DISQUS

It certainly all raises some interesting questions !

I've pointed out the issues that I think are raised in the piece, but I've commented in more detail over at Craig's blog here, and at my own Wardman Wire site here.

>Matt, I just read through your list and none of the examples you cite can be done better on Twitter than they can be through regular blogging or email groups / campaigns. Saying that something "useful" has been done by Twitter doesn't mean that it's a useful medium relative to the alternatives.

I agree that it is possible, but not with your conclusion. The people who did it had the option of using all the other alternatives, and made a decision to use Twitter instead.

If it is not a useful medium to the alternatives, why did they choose Twitter?

I'd suggest that was because in these circumstances it was the better option. I think that demonstrates usefulness.

I haven't done a piece about it yet, but my opinion is that Twitter basically does to blogging what bloggling did to online news/discussion forums - it is a similar process, but easier and quicker. Twitter has the elements of blogging - interaction, permalinks, replies, brevity and ease of use over the previous form. The main handicap at present is the restriction on SMS messages gere.

It won't replace it - as blogging is a better form for longer/archival pieces (among other things), but it is a good complement, as blogs have turned to be a good complement to forums.

My comment is up now, with a list of 10 useful things that *have* been done with Twitter:

http://bit.ly/T6Tan

>What kind of person shares information with the world the minute they get it?

Er ... a good journalist ?

One more. I'm not sure about the Twitter Grader stats - it may be a problem with "location", but Tom Watson MP is 99.96 which puts him in your top 50. I do agree with the point, though it may be just a matter of very few politicians having been on there for long.

Excellent points. Can I add a couple of comments.

>the use of Twitter as a form of engagement with the public has not so far come close to being tested.
Agree. It would be interesting to see a rigorous definition of "public" there. Has it not been tested

a) because the "public" are not on Twitter,
b) because the politicians are so new,
c) because no one has tried or
d) because they genuinely aren't interested?

>they have deliberately set out to amass followers by mass following people
That is mainly a trick picked up from Internet marketeers, and is one that is easy to get wrong if you're not an Internet marketeer :-) I'm not sure whether "mass following" is much different from approaching people in any other arena. I'd suggest that the difference between a welcome invitation, or a chugger in the street, depends on the manner of the invite and the content of the subsequent conversation, and that that applied to Twitter. For politics, I think that a partisan-looking commentary is more likely to offend.

For example, in more mature Twitter "segments" they do NOT like an auto direct-message after they follow you.

>I’ve noticed that “unfollowing” someone on Twitter is much less stigmatized than “unfriending” them on Facebook.

Agree. That, I think highlights the potential - people engage on Twitter easily initially, but can be put off easily.

> I also cannot believe we only have 29 politicians that are neurotic tossers and/or narcissistic egomaniacs, can you?
YES. Just not those 29 :-)

I'll be posting later in reply to Sylvester having let it steep for a bit - I think the article is quite lazy, because there are useful examples around if you look. It sounds like the arguments people have about blogs before they write their own.

Thanks for the hard work.

Can I ask for a rough indication. Is 2 hours, 2 days, 2 weeks or 2 months of crunching left ? :-)

Could you write something about the "bit.ly is busy crunching numbers, so historical data won't be available for a little while. You can still view real-time data below." that sometimes appears, and what it means.

Is it in batch mode meaning "come back next week", or is it just "please wait 5 minutes"?

Rgds

>“What kind of person shares information with the world the minute they get it? And just who are the “followers” willing to tune into this rolling news service of the ego?”

What kind of journalist does not recognise the advantage in getting news stories in 15 minutes rather than an hour?

Aha. Found you again.

I combined the two sets here:

http://www.mattwardman.com/blog/2009/02/23/soci...

Rgds

Kevin

Thanks for the visit and link.

I like Blogdesk, but I'm on a PC.

Matt

>who all, oddly use blogger

That's changing in Political Blogging, but not quickly enough !

It is down to ease of use or inertia (the big ones started quite a time ago - 2004-5 mainly, and they'd take quite a hit for 6 months in the meantime).

There's been a big move to group blogs in the last year to 18 months and I'd expect them to move when it becomes necessary.

I'd like to have revisions available to readers, for more transparency when articles are edited.

My comment would be:

Without someone cooking the food, restaurant reviews are useless: it's about balance.

" I used to be a Water Buffalo before I went into politics".

See:
http://www.mattwardman.com/blog/2008/07/08/oink...

A good article. Just two comments:

1 - You do not specify the Jurisdiction of DMCA. I thought it was USA only. Although if offences are imprisonable for more than a year judges could extradite people under some Treaties (such as the dodgy one signed by our - UK - govt a few years ago).

2 - I am quite new, but I have a linking policy on my about page:

"Copyright and Linking Policies

* Copyright of all material on this site is asserted by the author. Copyright in quotations from other sites belong to the authors of the articles, and are acknowledged, usually with a hyperlink to the original source.
* Where video and audio clips are used on this site, these are included in an editorial context - and are therefore covered by "Fair Use" principles.
* Where documents or media files referenced from other sites are used, these are copied to a local archive. This policy is to avoid using others' bandwidth, and to minimise broken hyperlinks. I usually email the other site when I do this.

Quoting Articles from this Site

* Part of an article may be quoted on others' websites provided that they are used in context as part of a larger article, and that a link to the original is included.
* Articles reproduced in their entirety, with or without acknowledgement, or material used as the substantive portion of an article on another website, are subject to a use fee. The minimum fee for one off use of an article £125 or $250."

The fee is there so that if someone steals an article I can send an invoice with no further notice. I don't expect to use it, but you never know.

Matt