Establishing personal learning networks with Twitter - Assessment post 3

Establishing personal learning networks with Twitter - June 2 & 3 - Assessment post 3

Whilst I committed to Facebook immediately, it took two months before I systematically explored Twitter for personal learning. After 71 tweets I have 26 followers, growing daily without encouragement. My response to Twitter as an information professional, ‘Twitter up!’, is in Slideshare’s public domain, embedded in the blog Sunday June 6. Although I did not Tweet its presence, it attracted 28 views after one hour (blog June 2); clearly demonstrating the reach of social media, good tagging, a paucity of other resources, or viewers’ acute Sunday afternoon boredom. Having scanned tweet content for several days, I support the Library of Congress’ archiving initiative. Twitter is an unrivalled but serendipitous sociological resource where commentary is largely peer group controlled. Tweets are learned, helpful, informative, inconsequential blog post April 12), rude and discriminatory.

Twitter is distracting (blog March 11) but very useful (Sharma & Dale, 2010; blog June 3) and reaches a very wide audience (PewResearch, 2010). The 140 character limit is both a weakness and a strength, grabbing disjointed, often random information bites, but conveying them effectively in real time. It is an excellent awareness tool and backchannel for conferences and education (blog March 8). The ‘audience’ can engage and collaborate with the presenter via synchronous comment. ‘Unconferences’ are increasing, sessions directed by multilayer discussion.

Twitter has a place in information organisations for promotion of products and services as well as supporting staff development. Management of Twitter and discovered links is key to effective information use. (Carscaddon, L. & Harris, C., 2010). Without limiting subjects, defining who to follow, identifying appropriate lists (Techie-Bytes, 2010) and archiving links carefully, Twitter remains an unengaging invitation to data overload, or at best, the basis for an increasing number of innovative mashups (DuVander, 2010; blog, April 14, 21).

Public demand for mapping tweet context, relationship and linkage, reveals early awareness of 3.0. Twitter, more so than other social media, demonstrates the simplicity and complexity of semantic web thinking.

References

400 Twitter Mashups. Programmableweb, June 3, 2010. http://blog.programmableweb.com/2010/06/03/400-twitter-mashups/

Carscaddon, L. & Harris, C. (2009). Working the social:Twitter and Friendfeed.: Let these social networking services do the filtering for you. Library Journal, June, 15, 2009. http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6663770.html

DuVander, A. (2010). Twitter mash-up growth: 2009 was big, now what. Programmableweb, April 14, 2010.http://blog.programmableweb.com/2010/04/14/twitter-mashup-growth-2009-was-big-now-what/

Pew research. (2010). New media, old media: how blogs and social media agendas differ from traditional press. PewResearchCenterPublications, May 23, 2010. http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1602/new-media-review-differences-from-traditional-press

Sharma, Y., & Dale, J. (2010). Flash Forward. TESconnect blog, April 9, 2010. http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6040748

Techie-Bytes. (2010). Still trying to figure out who to follow on Twitter? May 12, 2010. http://techie-bytes.blogspot.com/2010/05/still-trying-to-figure-out-who-to.html