Tuesday, 9 June 2009
Has Twitter lost its hype with only a minority of big users?
According to a Harvard study of 300,000 users, reported by the BBC (among others) today, just 10% of Twitter users generate more than 90% of the content.
I can believe it - we all know that some people tweet not only several times a day but several times an hour. It's in the nature of statistics that such prolific people will skew the data. Of course, those people are not necessarily those who post the most useful information.
We train people how to use Twitter and we're not under any illusions - for some people it will turn out to be useful, it will work for them and suit their way of working. For others it's an interesting experiment that doesn't persist, but they have to try it to find out - and that's probably why Nielsen, who also surveyed people on Twitter, found that more than 60% of (in thier case US) Twitter users fail to return the following month. The Harvard team found that more than half of all people using Twitter update their page less than once every 74 days.The most ridiculous bit of statistics bashing was to say that "most people only ever "tweet" once during their lifetime" - erm - that's clearly an average and I suspect there are very few who tweet once and never again!
The researchers at Harvard also stated that "Twitter resembles more of a one-way, one-to-many publishing service more than a two-way, peer-to-peer communication network," but that's something I very much disagree with. I've had several mutliway conversations, and many more people who read the conversations but don't necessarily get involved. It is ostensible a one to one or one- to-many commmunication channel, but those of us who use it often have turned it into something more.
Of course, whether that usage can continue is another matter. There are many reasons why Twitter may not last as a really useful tool, not least the recent unsavoury rash of porn-touting followers. Once again a reason NEVER to auto-follow the people who follow you!Labels: research, social networking, twitter
posted by Helen Whitehead 9:51 AM
Tuesday, 23 December 2008
Technobabble
Today I had a discussion on Twitter about geek dreams, after I dreamed in Twitter messages (sad, isn't it?) and others admitted to also twittering, as well as dreaming in HTML and CSS. I remember when I was learning Photoshop that I used to see web-safe colour codes on car number plates...
Meanwhile, there has been a Call for eLearning Papers on the European Year of Creativity and Innovation 2009 tinyurl.com/5dfm22 Deadline 12 Jan 09. Sounds like my kind of year!
Labels: creativity, elearning, elearningeuropa.info, Innovation, twitter
posted by Helen Whitehead 11:14 AM
Wednesday, 24 September 2008
Twitter tweets from Helen (helenrf)
Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
- 11:22 Installed another blog! I am a blog addict. #
- 18:05 I've written two community engagement plans today. Good jobs done I trust! #
- 08:49 @nrparmar hope the moodling goes well! #
- 08:52 What are your favourite gadgets? tinyurl.com/3tg9d3 #
- 11:04 Trying out a possible way to post tweets to my blog (not as a separate widget) www.loudtwitter.com #
Labels: academic blogs, twitter
posted by Helen Whitehead 11:11 AM
Tuesday, 5 August 2008
Why I succumbed to Twitter....
I avoided it for a long time – who needs another obsession? – but after the NLab Social Networks Conference, I decided I had to have a part of this, and yes it’s become a regular practice. I follow and am followed by various other people interested in social networks and online communities and I’m already seeing some interesting insights, being pointed to useful resources elsewhere on the Web and being caught up in new discussions both on Twitter and elsewhere (e.g., on blogs and mailing lists.
After comments by Andy Roberts and others on emint, here are some suggested rules for effective use of Twitter:I can see a lot of positive uses for Twitter over and above the simple “What are you doing now application”.
- Only follow people you find interesting.
- Use the Twitter search to find people (not the “invite people” – I find that’s a red herring and not the way to find people!)
- Ask questions or throw out any problems you’re grappling with. Use it like a “garden fence” for the eliterati.
- Use additional services like following a news or sports feed - you can then get that feed to your mobile via Twitter.
- Beware of getting a large feed sent to your mobile – the thing will keep you awake!
- Distributed problem solving
- Finding out a bit more about your contacts and facilitating closer relationships
- Keeping attendees at a conference informed before and after
- A quick way to keep members of a community or network in touch
- Alerts to web content (using short URLs)
- Learning prompts and alerts for learners on a course.
Labels: blogging, internet policy, moblogging, twitter, Web 2.0, web applications
posted by Helen Whitehead 10:44 AM
