Changing The World, In 140 Characters Or Less!

Changing The World, In 140 Characters Or Less!
What does Benazir Bhutto's assassination in Pakistan have in common with monitoring the voting process in the 2008 US presidential poll, or with the fires at San Diego, or with trying to find technical solutions in cyberspace?

During the course of all these events, the Internet-based tool called Twitter was used by the general public to share information and build networked knowledge, says a new guide from Digiactive.org

Titled 'The DigiActive Guide to Twitter for Activism' and available free from cyberspace (www.digiactive.org/2009/04/13/twitter_guide/ ), the brief 22-page report explains in a nutshell what this fairly young tool is all about.

Says the guide, authored by Andreas Jungherr, a German political science student from Mainz:

During late 2007 and early 2008, a new social media service emerged amid great hype from marketers and social media enthusiasts. Twitter [http://twitter.com] has since been adopted by activist groups around the world. If you have heard about this 'Twitter thing', but you do not yet know how and if Twitter relates to you or your organisation, please read on. This short guide provides an introduction to Twitter, offers some advice on best practices, and draws on five case studies to demonstrate possible uses of Twitter for political activists.

Going back to the beginning, what exactly is Twitter?

Twitter is a micro-blogging service that enables its users to publish short messages of upto 140 characters in length, on a personalised news feed. Users can update their feed directly through the Twitter website, or they can use various desktop and mobile applications, including SMS messaging.

After introducing Twitter, this slim guide takes up examples from the real-world (some cited above), and gives tips on how to organise your Twitter campaign Microsoft MCTS Training.

It points to other applications that could make Twitter more productive, to micro-blogging alternatives to Twitter, and further reading.

As it correctly points out:

Right now, one of the biggest challenges for political activists is getting news out on events
that are relevant for their cause but not yet on the radar of the traditional media. Often traditional media outlets are not interested in the stories activists wish to promote. Through Twitter, activists have a new channel to spread news around the world, even while events are still unfolding.

But questions remain.

In a world where cyber-optimists and cyber-pessimists disagree strongly about the positive impact virtual technology can have on the real world, there is bound to be disagreement.

More so, as the powerful mainstream media sometimes hypes up certain isolated cases, which then is believed as if it were the undiluted truth.

This is nevertheless a useful guide. It offers one the basic skills... and more. What it doesn't tell you is the kind of campaigns Twitter could be useful in, and where it wouldn't work Microsoft MCITP Certification .

As a friend said, some large countries have only a few Twitterers (people using Twitter). So, should you wait for it to spread or can you think of pushing change? And is Twitter just the current fashion-of-the-day, which will be promptly forgotten when cyberspace throws up its next new toy?

Try the guide, use it for your activism, and report back please :-)