What is Twitter doing today?

I know what we’ve been doing in the last few days, using new tools: Tweetscan -SE for Twitter posts in real-time and Twhirl, desktop client for Twitter that enables you to post from this platform to multiple micro-blogging services: Twitter, Jaiku and Pownce. You might be interested in the following mashups, tools, applications, resources that could facilitate your everyday twittering:

- Quotably, makes conversations easier to follow.

-TwitterLocal, another desktop Adobe Air application that lets you to view tweets in your area (city, state, post.code, range of miles and search)

-Twixxer, enables you sharing photos and videos using Greasemonkey script.

-TweetStats, you can graph your Twitter status by hour, month, timeline. Service is a bit slow, usually three people waiting before getting your stats, and you can get amused with proverbs on patience. ah.

-GroupTweet, the concept reminds on google groups but this is micro twitter community made for sending private messages between you and specific group of your friends.

-12seconds.tv, short (12 sec.) video updates with your Twitter friends, for now in alpha version.

-multitweet.com, web based service – Twitter and Jaiku at one page.

-Twitsig, converts your tweets into images. Didn’t try this one.

Also, check out, via, the definitive list of the top Twitter clients and for Serbian readers there’s pioneering article (in Serbian) on micro blogging and Twitter can be read and seen in April ed.of PC press magazine.

Today I came across an interesting video, showing an irritated kid who was mocked and attacked by his older teen brother and his friends while socializing in his own private online space. The video was recorded by his brother with the intent of being “a documentary of how people can be obsessed by My Space.” In the video, the older teens are provoking the child into hysterical behavior and crying as he tries to defend his personal “my space”. They intentionally laugh at him and ask provoking questions, which makes the child hysterical. Teenage cruelty was expressed by classical passive-aggressive behavior with the goal of making this kid feel guilt, using strong accusations that his “obsession” with My Space is “killing us and our family”. The irritated kid was defending his private physical and virtual space, especially since for him My Space is a part of his everyday life (his friends to hang out with- social life).

Kids, and teens, are more often moving to the online playground during the early phases of their socialization and, using that medium, they build relationships and stay connected to their friends. Almost everyday the media talks about potential predators and bullying on My Space, but now I wonder if the real bullying (sometimes) comes from the family or the ‘closest’ ones (in the real world) , in some particular cases because they were not understood by adult culture.

Is My Space a poor excuse for a social life?

How many times you have been poked by a friend, colleague, and affiliate? And what was your reaction? I had to write few lines on this as I am recently (massively) poked on Facebook. It was regular, surprisingly massively poking (not superpoking), not explicitly poked, but – just regular poke with two choices given: to poke back or remove poke.

Perceiving my Facebok space as my friendly social networking interactive playground receiving willingly or not many requests, superwall posts that ended in ‘shrinked’ version of my FB extended profile, I stopped and wondered in the past few days: “what is happening recently with poking?” I’ve been for long time on Facebook, but never had massive poking notifications daily. Why are my pokers, poking me all the time? Regularly..

Many dictionaries as well as Wikipedia Poke define as gesture of action of tapping and/or softly jabbing another person with the tip of your finger or a pointy object. This is usually done to gain this particular person’s attention, and is commonly used as a form of teasing, joking around with, or annoying another person.

And what is Facebook poke?

Facebook as social network defines poke as social utility that connects you with the people around you.
What is the purpose of this form of interaction with your friends on Facebook with two simple actions? If we exclude implementation of poking in higher education in learning and communicating processes , we can consider other implications. Removing the poke could be interpretted by the friend as ignoring the poke, but poking back simply invites your friend to repeat the cycle.

In social networking terms, poke is contextual, and the context of poke is dependent upon the current level of familiarity between the ‘poker’ and the ‘pokee’. I remember last year I was invited to a group “Enough with poking, let’s just have sex “, and ignored request for the membership as I observed then poking as friendly virtual gesture with friends and colleagues , usually denoting verbal phrase: “Hey , what’s up?” , or “Look at me!”, saying” ”Hi”, to someone you already know well or screaming background form: “Hey, I’m here, online!,” or “Hey, I’m busy but just poked you to say I didn’t forget this and that or will be back soon’, followed usually by message/email. And there are pokes that are expressing more than friendly, primarily school behavior with connotation: “I poke you and now you have to poke me back”.
Poking for fun? “I won’t pull your hair/ponytail – but I’m poking you” – elements of (naïve) and light weighted flirtation. Therefore, poke can be flirting. Poke can be “I am shy but won’t to say hi”.

There are numerous possible meanings and interpretations behind the poke and in social networking technologies context poke can be perceived as: 1. showing the {romantic*} interest for the other, 2. High visibility, Low pressure way of getting attention 3. a lightweight interaction.

An interesting range of it’s meaning but we always have to have in mind the social context and the level of intimacy between two communication nodes.

When I expressed annoyance at today’s massive poking, one of my colleagues wrote in his status bar on Facebook that poking is fun and is not giving up, and I truly believe his perceiving of Facebook poking as light and ‘on the run’ social utility.
I’ve asked my friends what poke mean to them, but they didn’t know to explain… they just poke. While I was writing this text, friend of mine, IT engineer, tried to understand concept of poking. He said that poke is subjective, it can lead to misunderstandings unless all parties agree on what a poke is or all parties accept that they can’t know what a poke is. Maybe.

:smile :

Do you poke, and if so, what would you do instead of poking on Facebook, in a real life?

Until the next issue of PC press mag. is about to be released: an article on microblogging and Twitter  (for dummies, advanced users, researchers), today I just popped to the one from the many (of many) texts on Twitter – this time as a tool in business communication. Via Social Media Today,  Jeff Tippett explains what Twitter means to him in everyday biz. I would add here that beside mentioned two facets of microblogging , creating the (social) network and reading/sending messages (tweets), important factors are users’ interaction and sharing the information. Also, I see Twitter in business communication as SN tool for e- advertising, promoting self, idea(ology), product, info on the Internet (political purpose, education, sports, media, and biz institutions), as well as micro-blogging in real time from important political or economic spotlights. I am wondering will the events from previous week (several elections at the same time, different geo-spots, as well as the sports events) now Super Monday, Tuesday to Super-Friday, will occupy Twitterversum and outlive good old blogging form? Do you rather blog or twit?

I am in the airplane and got stuck, still on the land, as the captain announces that ‘we have some software problem’. Passengers got a bit upset and some geek made a comment: “Yeah, they’re probably using OS $MS”. I laugh and start to tweet sending text message via mobile phone on this situation in the plane, from my seat. Got instant feedback tweets and DM (direct messages) from my Twitter friends (followers) who got worried :”Oh, are you ok? Are you safe? What’s going on with the software? Pls let us know when you land..” etc. One of the primer of micro-blogging phenomena, Twitter,  is useful communication tool, that enables you to have interaction with your friends and share the information in the form of short 140 chars. updates,  in a word:  ’on the run’, “always with you” social networking service. I’ve already talked/wrote about it before, and with hidden guilty become twittaddict (Twitterers will understand this passion) placing behind regular blog posts.  Twitterizing and twittaddict are (my) new lingo terms I invented as being the part of everyday twittering.One of the example how Twitter can be great/useful tool when you’re on the road, travelling, and beyond, is my Twitter friend - RoadHacker, IT specialist, massive twitterer who I met and noticed that he was ‘life casting’ from all over the USA doing his IT work and micro-blogging by creating and using video: v-tweets.  I got inspired by recent research (to be published) on Twitter, and got an idea to create para-twittering e-view, so I’ve asked him few interesting questions on Twitter in Twitter timeline and here’s the outcome.  Listen, watch and Enjoy!   [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfnpzeKoLuA] 

The Library of Congress began last year first collaboration with Flickr and now has launched its pilot project called The Commons. Yesterday they announced a partnership that will put photos from the LoC’s collection online in a social environment and users to interact with them. LoC started organizing historical photograph collections through Flickr offering 3000 photos (so far): two sets of digitized photos from the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information and photos from the George Grantham Bain News Service. “The key goals of this pilot project are to firstly give you a taste of the hidden treasures in the huge Library of Congress collection, and secondly to how your input of a tag or two can make the collection even richer.” By tagging or commenting.  From official web site Library of Congress you can find more information about this project, as well as on the blog of LoC.

Also interesting additional information on new tagging initiative – The Commons  says that these photographs from the Library “represent materials for which the Library is not the intellectual property owner. Flickr is working with the Library of Congress to provide an appropriate statement for these materials. It’s called “no known copyright restrictions.”

Thanks to SmartMobs here’s from the last night 12 min. video of CBS correspondent getting insiders information on Facebook and related issues directly from Mark Zuckerberg.

Btw, I really slept on the on a mattress on the floor. For months. How about you?