Recently a friend called me up and said “What’s so special about twitter? Can you explain this to me?” So off we went to a local cafe and talked about twitter (or I should say we twalked about twittter?.) I think I helped her, but I’m not really sure. I was a little tired, a little distracted — so I did what any learning person would do — I created an outline on how I might teach about twitter, and then created a slide deck as a quick learning tool. (Now I could have also done this in Prezi….hmm…maybe next time.)
The main questions I’m trying to answer is “What is twitter?” and “Why should I bother?” My interest in this introduction is not to get into branding, or social media marketing, or any of that. It’s really a reflection on why I got interested in twitter, and why you might find it interesting too. It was also to dispel the myth that twitter is just about gossip — because it’s not (though that is a large part of what goes on I must say.)
This also gave me to the opportunity to add to my portfolio and was a warm up exercise to get me motivated to do that learning thing I want to do about wine, which, you know, I’m getting to.
For you viewing pleasure, a slidecast. No complex builds because Slideshare doesn’t allow for that.
Nice, simple and easy-to-understand slidecast.
Thanks Saqib – appreciated.
kottke.org had these neat links to Margaret Atwood’s twitter feed and an article she wrote about Twitter:
http://blogs.nybooks.com/post/482335188/atwood-in-the-twittersphere
http://twitter.com/MargaretAtwood
MIke! I love it! Not just because I’m Canadian and an Atwood fan, but because it’s a such an apt description of twitter. Yes, I once lost a month to twitter… I’m sure I can find it again in my twitter feed somewhere. thanks for the comment and link!
Rani,
Just an FYI: I added this slidecast to to our internal list of recommend slidecast/videos.
Do you have recommendations for other awesome slidecasts related to yammer, google buzz, google voice, google moderator etc that I should include? (from learning perspective)
Saqib
Thanks Saqib.
One of my favorites on slideshare has to do with the “threat” people feel with new technologies. This may also go to your challenge about how we get people to change mental models. It’s also playful.
http://www.slideshare.net/normanlamont/new-technology-the-threat-to-our-information
Rani,
That is an awesome slideshare!!! 🙂
Saqib
Hey I know this is an older post, but just enjoying rummaging through your blog, R.
Have a friend who has been DEEPLY involved in the Iran protests last year, and more recently in Haiti emergency response. She has done it all from her house in Chicago via Twitter. She became a trusted RT’er (retweeter) and got a ton of followers. People in dire situations texted to some service that connected to her and others who retweeted. There is even one instance of her ‘finding’ people in a retirement home in Haiti that had not been discovered yet on the ground, under rubble. Text – Phone – Distribution – Twitter. Given the distribution of cellphones in developing countries and the availability of texting, Twitter has risen as a method of choice for emergency response and involvement from people around the world.
That is an awesome post about twitter! thanks steve. clearly i need the next blog “moving beyond the twatter”