Yes – I’m new here – I think Paul asked me as we have been having a falling out about Petitions over on my blog and he likes an argument.
You can find out more about me there obviously but probably the most relevant fact is that I am currently researching for a PHD around the question of whether or not we can use informal social participation online to increase formal participation in the democratic process – specifically in local democracy as I think this is where the heart of the community should be.
To this end I have for some time now been struggling with the idea of Twitter. At first I was worried that this was a sign of aging and I had reached my personal limit in terms of new innovations but thankfully I am still filled with excitement about the idea of the new Palm Pre and the possibility of a Google OS netbook – I have also managed to form my Twitter objections into a coherent argument rather than a short grumble so all is not lost. Twitter had troubled me on two main fronts:
- Its yet more noise. I (like many people) spend a lot of energy trying to make my life quieter and simpler and the idea that everyone I know could be giving me constant updates on what they were up to fills me with horror – it just feels like noise. Now, obviously all the people I know would only tweet with great profundity but even so – that’s a lot of information I don’t think I actually need
- I am not sure that anything important can be said in only 140 characters.
That being said there have been some striking examples of Twitter being used – in particular around real time news and this move to real time web is perhaps the crux of what is interesting about Twitter. It speaks to the idea of pervasive technology and a confirmation of the underlying assumption of constant connectivity. Have a read of this as its another take on this thought.
But as ever I wonder what the use is for Local Government – how can we use it – and I think Twitter should be thought about in terms of listening and not in terms of talking and this makes things make much more sense as I am not sure anyone really wants to here tweets from a council as its really a tool for individual voices.
The most accessible description of Twitter I had was in relation to the way in which flocks of birds communicate – one cheep at a time!! If we can develop ways to listen to these cheeps and tweets, and to select the right ones to listen to then we can can listen and learn to the public. Search companies are already trying this with big global topics like swine flu but if Twitter, or other real time web tools, continue to grow then it should start to be true on a local level as well.
Interesting…..so now onwards to research semantic search and analysis tools!!!
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.
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.
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!
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