Twitter : Hiding [ Behind ]
Oct 21st, 2007 by alexanderhayes
[ image : mobology ]
I’m astounded to hear that people are now considering using Twitter as a campaign machine for events and no doubt that will dribble down to projects and then before we know it we will have core business being performed in disjointed conversations…..and it will be inane !
This is my opinion and if you of another one then I welcome your input and resultant debate.
Twitter has been designed to bring PEOPLE together and what I’m watching unfold is the same mal-practice of online conversations , flooding the web with dead wicki’s was bad enough but dead Tweets ! ?
Answer these and assure me that you have taken these points into consideration;
1. Who will continue to keep engaging with your Twitter conference / workshop / meeting space when you’ve moved on and the event has died in the butt ?
2. As a collective Tweet deliverer who on earth do you think you’ll be engaging with meaningfully ? In time ? Days, months and years down the track ?
3. As a digital identity do you think thatyour in any way believed when after months have past someone occasionally says something on behalf of a group or network which has no funding and is long gone ?
In my estimations it’s an unsustainable practice.
More hiding behind project names and not saying it from your own online identity.
It provides others who are marketing concepts yet another opportunity to bully down connectivity.
Say it - dont spray it.
If I see an Elearning07 twitter account with a collective shared common password being bandied around I’ll be one unhappy chappy.
ps. an anonymouse poster has posed that misuse of these platforms for core organizational information dissemination constitutes a breach in policy - this is the site that they visited to substantiate such an idea - http://tiwitter.com
I’d welcome anyone who has any idea how to keep a micro-blog manageable and sustainable never mind blend feeding micro’s into macro’s for the sake of it. Does anyone have any examples of sustainable Twitter or any other micro-blogging environment that has lastet more than six months.
The idea is good but the realities are another real and pressing issue.
Comment from:
http://twitter.com/jtneill/statuses/351543912
“read it - glass half empty or full? personally, i’m looking more at what micro-blogging can do…”
PS It was much easier to reply on Twitter than on this blog. So, whilst a blog may suit you, you’re probably more likely to get conversation going via micro-blogging. On the other hand, bloggers who follow one another probably have ‘bigger’ conversations at least their lunchboxes.
PS2 - On TALO, please do “Say it - dont spray it.”
There are two things that I see a thing like Twitter being useful for. Announcing a live event like a SL or other type of web conference that is about to start, or for forming IM groups around topics and adding the groups chat box to a wiki in say, wikieducator so that self paced learners can conceivably access 24hr help from any number of people that might be tuned into that group IM at that moment. But, as far as I know, it is hard to create topic specific groups in Twitter.
Other than that I have not been able to recognise other uses. I might be using it incorrectly and I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case, as clearly there are a lot of people getting a lot of enjoyment out of it, but I have noticed myself tuning out of the Twitter chat that pours in. So much of it is trivial little comments (from friends mind you - so trivial is a bit harsh) but when I’m up to my eyeballs everyday with work stuff, the last thing I enjoy is constant IM ping that wasn’t worth reading.
JN - point noted.
LB - you have an interesting notion for the architecture of participation. i agree the last thing we need is to consider triviality as spam.
I’ve set up three separate Twitter identities - my personal tweets, Qld VET practitioners, and my students.
Initially, I want to separate my student community from my mainstream comments, and focus my VET community on their existing network. Once they get the Twitter bug, then they can follow who they like - after building a corps that will lead.
Will any or all of these identities be sustainable? My roles will change, and others take my place.
Choose to follow, or not to follow. Choose notifications on, or off. I believe that the Twitter community is flexible enough to survive my inanity.