Twitter, a Social Network or a News Media?

What is Twitter, a Social Network or a News Media?

View more presentations from Haewoon Kwak.

Twitter, a microblogging service less than three years old, commands more than 41 million users as of July 2009 and is growing fast. Twitter users tweet about any topic within the 140-character limit and follow others to receive their tweets. The goal of this paper is to study the topological characteristics of Twitter and its power as a new medium of information sharing.

We have crawled the entire Twitter site and obtained 41.7 million user profiles, 1.47 billion social relations, 4,262 trending topics, and 106 million tweets. In its follower-following topology analysis we have found a non-power-law follower distribution, a short effective diameter, and low reciprocity, which all mark a deviation from known characteristics of human social networks~\cite{Newman03}. In order to identify influentials on Twitter, we have ranked users by the number of followers and by PageRank and found two rankings to be similar. Ranking by retweets differs from the previous two rankings, indicating a gap in influence inferred from the number of followers and that from the popularity of one's tweets. We have analyzed the tweets of top trending topics and reported on their temporal behavior and user participation. We have classified the trending topics based on the active period and the tweets and show that the majority (over 85%) of topics are headline news or persistent news in nature. A closer look at retweets reveals that any retweeted tweet is to reach an average of 1,000 users no matter what the number of followers is of the original tweet. Once retweeted, a tweet gets retweeted almost instantly on next hops, signifying fast diffusion of information after the 1st retweet.

To the best of our knowledge this work is the first quantitative study on the entire Twittersphere and information diffusion on it.

[PDF (4.8MB)]

NodexL A Network Visualization Tool based upon Microsoft Excel used for Creating a Twitter friends Visualization

NodeXL is a Microsoft Excel based network visualization tool. The program exports and imports network connectivity data in many different formats.

It has the capability to directly download membership data from many popular social networks. This data is processed and the program can calculate network characteristics parameters. It also draws a network connectivity diagram. A brief overview of the use of the program is shown in the video below by the the program creator:

2009 - November - NodeXL - Demo - Mapping Twitter Social Networks "Digg" from Marc Smith on Vimeo.

I created a network visualization for the people I am connected on the twitter. First I used NodeXL's capability to download data directly from Twitter. The used the program's capability to create the following Network visualization diagram.

Click on the image for an enlarged view.

The diagram shows most of the people I am connected to on twitter. Another picture that shows the edges of network is shown below:

Click on the image for an enlarged view

Social network visualization diagrams are very interesting. They provide a snapshot of connectivity that will not be obvious by looking at the raw data.

Right now these plots are restricted to only one social network at a time. Also, the social networks put limits on how much and what kind of data can accessed from their website.

NodeXl is gaining popularity among academics. A number of instructors have been using to help teaching social network analysis. A book entitled " Analyzing Social Media Networks with Microsoft NodeXL Book" will be published in few months time. The outline of the book can be obtained here http://bit.ly/cCFEXD

Top Ten Tools from E-learning Professionals

slide.com, blogger, wordpress, twitter, wikispaces, dvolver, toondoo, captivate, adobe connect & moodle

Google docs, Drupal, NetBeans, Inkscape, Firebug, Audacity, Digg, Twitter, Hodges model, MAMP, Blogger

diigo, googlereader, twine, youtube, wikiversity, wikipedia, blogger, delicious, windows live writer, twitter

Blogger, Slideshare, Mozilla Firefox, Wikispace, GoogleDocs, Mr. Wong, Ning, Gmail, Skype, YouTube

Firefox, Google Mail, Google Reader, Google Docs, Facebook, Twitter, Posterous.com, Blogger.com ,Google Analytics ,Screenr.com

Google docs, Moodle, Jing, Camtasia, Audacity, Voicethread, Wordle, Wolfram Alpha, Twitter, Diigo

Gmail, Google Docs, Google Reader, Evernote, Diigo, Prezi, Jing, Animoto, Twitter, Moodle

MS Office, Facebook, LinkedIn, Paint, Skype, Google Search, Wikipedia, Twitter, Flash, Captivate

wikispaces, animoto, twitter, Zamzar, GoogleDocs, Picnik, Youtube, slideshare, embedit.in, ning

Adobe Connect, Wiki, Blog, iGoogle, Google Search, Jing, Audacity, Snag-it, Adobe Flash, Adobe Dreamweaver

Adobe Connect, Audacity, Blogs, Delicious, Flickr, Google Reader, LinkedIn, SharePoint , Slideshare, Twitter

Captivate, Articulate, Wiki, RSS, Barekit (Israel LMS) Viewlet Builder, UPK, Composica, blog

Google Docs, Evernote, Adobe Connect, YouTube, Delicious, Jing, Audacity, Adobe Captivate, Ning, Google Reader

Voicethread, Audacity, Wordle, Youtube, Snagit, Skype, Ning, Facebook, Antimoto, Slideshare

Twitter, Photoshop Elements, Open Office Suite, Windows Movie Maker, Blogger, Google Docs, Wordle, Wallwisher, Zamzar, Audacity

Twitter, Google docs, wikispaces, scribd, voicethread, Jing, dimdim, ToonDoo, edublog and Moodle

cirip.ro, twitter, blogspot, photopeach, scribd, slideshare, flickr, seesmic, voicethread, dotsub.

Edmodo, United Streaming, Microsoft Word, Google Earth, Google search, Microsoft Power point, Wikipedia, Teacher tube, Microsoft Excel, Youtube

Twitter, Captivate, PowerPoint, TypePad, Screenr, YouTube, iGoogle, Flickr, Articulate, Microsoft Word

Prezi, Audacity, Diigo, JING, Dvolver, Podomatic, wordle.net, Mogulus, Wobook, CamStudio

Twitter, iTunes, Google docs, Basecamp, Yammer, Elgg, Wikipedia, Slideshare, Zumodrive, Adobe Connect

Google Apps, Alerts, Reader, Sites, iGoogle, PowerPoint, Snag-it, Dimdim, Typepad, Yammer

Delicious, Blogs, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google, YouTube, PowerPoint, Prezi, Wik’s, Excel.

edmodo, diigo, delicious, GoogleDocs, twitter, Zoho, Ning,, wikispaces, drop.io, posterous

Twitter, iGoogle, Google Reader, Google Docs, edmodo, Moodle, Audacity, iTunes, Wikispaces, YouTube

Articulate, Screenr, Delicious, Voicethread, Twitter, Youtube, Lecturescribe, Lazyfeed.com, PowerPoint, E-mail (boring but true

Twitter, Facebook, Xtranormal, etherpad, i-google, Windows media encoder, Delicious, Youtube, Ning, tag galaxy

Mindmeister, Edoboard, Adobe Connect, Moodle, Second Life, Wikipedia, Delicious, Twitter, TeacherTube, Pearltree

Firefox – with add ins, iGoogle, Audacity, YouTube, SlideShare, Ning, Green Paint, Skype, Picassa, Animoto

Firefox, Google, Twitter, YouTube, Elluminate, Blogger/Blogspot, Audacity, Diigo, Skype, Jing

twitter, google docs, pmwiki, diigo, slideshare, google reader, evernote, dropbox, wordpress, youtube

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Google Docs -- Web word processing, presentations and spreadsheets.

Social Media Network Use Worldwide

Here is a map that shows the popularity of many Social Networks World wide



Please double click on the image to see a bigger picture. An Interactive display of this map can be accessed here.

Recently ComScore released the data about the penetration of Social Networking in Asian Countries and European countries.


Please double click on the image to see a bigger picture.

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Another Twitter Parody

Twitter must be gaining momentum because people start making fun of Twitter by creating these parodies.

Here is the famous quote from Gandhi "First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." If we accept the quote on its face value then Twitter is entering into the second phase of acceptability and it will have to go through at least one more stage before it will become a tool that is respected by all.

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Mark Earls on Social Influence

Mark Earls is the author of the book "HERD: How to Change Mass Behavior By Harnessing Our True Nature". Here is a brief description of the book:

Can you explain the explosion of social phenomena like text messaging when there has been little or no promotion of the behavior? How a Mexican wave happens? The emergence of online communities? Or – more sensitively – the steady rise of floral roadside tributes to traffic accident victims?

Unless you have a good explanation of mass behavior, you won’t have much chance of altering it. This is why so many government initiatives struggle to create real change, why so much marketing money fails to drive sales, why most M&A programmes reduce shareholder value and most internal change projects don’t deliver lasting transformation.

Herd explains the ‘why’ of our struggles to influence mass behaviour. It reveals that most of us in the West have misunderstood the mechanics (the ‘how’) of mass behaviour because we have misplaced notions of what it means to be human. Mark Earls uses a diverse range of different sources, anecdotes and evidence - from Peter Kay and urinal etiquette to international rugby and rise of the Arctic Monkeys - to show that we are at heart a ‘we-species’, but one suffering from the ‘illusion of I’.

In doing so, Earls challenges some of our deepest ideas to reveal the truth about who we are and what marketers, managers and governments can do to set about influencing mass-behaviour. Bold in its conception and engaging in its execution, Herd offers the most radical new theory of consumer behaviour in a generation. Source

He is also the author of the blog "Herd - the hidden truth who we are" In one of his paper posted on his blog he advances the idea "Forget Influentials, herd-like copying is how brands spread"

He provides a brief description of his idea in the following video



His ideas challenge the existing orthodoxy of the marketing ideas and their applicability to the emerging social media.

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The Twitter Book

Twitter is a digital communication tool. It is very simple to use but it hard to decribe its capability. A new book by Tim O'Reilly and Sarah Milstein provide details on how to use Twitter effectively. They created a slidshare presentation to provide a synopsis of the book.

The Twitter Book - A Sneak Preview

View more presentations from oreillymedia.

Use full screen mode to watch the slideshow. Also my twitter address
See You at Twitter.

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Twitter on CNN

Twitter is discussed on CNN

I Am A GEEK

he word Geek is used to identify people who are involved in science, mathematics, Engineering and Technology. They are in general more interested in abstract concepts, science , mathematics and in designing, building gadgets and artifacts rather then in people.

The Dictionary.com provides the following meaning of the word GEEK

• A person regarded as foolish, inept, or clumsy.
• A person who is single-minded or accomplished in scientific or Technical pursuits but is felt to be socially inept.
• A carnival performer whose show consists of bizarre acts, such as biting the head off a live chicken.
  

Wikipedia identifies Geeks as

• A derogatory reference to a person obsessed with intellectual pursuits for their own sake, who is also deficient in most other human attributes so as to impair the person's operation within society.
• A person who is interested in technology, especially computing and new media. Geeks are adept with computers, and use the term hacker in a positive way, though not all are hackers themselves.
• A person who relates academic subjects to the real world outside of academic studies; for example, using multivariate calculus to determine how they should correctly optimize the dimensions of a pan to bake a cake.
• A person who has chosen concentration rather than conformity; one who passionately pursues skill (especially technical skill) and imagination, not mainstream social acceptance.
• A person with a devotion to something in a way that places him or her outside the mainstream. This could be due to the intensity, depth, or subject of their interest. This definition is very broad but because many of these interests have mainstream endorsement and acceptance, the inclusion of some genres as "geeky" is heavily debated. Persons have been labeled as or chosen to identify as physics geeks, mathematics geeks, engineering geeks, sci-fi geeks, computer geeks, various science geeks, movie and film geeks (cinephile), comic book geeks, theatre geeks, history geeks, music geeks, art geeks, philosophy geeks, literature geeks, historical reenactment geeks and roleplay geeks.
• A more recent school of thought sees Nerd as being a derogatory phrase, whilst Geek is simply a description. It is taken to be someone who is an enthusiast, often in things outside of the mainstream spectrum, of note is that in this definition, there is no reference to being socially inept in the slightest.
  

All of these descriptions portray Geeks in a non-flattering light. Except the movies like "Revenge of Nerds" the portrayl of Geeks in the media has not been very positive. In few cases the description may fit the subjects but in majority of cases the description is way off in accurately describing the people it is trying to categorize. Now the Geeks have a "Society for Geek Advancement" who will try to advance the image of Geeks and they are using the new emerging social media to do it.

Here is the opening video from this society

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Future of Social of Web

Jeremiah Owyang a web strategist at Forresster Research describes the future evolution of Social web and how it will become part of e-commerce.



Here is a table from the same report summarizing the development of web

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• Highlevel of the Five Eras of the Future of the Social Web
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How to Use Twitter

A slide presentation creates communication models for Twitter and suggests way to use Twitter for Marketing products on the Internet.

Using Twitter to Connect with Audiences

View more presentations from Corinne .

Please use the full screen mode for the slidecast for better view by clicking on the bottom right icon for full view.

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• Social Networking Up 93% Since 2006 (marketingpilgrim.com)
• The Man Who Made Gmail Says Real-Time Conversation is What's Next (readwriteweb.com)
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Google Quarter one Earning

Goggle has a slight drop in the total revenue for the first quarter of 2009

2009 Q1 Google Earnings Slides

View more presentations from guestdddfda4.

For better viewing please click on full screen icon at the bottom right.

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Digital Darwinism

Internet was originally considered the great leveler and initially showed the seductive promise of digital equality. However, the emerging picture is quite different. It is creating even bigger inequalities.

In this video media critic and author of the book "The Cult of Amateur" Andrew Keen argues that we might see the emergence of digital fascism where few well known talented people hog all the limelight for themselves and emerge as the leading figures in the new emerging digital medium.


Andrew Keen: Web 2.0 Is Fucked (The Next Web 2009) from Robin Wauters on Vimeo.

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• Guy Kawasaki's on Twitter All Day: How About You? (mediabistro.com)

A Twitter Parody

Flutter another clone of Twitter

Faster Web Sites

A presentation about improving the speed of web page loading in the web browsers from Steve Souder of Google

SXSW: Even Faster Web Sites

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Twitter: CEO Jack Dorsey Explains Twitter Service

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey provides a compelling overview of the service and his own inspiration

Jack Dorsey Presents Twitter from biz stone on Vimeo.
Join me at Twitter

Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook and Seesmic

what they all have in common? On the surface it appears that they are separate applications on the Internet with very different characteristics. In fact twitter does not even appear to be a tool for conversation. When you first get on it it appears to be a totally random chatter. A completely disorienting experience. Same is true for FriendFeed and Seesmic but if some one persist these applications grow on you. There is an intrinsic order in these applications and it start to become clear as time goes on.

Here is Loic from Seesmic TV explaining his use of these tools using Seesmic Video.


People can even join in on the conversation here with him.
He also has a blog post to explain his use of these tools to more intellectually oriented users here.

Moral of the story is that Internet Communication tools are disruptive to the mass communication media. Once people start spending time with these tools as creator of their own media for their own consumption i.e. pro-sumer we will see massive shifts in ways how the media is created and used.