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The Local Tweet Stream

I’m not sure why it didn’t occur to me to do this sooner, but thanks to Google, I’ve got a list of local Twitterers. Imagine the potential marketing boon if attendees at the Lotus Music Festival expressed themselves with a few tweets from the event. Finding the early adopters in the area is the first step toward creating a local information identity.

I’m not sure why it didn’t occur to me to do this sooner, but thanks to Google, I’ve got a list of local Twitterers:

This isn’t an inclusive list. I know of a half dozen others who didn’t disclose their location or haven’t updated their profile to indicate Bloomington. I also had to do a second search with the state name spelled out. Some of the above clearly aren’t using Twitter, and others may be transitioning out of Bloomington as they graduate and move on. But being able to identify some early adopters in the area is the first step toward generating a viable local information stream.

The ongoing coverage of the Monroe County budget hearings is a good example. Imagine if Sophia Travis and other council members posted even one tweet during the day, or if James Boyd of the Herald-Times posted the occasional update as part of his online coverage. Or further into the future, what kind of marketing boon might the Lotus Music Festival get if tweets were showing the back channel for that event? What if these kinds of streams were available throughout the city on monitors, so passers-by can read them. The great thing about Twitter is the combination of many access points and low barrier to entry—a few thumb motions on a cell phone contributes to a broader identity.

By Kevin Makice

A Ph.D student in informatics at Indiana University, Kevin is rich in spirit. He wrestles and reads with his kids, does a hilarious Christian Slater imitation and lights up his wife's days. He thinks deeply about many things, including but not limited to basketball, politics, microblogging, parenting, online communities, complex systems and design theory. He didn't, however, think up this profile.

6 replies on “The Local Tweet Stream”

On Tuesday, Twitter finally added a search feature, just a little non-descript input field under the profile stats in the sidebar. It yielded a number of new Bloomington finds:

Again, many of these folks aren’t active or still in Bloomington. But this illustrates the advantage to having a search engine run by the service provider. Google and other search tools manufactured from public feeds aren’t going to be nearly as complete.

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