Getting started with Twitter

What is Twitter?
Twitter allows each user to post short updates of up to 140 characters in length (tweets) via cell phone, web, outlook or Instant Messenger tools. On the Twitter website we read that the content of a so-called tweet is the answer to the question " What are you doing?". However, tweets can also be updates about event invitations or recent news in the form of URLs. When sending an update most users comment on the links or event invitations they send. The personal touch of tweets is an element that is quite similar to blogging. Therefore Twittering is often refered to as Micro-Blogging. Like a blog every twitter user has a user page which displays a time line of the user's last tweets. The page can be view by typing www.twitter.com/username into the browser.

Twitter and Teamwork
In a business context twitter can be used to support teams that are distributed over different locations. In distributed teams workers do not have sufficient information about the work status of their colleagues. However, being aware of the tasks that the team members are working on is crucial for aligning each individuals work to the overall team effort. Team coordination in turn is important for successful and efficient collaboration.
Twitter offers a convenient way to keep colleagues up-to-date on all issues concerning the team. Such issues can be a team meeting request, the completion of a task or team related news.

Besides coordination another aspect of awareness is social presence. Teams with high levels of trusts and team identity work better together. Trust and team identity only evolve if team members can express their feelings about the team and the task. This requires a mean to communicate informally. Unlike emails and other conventional collaboration means, Twitter enables members of distributed teams to spontaneously and informally express what they think.

Twitter Applications
I would recommend using OutTwitt which is a Outlook integration. The Outlook plugin supports the conversion of long URLs into the tinyURL format making it easier to write a text that fits in the twitter limit. Mentionable is also Twitterbox, which is basically like an IM Client, and various plugins for Mozilla Firefox. There is also a more detailed list of twitter applications available.

Twitter Commands
When sending a tweet you can use commands to specify Here are the most important commands taken from the Twitter Help.

• @username + message
  
directs a twitter at another person, and causes your twitter to save in their "replies" tab.
Example: @meangrape I love that song too!


• D username + message
  
sends a person a private message that goes to their device, and saves in their web archive.
Example: d krissy want to pick a Jamba Juice for me while you're there?


• NUDGE username
  
reminds a friend to update by asking what they're doing on your behalf.
Example: nudge biz

You can also manage your Twitter Account from your cell phone using:

• ON: turns ALL device notifications on. (device = your phone or IM)
• OFF: turns ALL device notifications off.
  
• STOP, QUIT: stops all messages to your device immediately

• ON username: turns on notifications for a specific person on your device. For example, ON alissa.
• OFF username: turns off notifications for a specific person on your device. For example, OFF blaine.

• FOLLOW username: this command allows you to start receiving notifications for a specific person on your device. Example: follow jeremy
• LEAVE username: this command allows you to stop receiving notifications for a specific person on your device. Example: leave benfu

For further information on Twitter commands see the Twitter Fan Wiki or Twitter Help.



If you have read this post you should be ready to start twittering! Good luck!

Twitter and Second Life Mesh-up

Today I stumbled across a project that connects Second Life and Twitter called SLTweets. It enables Second Life users to create and send "tweets" within Second Life to twitter.com. While browsing in Second Life the tool appears on the top of the screen of the Second Life Client. It makes it very easy to send "awareness" information to other users. On their website it says:

There are a couple of others that exist, but they lacked the research-based features that we really wanted. For example, the ability to catalogue our finds, research and explore, geo tag, and share the information, on demand, with others who might have the same interests- or to not share it with everyone in the world.













I find that the tagging function makes this tool especially usable. The main use case depicts somebody visiting a place in SL with the urge to communicate its in-world experience to his friends in the real world. So far SLTweet support the following (Source: SLTweets):

• Save Tag's for places you have visited or people you have met. (Ex. /123 tag convention center, nice build, ITE)
• Save private Notes for places you visited, people you have met, shops or builds of interest, products, reminders or any other kind of personal note. (Ex. /123 note Great store, nice products, very low lag)
• Second Life location information is stored for each Tag and Note made from within Second Life enabling you to use our Users Area to view interactive SL Maps of your SL Tags and Notes.

I think within the scope of collaborative work in corporations this "SL-widget" really has potential when it comes to keeping the up-to-date about the work progress of every team member. Within the context of virtual worlds twitter makes sense as a tool to make this status information available to each member outside and inside the virtual platform.

Investments in Virtual Worlds in Q1 2008

The investments in the first quarter of 2008 amount to $ 184 Million (Virtualworldsmanagement) which seems a high number still compared to the investments from Okt. 2006 to 2007 which added up to about $ 1 Billion (VirtualWorldManagement), it is not as high as I would have expected.

Of course nearly all companies are based in California and most of them specialize in gaming or social networking. Second Life gets -like in the past- the biggest piece of cake.

Another interesting link I found was about the origin of second life registrations, where Western Europe comes with 44,5 percent even before North America (37,3 percent).

Virtual Worlds or/and Facebook?

In my last post I pointed out that networking is an important if not the most fascinating aspect of virtual worlds. Many even see Second Life as the new Facebook (Virtual worlds: The next Facebook? - CNN.com). Others do not see any good reason why Second life should replace Facebook (Facebook vs. Second Life: No Contest « Social Media University, Global (SMUG) )

Recently, the idea that both solutions complement each other emerged and there was significant effort to mesh up virtual worlds with social networking sites like activeworlds does with its facebook application.
Activeworlds launches virtual world Facebook application | VWF blog | Virtual Economic Forum Content Library
Activeworlds adds embedded 3D virtual worlds on Facebook platform | 901am
Besides being able to enter activeworlds from facebook, i do not think the app brings much new advantages. In contrast to that, the facebook app Second Life Link makes it possible to see whether your SL-friends are online in Second Life and to share your favorite SL location.

The idea behind Second Life Link is simple: meet new people in Second Life and stay in contact via Facebook. And indeed there is evidence that many Facebook users add only friends they had met in real life before. So how to get new contacts if you work in a multinational company and the most important persons for your project work and live on another continent? Virtual worlds provide an easy way to "bump" into people, that are far away.

Advantages of Virtual Worlds from a CSCW Perspective: Networking

Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) Research has a long tradition in the evaluation of virtual worlds as possible tools for collaboration in geographically dispersed teams. One advantage of virtual worlds is that they can convey a broad spectrum of interactional cues to the user. Interacting with others as an avatar, the user can make gestures and move his avatar in a 3D space. However, in current conferencing tools like Acrobat Connect Professional or Skype, where one sees his colleagues using a camera, the transmission of gestures is much more real than in an virtual environment like Second Life.

Nevertheless, the spatial dimension of a real life meeting may get lost in such video conferences. The spatial dimension though may be especially interesting for networking. The following example shall show why:

For solving a small problem like discussing a mistake in a sales report a quick video meeting with a predetermined group of colleagues is very efficient. However, if the problem is more complex like coming up with a new idea for a product the group of involved people must not be predefined and working out the idea will take several days or months. A software engineer for instance might have a fantastic idea about a new software platform in mind but will not be able to tell right away how to realize it and how to design a business model for it. Big projects mostly rely on networks between people that are located in different places. Virtual worlds give the user the chance to experience networking like in real life: A worker in England can just approach his colleague in China and ask him a question as if he would be in the room next door.

Thus, we should extend the notion of virtual collaboration from the idea of a meeting to the entire process of collaboration. In this context the 3D-space could open up a new perspective for global networking.


Coming soon: Part 2: Web 2.0 in Virtual Worlds