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Twitosphere

Over the weekend, I finally made good on a months-long pledge to build a website that would archive tweets from local twitterers. The Indiana Twitosphere uses a WordPress platform and Charles Johnson’s great RSS plug-in, FeedWordPress, to keep tabs on the individual contributions of over 150 known Hoosier twitterers.

In less than two weeks, Amy and I will enjoy a little Web 2.0 milestone as we celebrate—likely in 140 characters or fewer—signing up for Twitter. Since doing so, one of my persistent projects has been to identify and encourage other locals to do the same.

Indiana Twitosphere

Over the weekend, I finally made good on a months-long pledge to build a website that would archive tweets from local twitterers. The Indiana Twitosphere uses a WordPress platform and Charles Johnson’s great RSS plug-in, FeedWordPress, to keep tabs on the individual contributions of over 150 known Hoosier twitterers. Most of these people are from Bloomington and, more specifically, the IU School of Informatics, but I expect to test the limits of the plug-in by doubling that total by summer.

I started a Twitter group on Smaller Indiana to help spread the search into other parts of Indiana. Doing so could make the Twitosphere project bend a bit or break under the stress of other cities. Another Twitter project I am involved in threatens to do that just within the School of Informatics, so I am a bit wary about scaling up to statewide involvement.

There are some restrictions that keep the Twitosphere from being comprehensive and 100 percent accurate. The baseline for the project are the 2,686 posts that kicked off the site today, including some early adopter accounts that were so dormant their 20-tweet RSS feeds dated back to January 2007. It is unlikely I will take the time to go back and fill in the missing pieces, but Twitosphere should allow me to keep a master list of local Twitter members and build a nice repository for later research.

Are you twittering?

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.

7 replies on “Twitosphere”

milestone only other parents who’ve been there can appreciate. SusieJ is baking.  I can only gape in amazement at the idea of someone who regularly takes on recipes as complicated as this. Meanwhile, Blogschmog is celebratingTwitter.  I love Twitter but suffer from not having a gang to twitter with. LA Daddy is singing 70s porn music to his children.  Hmm.  As the man who made  his two year listen to the Aphex Twin (and his mother played him Grinderman), I

Fun stuff! I love seeing Twitter integration. Indiana is definitely Twitterized… the most popular Twitter integration here locally is the Tweet140 at http://tweet140.com which is an aggravating but addictive game to see who makes the most ‘twooshes’… that is, a tweet that is exactly 140 characters.

Twitter: douglaskarr

I have a love-hate relationship with Tweet140.

I love that it has found a new metric around which to form a community, complementing both the early-traditional TwitDir leaderboard based on follows, following and number of tweets and more recent rankings based on conversation. My personal tweet stream had a couple days where locals played with perfect tweets, thanks to Tweet140.

I hate it because the emphasis it inherently puts on form over content. I was shocked at how long 140 characters looked and how differently I read the flow of tweets when a bunch of them were at the maximum length.

This channel continues to amaze me. I’m probably going to use Twitter as an exemplar for my dissertation.

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