I’ll follow who I like on Twitter, thanks!

May 13th, 2009

Our guest academic, Lorraine Warren follows up a post earlier this week on her Twitter journey. This is Dr Warren’s fourth post for us and we hope the conversation continues! Dr Warren is Director of Postgraduate Education and senior lecturer in Entrepreneurship and Innovation in the School of Management at the University of Southampton.

In an  earlier post I commented that a really important feature of Twitter for me is that I can see debates and conflicts taking place that show different points of view evolving in the field.

Of course, a series of exchanges in 140 characters and a cluster of links are unlikely to give the full picture – these are fast-moving, conversational interchanges that indicate where tensions lie, rather than fully-fledged rational arguments.  Yet for me, this is invaluable in sensing what’s going on, what issues are important to people and where the next questions that shape my research might lie.

Inevitably, sometimes useful interchanges arising from different, but quite legitimate, points of view degenerate into personal feuds and name-calling, but that’s part of life generally, and like at a conference, or party, you can either walk away, join in, or maybe say ‘hey, folks….’ if it starts to get too nasty!

I saw an instance of this last month in my Twitterstream.  As I only followed one of the parties involved, I didn’t really understand what was going on at first, but I could see that a technology correspondent, @YYY, from one of the mainstream UK papers had posted something on his blog about a writer, @ZZZ that others found offensive.

This didn’t surprise me, as I have seen @YYY post some controversial stuff in the past, perhaps reflecting more right-wing views than my other connections are comfortable with.  By the time I looked, the post seemed to have been taken down, so I was on the point of forgetting about it, when I received a Direct Message (DM) in my email from a third party, @XXX who appears very popular and well-respected in the social media space: “why do you follow @YYY..? this is a slanderous pop at @ZZZ”.

A link to a jpg file of the now-vanished blog was included, that turned out to be a short piece of childish name-calling, referring to an ongoing dialogue indicating bad blood between the two.  Looking at the Twitter interchange between @YYY and @ZZZ, it seemed like they were both standing up for themselves quite well without any help needed from me.  So, I responded by DM to @XXX that overall, it was important for me to see a mix of views, and in this case, perhaps the hue and cry that had gone on had contributed to the piece being withdrawn, surely a good thing. 

That was on April 27, and I haven’t heard from @XXX again, although I have had quite a few pleasant interchanges with him in the past both in the Twitterstream and by DM.

@XXX’s intervention raised some interesting issues about the norms and values set within and by the Twitter community.  Did the message mean that I should explain myself for following @YYY, perhaps engage with the debate publicly (though it was nothing to do with me, and was by then, it seemed, over) or stop following @YYY?

Further, how I had been identified so quickly as a follower of @YYY, as I’d never interacted with him on Twitter except as a follower.  Why was I being singled out? Why was @XXX taking on this role?  It would be silly to over-interpret one DM, and I decided to let sleeping dogs lie.

Following doesn’t mean complicity or agreement, and if a tweet bothers me, I’ll deal with the author direct.  It’s hard to see how Twitter will grow, and whether antagonistic factions and clusters will emerge.  I hope not!

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Who should I follow on Twitter?

May 11th, 2009

 

A welcome return for our guest academic, Lorraine Warren. This Dr Warren’s third post and we look forward to more! Dr Warren is Director of Postgraduate Education and senior lecturer in Entrepreneurship and Innovation in the School of Management at the University of Southampton.

 

 

As a Twitter enthusiast, people often ask me how I got going, how did I ‘know’ who to follow, to make it worthwhile spending time in this space.  Of course, they hope to repeat my strategies, to make Twitter as valuable to them, as it has become to me.  In some ways it’s a difficult question to answer.

If I look at what I actually did, it was an unplanned, serendipitous acquisition of around 350 people through a variety of processes and techniques, mainly follow-backs, recommendations from colleagues at work, and some simple detective work around who the people I liked were following.

 Sometimes the real and virtual worlds crossed over, as there is a social side to Twitter too.  I met (and now follow) the Liberate Media guys through Twestival, a Twitter-generated meet-up that took place in Brighton, one of many spin-off social gatherings.  

Interestingly, I’ve never used the Search facility in Twitter to look for people, as keyword search seems a little bit mechanical to me.

Looking back though, there are some themes that have guided my selections.  As an academic with research interests in innovation, particularly in the digital/creative industries, I need to be able to look ahead at what thought leaders and key influencers in this fast-changing and dynamic field are doing.

I use Twitter to check out the periphery, to see what people in the industry are working on, which way the wind is blowing and what current debates are setting the agenda.  Obviously, I follow practitioners and consultants in the industry (both creative industries and systems developers), mainly in the UK, but in Europe and the US too.

I also follow journalists, especially technical correspondents in quality newspapers, some Silicon Valley pundits, and a smattering of MPs.  A key aspect is that I also follow people who disagree with me (and each other) – for me this is about the debates, tensions and conflicts that drive change, challenging my views, sometimes reinforcing them, and sometimes changing them too.

Twitter really has added value for me, and I cannot think of any other way in which I could keep current so effectively.  And I guess I must add value for others in return, as I have a high proportion of mutual relationships.  Of course, I also follow fellow academics working in the social media space, and as a result of initial Twitter contacts, am currently working on two conference papers and a book chapter with a cluster of people at Birmingham City and Huddersfield universities whom I’ve never even met.

For me this organic process has been really enjoyable, I like the uncertainty of never knowing what or who might beam in next, and I can see that with some slightly different decisions, my trajectory could well have been quite different.

I am aware though that some people find this uncertainty a bit of a challenge in the early stages, and in some cases leave early without having found anything interesting or that adds value, as they are unable to find what they want.

I expect as Twitter matures, it may well become more and more structured as groups form, and also better understood, with a variety of applications generating information about the user base.

Certainly, that will make entry less daunting, and more accessible and inclusive; but it would be a shame if the spontaneous connections that make Twitter so exciting became less significant.  For me, that was the fun part!

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G20 protest coverage? I’ll stick to Twitter

April 2nd, 2009

It can’t have escaped anyone’s notice that the G20 summit is on in London currently, and the protests that accompany this event have taken centre stage with the majority of mainstream media. Well I say protests, depending on what you are watching/reading/listening to, the protests could be riots and the unrest is either down to a small minority of anarchists or thousands.

Although the issue is a serious one, the coverage of the protests has been disappointing in my opinion, as some of the media outlets again look directly towards the sensational angle. For example, there was a well-documented attack on a branch of The Royal Bank of Scotland in the midst of the protest yesterday (Wednesday). The reports of this attack seemed to vary greatly in terms of the amount of people involved, the timescale before Police interjected and amount of damage. There is no doubt that the damage caused was extensive, but from the news footage that I viewed, the initial damage was caused by 1-2 protesters surrounded by upto 40 photographers. There is no question that others followed suit, between 20-40 depending on the source, for between 15 minutes to an hour, before police removed them.

So, what’s the truth? It’s hard to say. The one irrefutable fact that came out of the coverage is that one protester unfortunately died, although how this happened is unclear. What is clear is that most nationals led with this ‘protester dies’ headline, with many now saying he died from a heart attack and had been returning from work locally when he became involved in the protest.

The criticism of protesters or Police tactics also vary depending on your source of information, but the one constant reliable source of information in my opinion was, and remains, Twitter or at least my personal network on Twitter.

Let me make it clear that obviously there are individuals, and media, on Twitter, including many traditional news sources, that have their own agenda when reporting on the protests. But i’m not referring to these sources.

What I am referring to is my personal network of people that I choose to follow. These are individuals that I trust and in my opinion stand little to gain from sensationalism. In fact I heard about many of the key points of yesterday’s, and today’s, news stories much earlier in the day on Twitter and without fail they have been proved accurate in terms of facts, and it’s the facts that I personally want reported upfront and uncluttered. Again, this is where Twitter triumphs as you have to get your point across in 140 characters.

Beyond the facts, I also got a feeling for what the mood was like on the ground, and also heard a few light-hearted anecdotes about the day’s events from all sides, which helped to put the major points into perspective.

So, what’s my point? Fundamentally, what I’m trying to say is that my reliable news source, which in years gone by was the news on TV, or radio, or newspaper reports, then the online versions of these outlets, has now moved to Twitter.

Why? Well, it’s more relevant to me, it’s immediate and offers a gateway to a whole host of additional news sources as my network links to reports that they find interesting.

And just to prove the point, I’ve also been getting up to the minute quotes from President Obama’s speech at the G20 summit this evening via my network.

I’m not saying Twitter should replace the traditional so called ‘trusted news sources’, as Twitter offers the freedom to report anything according to personal agenda with no visible consequence. (See my colleague Wendy’s recent post on this issue). But I trust my personal network and if they are on the ground receiving direct information I will continue to take their updates inline with other news sources.  After all, this is now my chosen source of news, and just as a person’s choice of mainstream media outlet reflects certain characteristics about their political preference or the manner in which they like to digest information, my choice of Twitter probably tells you what you need to know about my belief in the power of networks and reliability of communities.

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Streaming new games cultures to the TV, desktop and laptop

March 31st, 2009

I might have got this wrong – but I reckon we’re in the middle of a games revolution. This is not just a step change - if the technology just announced in the US works, then the way we connect and play has been turned upside down.

The streaming system announced by Onlive promises to deliver high-end games to a new community of people, previously disenfranchised through lack of access to top of the range computers.

The system’s developers say that it delivers near lag-free gameplay to low spec PCs and Macs – and with an added piece of kit also to your TV. All you need is a fast broadband pipe delivering 1.5 megabits per second (or 5 mb p/s for high definition).

PC and Mac owners using most “entry-level” computers will be able to play with a mouse and keyboard using a plug-in for their browser.

Top publishers such as THQ, Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, Take-Two Interactive Software and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment have signed up to develop for the service and there are 16 current PC and console games tested and ready.

The service brings “cloud computing” to games with remote servers doing the heavy work to take the strain off players who can connect with their low-spec computers. OnLive has invested in data centres that can stream the game play with just a millisecond of lag.

The service launches this winter with a US only private beta in the summer. Pricing is under wraps but that, along with the quality of service delivery and new titles, will be crucial in deciding the success of the venture after seven years in development.

The browser plug-in element fascinates me, because it chimes with the extraordinary growth of the casual browser-based games market. Spil Games recently announced that it has become the largest casual game portal network worldwide.

The comScore Media Metrix assessment shows that the company’s worldwide traffic grew 75% in 2008 which pushed its casual game portal network worldwide ranking up from number 5 to top spot. Spil also reported a 269% increase in traffic in the United States as well as a global revenue growth of 125% in 2008.

For the record, one of our clients, Kerb, has a business relationship with Spil – but that’s coincidental as the stats from Spil cry out to be broadcast. The casual games sector is something that Kerb MD Jim McNiven is also passionate about - but that’s a story for the near future.

We are seeing a series of earthquakes in the games industry, the like of which I cannot remember before. Markets and movers are being reshaped as we watch – and the ways in which new tribes of players will form and spawn new cultural identities should be a delight. New forms of expression, language and collaboration will come from these fresh groupings of lively minds.

I can’t wait to see the way the big players respond and the explosion of creativity that will come with this seismic change – and to join in the fun as business models mesh with cultural imperatives. There will be a lot for us to learn.

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Upwardly mobile - the youth of a social media age

March 10th, 2009

The innovative spirit is bright and light over at Futurelab, which has just gently announced that an exceptional mobile education tool, ShoutBox, has been nominated for a top regional media innovation award.

I really like the idea of ShoutBox, a joint effort between Futurelab and Mobile Pie. It’s a cross-platform tool that young people can use to recognise, capture and showcase their informal out-of-school learning experiences. Young people generate and collate different forms of content using their mobile phone and then share this online, tagging their learning as sports, work, art, music and so on.

I mention this in the context of several pieces of youth and mobile-oriented news this week, topped by the merger of social network Piczo and fashion virtual world Stardoll. Here is the power of social media writ large and underlines again that the network revolution is only just beginning.

The merger will give young people – the tweens and teens – resources to build their own sites and engage with buddies as well as create and develop virtual fashion lines. Brands that connect successfully in these spaces will be building relationships with more than 20 million young people a month. There’s power.

Both entities are working to build out their mobile offering, surely the next logical step as network speed and browser improvements (see the new Bolt) deliver the anywhere, anytime web.

The news comes as Coventry University researchers show the positive side of mobile youth – a welcome contrast to recent moral panics around the way young people play and learn. The researchers studied 88 children aged between 10 and 12 to understand the impact of text messaging on their language skills.

Their study indicates that text speak, rather than harming literacy, could have a positive effect on the way children interact with language. “Textisms” could be having a positive impact on reading development.

The study, published in the British Journal of Developmental Psychology suggests that children’s use of textisms can have positive effect on word reading ability, as well as contributing to reading development. Who’d have thought?…

All this dovetails well with a Nielsen Online report this week showing that one in every six minutes spent by UK users online is on social media and blogging sites. The research group said the member-community category is fourth most popular vertical globally, ahead of personal email.

The time spent on these categories is growing three times faster than the overall internet rate, accounting for almost 10 per cent of all internet time globally. Nielsen find that more than 65 per cent of web users regularly visit and update social media or member community sites, including blogs and social networks.

Welcome to the future, led in greater part by the young – just as it should be. They’ll be teaching us a thing or two about honestry, transparency and integrity in social networks - surely this will help us guide brands into the complex terrain of engagement over the next generation.

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