates to the Twitter stream (e.g. this post). Our system then logs the coordinates and applies them to every photo, tweet and diary entry until the next location.

In addition to what you see in the browser, there are a number of gems hidden under the hood: microformats, geoRSS and an API. (Non-techie folk may happily skip this and proceed straight to comments :)

Microformats

Microformats are new, developing standards for adding extra meaning to the HTML of a web page. They create all sorts of possibilities for software (from search engines to browsers) to interact with the content in innovative and useful ways.

The HTML for each Twitter, Flickr and diary post in the Bangladesh River Journey is written using the hAtom microformat. This means, for example, that an RSS feed can be generated directly from the HTML on the page.

If you use the Firefox browser, you can explore other microformats on the Bangladesh Boat site, with the excellent Operator extension. You’ll find xFolk bookmarks, geo locations, hCalendar events, hCard contacts, xoxo lists and tagged links:

GeoRSS

The site’s RSS feed allows users to stay up-to-date with new posts, without needing to re-visit the site (we talked about using RSS in a previous post).

The feed is encoded with the geo coordinates of each post (this is called GeoRSS). Some interesting things can then be done with the feed, such as plotting it straight on to Google Maps:

API

Part of the task was to build an API – a way for web developers to access the data in the system, to create their own mashup applications. This will be promoted through BBC Backstage – the BBC’s hub for exploring new media technology. More about this soon…

Update: The Bangladesh River Journey API is now live on BBC Backstage. Inspired by Google’s addition of a Greasemonkey API to Gmail (via), we added an experimental Greasemonkey API to the Bangladesh River Journey site.

Update: We added KML as a data format to the API. This allows you, for example, to view the entire journey of posts in mapping applications like Google Earth.

Dharmafly & the BBC

It has been fantastic working with the BBC crew. Everyone has shown their good-nature and team-spirit… and nothing but excitement for exploring new forms of media in reporting events that matter to the world.

Our own team was:

Me, as technical director and coder of HTML, JavaScript and additional CSS
Annesley, who authored the rock-solid PHP / XSL back-end
Pete, who scripted the water-tight CSS theme
Mikel, who contributed mapping strategy and the out-of-the-box balloons

With thanks to Toby Travis, for JavaScript inspiration.

Update: This Project Won Awards

14th May, 2008

The Bangladesh River Journey was declared a Webby Awards Honoree and won the Sony Radio Multiplatform Award. See our later blog post for more information.