Comments on: Twitter – love it / hate it??? http://blog.localdemocracy.org.uk/2009/07/19/twitter-love-it-hate-it/#utm_source=feed&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=feed Promoting innovation and a conversational local politics Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:55:59 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: catherinehowe http://blog.localdemocracy.org.uk/2009/07/19/twitter-love-it-hate-it/comment-page-1/#comment-300 catherinehowe Tue, 21 Jul 2009 18:02:27 +0000 http://blog.localdemocracy.org.uk/?p=1408#comment-300 Hi Jon - yes - I think thats a very good point as there is an excellent piece of research to be done here. We (at Public-i) keep a general eye on the twitter feeds from Councils and our last count was well over 30 - which will be more by now - and this just counted named councils rather than individuals from within. I guess my point was based on the observation that many of these councils seem to be putting out repurposed press release content rather than really engaging with the medium in a more social way. Next time we do an audit I will try and see if we can broadly code the twitter feeds into types of council / source of the feed / types of tweets and see if that shows any interesting patterns. Talking to the recipients will probably have to wait until we can get some research funding to do it - though I would very happily co-ordinate a questionnaire if owners of some of these feeds would get respondents - what do you think? Catherine Hi Jon – yes – I think thats a very good point as there is an excellent piece of research to be done here. We (at Public-i) keep a general eye on the twitter feeds from Councils and our last count was well over 30 – which will be more by now – and this just counted named councils rather than individuals from within. I guess my point was based on the observation that many of these councils seem to be putting out repurposed press release content rather than really engaging with the medium in a more social way.
Next time we do an audit I will try and see if we can broadly code the twitter feeds into types of council / source of the feed / types of tweets and see if that shows any interesting patterns. Talking to the recipients will probably have to wait until we can get some research funding to do it – though I would very happily co-ordinate a questionnaire if owners of some of these feeds would get respondents – what do you think? Catherine

]]> By: catherinehowe http://blog.localdemocracy.org.uk/2009/07/19/twitter-love-it-hate-it/comment-page-1/#comment-279 catherinehowe Mon, 20 Jul 2009 18:38:30 +0000 http://blog.localdemocracy.org.uk/?p=1408#comment-279 Thanks Kathryn - I completely agree that the use of twitter must be tracked to its real-time nature - and I like the way you hone in on reactions as in a very kneejerk culture we need kneejerk information back from the crowd. Would very much like to talk more about the unconferences - will contact you off blog to do so! Thanks Kathryn – I completely agree that the use of twitter must be tracked to its real-time nature – and I like the way you hone in on reactions as in a very kneejerk culture we need kneejerk information back from the crowd.

Would very much like to talk more about the unconferences – will contact you off blog to do so!

]]> By: Jon Hyde http://blog.localdemocracy.org.uk/2009/07/19/twitter-love-it-hate-it/comment-page-1/#comment-278 Jon Hyde Mon, 20 Jul 2009 14:15:15 +0000 http://blog.localdemocracy.org.uk/?p=1408#comment-278 Hi Catherine, interesting question, 'whats the value of twitter for local gov...' why don't you ask the followers of councils that are tweeting... e.g. http://twitter.com/CheltenhamBC cheers, jon. Hi Catherine,

interesting question, ‘whats the value of twitter for local gov…’ why don’t you ask the followers of councils that are tweeting…

e.g. http://twitter.com/CheltenhamBC

cheers,
jon.

]]> By: Kathryn Corrick http://blog.localdemocracy.org.uk/2009/07/19/twitter-love-it-hate-it/comment-page-1/#comment-275 Kathryn Corrick Mon, 20 Jul 2009 10:25:41 +0000 http://blog.localdemocracy.org.uk/?p=1408#comment-275 Catherine - sounds like fascinating research and will definitely check out your website to learn more. On the subject of Twitter, I think it can be used very usefully to harness people's immediate, real-time reactions and concerns. Whilst it may not be the place for deep thinking (although the only reason I'm typing this comment is due to Paul Evans' tweet about it) it can be a starting point for deeper thinking and conversations. One particular example that I've been involved in, that may be of use to your research, were the Digital Britain Unconferences, which started life on Twitter but grew into something far, far wider and ended up being mentioned in the Digital Britain final report. See here for a quick overview: http://digitalbritainunconference.wordpress.com/2009/05/15/a-short-explanation-of-the-unconferences/ Would be happy to talk through the process and what happened in more detail if that's of interest. Catherine – sounds like fascinating research and will definitely check out your website to learn more.

On the subject of Twitter, I think it can be used very usefully to harness people’s immediate, real-time reactions and concerns. Whilst it may not be the place for deep thinking (although the only reason I’m typing this comment is due to Paul Evans’ tweet about it) it can be a starting point for deeper thinking and conversations.

One particular example that I’ve been involved in, that may be of use to your research, were the Digital Britain Unconferences, which started life on Twitter but grew into something far, far wider and ended up being mentioned in the Digital Britain final report. See here for a quick overview: http://digitalbritainunconference.wordpress.com/2009/05/15/a-short-explanation-of-the-unconferences/

Would be happy to talk through the process and what happened in more detail if that’s of interest.

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