Will Knott

Jason Roe is doing it again.

I mentioned one of his BTW (Blogger, Tweet-up, Whatever) events before, and I think this s his fourth.

The idea is that us lot shouldn’t only communicate behind screens, since Ireland isn’t that big a place. So meet up and actually hold someones hand. Or at least give a real wave rather than a “*wave*”

The new BTW is going to be in the Kudos bar is the Clarion Hotel in the ISFC, Dublin on September 3rd at 7pm. That’s room for 150 people.

Register on his site, then come over and say “hello” in person.

Will

My schedule looks full at the moment. It happens, a rush of meet-up (usually unrelated to each other), yet most of these meet-ups are to do with the Irish blogging community (and yes there is an Irish Blogging community). The one exception is an effort to get a maker community working in Dublin.

Tonight has the BTW, a Blogger – Twitter – Whatever meet-up in The Porterhouse Central put together by Jason Roe.

Why do people do this. Organize meetings? Meet complete strangers even if there is a common interest between you? Actually look forward to meeting these strangers.

Well I wonder if neuroscience and survival instinct has something to do with it. In 1994 Ronny Eriksson proposed that our autonomic nervous system, our physical basis for feeling anything is divided in to four functions. The 4 Fs; Fighting, Fleeing, Feeding and Fu… er… mating.

There is one problem with this basis. If those were the roots of our instincts, then humanity wouldn’t have survived past one generation. Why? Well mating might happen, but without something else then the subsequent children would simply be left on their own.

For a group to survive there has to be another F. Fostering. Friendship. Family. Call it what you will but a need to reach out and nurturer in some way.

A need to meet others, meet-up is part of our hard-wiring. Kindness is somewhere in there. We are more likely to offer assistance to our own. The kindness of strangers is rare (it happens). Social media has had a strange side effect. We “know” complete strangers. Or at least think we know.

• “You can steel your heart against any kind of trouble, any kind of horror, but the simple act of kindness from a complete stranger will unstitch you” –The mother of Chris Abani who talks about humanity at TED.

We know the passions of strangers (or at least their thoughts) due to their blogs. Thanks to the likes of LinkedIn and FaceBook (and so many others) we know who their friends are. Thanks to Twitter we know that they are doing now.

Do we “know” them? Sort of. Pen pals have known each other for years. But social media makes, almost necessitates a community. And in a vacuum, it will create a community (yeah, I’m stretching here).

But that fifth F. Fostering/Family/Friendship. So much of our lives are founded on that principle. How come it is still left off that list?

See you at the BTW then?
Will Knott

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I’m not going to write a lot on picturegate.

Partially because Dr Eoin O’Dell a Fellow and Senior Lecturer at the School of Law, Trinity College Dublin has a much better (but a snap shot of a moving target) list of all the Picturegate coverage from which you can find out about the reactions online as well as a legal analysis of the likely court actions.

And partially because around the time that the caricaturist, artist and t-shirt maker Allan Cavanagh was being interviewed by George Hook on Newstalk about the reaction to the Cowen/Casby scandal, I was being interviewed by Fianna Fáil (*waves at the appointment panel monitoring this blog*). I actually brought up the painting/apology and the reaction (seconds later) on Twitter and in the Irish blogging political sphere in the interview.

They were aware of it. This was 20 hours in to the anger.

Since then there has been front page coverage in the Irish newspapers, and coverage across the UK, European and American news. Anger at the apparent change in Garda resources to investigate the hanging of the paintings. Cried of state censorship and stifling of free speech. Questions attempted to in the Dáil.

It’s gone from being a (admittedly distasteful if you are in the Cowen family but) mildly amusing “And Finally…” style story to a major news story which its unlikely that RTÉ will want to touch with a bargepole.

The reaction, well I did a bit of Twitter trending and here are the results from Stream Graphs

If I could access this graph for an earlier time the graph would be scary around 21:30h on March 25th when the apology was read out. Twitter exploded for a little while then. It hasn’t stopped yet.  It looks like its easing down a bit, not going to completely die down.

The internet changes things.

Once, if this happened you would have a number of very upset people. Maybe they would ring each other. One to one. And agree in their anger. Now, they can communicate many to many. Pass the latest news to each other behind the mainstream media. React, repeat, retweet the latest information until everyone knows. Dig a story left along by the mainstream media back in to the harsh light of international news coverage.

So if you are going to react, you had better monitor and react quickly.

Things have changed. Its good to talk/type/tweet. Communication behind the scenes will ensure information gets out there, in the same way that the internet treats attempts at censorship (be it a blocked site or bad news) as damage that it routes around. This isn’t always an automatic thing. Often people keep that which they deem important alive.

And kicking.

Repeatedly.

take care,
Will Knott

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It turns out that the Irish Sentinel may have had it right, but got the venue wrong.  On February 11 they warned “Extra security for Irish Blog Awards as tensions mount between Ireland’s most popular bloggers” … “blog world insiders have told the Irish Sentinel that on the night of the awards special care would have be taken to prevent the outbreak of serious violence.”

However at the Dublin Twestival, things came to blows.

At first things went well,

Then doubts were expressed

Finally, best newcomer nominee, the National Lottie expressed her frustration with Darren Byrne.

Irish Blog Awards Pop Culture finalist Raptureponies takes on best blog post nominee Darragh Doyle

Teeth were collected during the night by the event organisers

and they will update the Dublin Twestival site with the amount collected shortly.

Anthony McG delivers a powerful right jab to Peter D

powerful enough to have him loose all knowledge of the fellow, as this video shows (warning some viewer may find the language used silly, some users may have to click through to view the video).

Yeah, its all humour, but lets face it, the pictures do suggest that the Jets and the Sharks were busy on the night.

Now if you excuse me, I’ve just met a girl called Maria.
Will Knott

Rick O’Shea came up with a lovely idea; who would you like to meet at the 2009 Irish Blog Awards.

“Name 5 bloggers you haven’t met in the flesh before that you’d like to say hi to at the Blog Awards, say why if you want, link to them. They then, in turn, link to 5 bloggers they’d like to meet and so on.”

Now I have a problem with this. I keep meeting people.

I’ve have to re-do my list a few times as I bump in to bloggers and with the upcoming Twestival there is a chance that I might bump in to a few more.

So…

1) Robert Sweetnam.  He used to live near me and I never met him all that time. It tuns out our interests and situations were also similar (even started back in (different) college on the same date).

2) K8 the GR8. Wonderful fiction writer, and all round good person (with an evil streak, naturally). Her posts swerve from laugh out loud funny, to heart break to cruel twists of fate. And she also writes fiction. Having said that, I’m regularly freaked by her dad, Granddad, who I may want to avoid.

3 and 4) Le Craic and Maxi Cane. LC, because he comes up with brilliant ideas that I would like to see succeed, and Maxi as he got me writing fiction again (got to love a deadline).

And finally, 5) Sweary, or rather the Sweary Lady. Cause she makes me laugh, then makes me think. She is the Darwin Awards of blogs.

I should end here, but there are a few special mentions…

Omani – Partly to apologise (until he commented I thought his name was Grace O’Mani).

Darren Byrne and The National Lottie – who were on the list, until I met them at the PR Collision event. (And Darren, go ahead and tell her).

Phil Iced Coffee who I have met a few times, but he is the only other person I’ve seen do this.

Nick McGivney because I think I have already met him and Christian Hughes because after seeing him at the PR Collision even I’m convinced I’ve met before (if not, nice watch).

Graham Linehan simply because I like the IT Crown and Fr. Ted. And also because I don’t expect to see him.

And lastly but not leastly (if that is a word) Debbie Metrustry, one of the organisers of the Dublin Twestival who I am definitely going to meet, because I owe her money and I can’t get in to the Twestival until I pay her.

Some of you may notice that I’ve linked to blog posts an not to their blog front page. Well, if they have automated trackbacks, they’ll notice that I want to meet them. Its a touch more subtle than asking directly. Or is that my devious streak showing itself again.

take care,
and see some of you tonight,
Will Knott

Before you go to a Twestival, how should you keep an eye out for your friends off Twitter? Well, why not wear your Twitter friends? (yes that does sound like a very bad superhero team).

Wear their faces on your chest. (eewww) OK, pictures of their faces. Better? Or have their mug on your mug.

Walter Higgins at Sxoop (pronounced Skoop, or Scoop) is a image manipulation software developer for a a while now. The headlined Pixenate, an online photo editor, is integrated on many sites worldwide. He also has a history of making image manipulation tools for Twitter. He’s responsible for all the Santa hats this Christmas, and he’s brought out something new, the Twitter Mosaic.

You tell it your Twitter user name (no need for a password) and it generates a mosaic of all your twitter friends or followers. A big image. This can be turned into Mugs, T-Shirts and Bags.

All of this is made possible because of Web2.0 and the philosophy of open APIs (both Twitter’s and Zazzle’s). What has been done recently at http://sxoop.com/twitter/ simply wouldn’t have been possible a few short years ago. Needless to say, these APIs are being battered at the moment. Walter has more details on how to get things running quickly too and the end products seem to be reviewed very well.

So you can create a physical social (media) object and drink to the health of your fellow Tweeters from a Twitter Mosaic mug  (hopefully full of  clean water thanks to Charity:Water) and wear your friends in public.

The Twitter Mosaic is indeed the beneficiary of a Tuesday Push, so soon after demoing it at the Cork Open Coffee Club. And yes I got to know Walter through the Open Coffee movement. However its a cool idea, a great set of products and it since to see someone in Ireland making money in there times. And making money while Twitter is still trying out how.

take care,

Will Knott

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Get your twitter mosaic here.

On Thursday February 12, there is going to be a party, a tweet-up, a Twestival.

The difference between a normal tweet-up and a twestival is that the date is global (there are currently over 100 happening in cites worldwide). And its going to cost you money. All the “entry fees” collected are going to go towards a charity, charity:water.

It hasn’t been in the pipeline for long; in just one month, from volunteer effort alone Twestival has created events in 175+ cities, predicted to raise $1 million for the 1.1billion people in the world who can’t access clean drinking water. Growing beyond all expectations since launching in January 2009, Twestival takes place for 24 hours on February 12th, everywhere including London, Paris, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Austin, San Francisco, Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Dublin, Munich, Amsterdam, Bangalore, Melbourne, Lima, as up to 20,000 come together inspired by community and charity.  Read the full press release for the global effort, but nearer to home…

(Search Twitter in Ireland only for Twestival)

The Dublin Twestival is in The Sycamore Club, No 9 Sycamore Street, Temple Bar , Dublin 2 and Is being put together by Aido McMahon, Anton Mannering, Debbiemet, Qamir Hussain and others. Given the musical talent on offer; there will be dancing (help).

The Belfast Twestival is in Laverys Bunker from 8pm – 10.30pm (currently before Radiation / Laverys DJs, changed from the earler venue) and is organised by Andy (Good On Paper) McMillan and Phil (Iced Coffee) O’Kane.

There are a lot more. If you’d like to help in a volunteerism role with any kind of Twestival organization, wherever you are, get in touch with Amanda Rose or Jaz Cummins. For updates, follow @twestival on Twitter.

I’m going to be at the Dublin one, are you going?

take care,

Will

Jennifer Connelly in charity: water Public Service Announcement from charity: water on Vimeo.

Twestival from charity: water on Vimeo.
Thanks to Neville Hobson for being the first to tell be about it.

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Meet Iain Dodsworth, the creator of Tweetdeck. Tweetdeck is, to be honest, my favourite twitter client (and I tried out a bunch).

Christian Payne (aka Documentally) recorded a video conversation with Iain on Friday January 9th.

Talking With TweetDeck from Documentally on Vimeo.

In the video he talks about his focus and why its different from all the other Twitter clients (hint, its MEANT to be in-your-face rather than the usual quiet updates in the corner),  and about taking hints from users.

So Iain, can I have a portableapps version for Tweetdeck?

take care,

Will Knott

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I found out about this advert via the Cybercom blog. The post (and the advert) is to promote the UK mobile market and the BBC’s dominance in this area.

While this advert asks the question “where were you when” yet its oddly dated.

Where were you when you heard of Obama’s win?
Where were you when you heard about the Mumbai terrorist siege?
Where were you when you heard about Irish pork?

For the last 3, I was on Twitter. And as it turns out, so were the BBC.

Where were you?
Will Knott

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I took a little too long with this, and with a question.

Joel Drapper of ProTwitter posed a question.

“What is twitter? How would you describe it? Because it is not just answering the question “What are you doing?”

Twitter technically is simply a means of communication. Its a giant instant message tool which is always on. You can choose to follow the messages (called tweets). Others can choose to follow your messages. There is a method to send private messages, but (unless you choose the option to only allow people you follow to see your messages) all your messages are public.

Its like holding a conversation with someone on the other side of the room by shouting to each other. Anyone can choose to listen.

I posed a different question based around how people use it. My plan was to simply collect information about twitter clients based on the observation that there were so many out there. My survey posed 4 questions.

1. How do you use Twitter (or more to the point, how do you access Twitter to post comments or to read answers)?
2. If you use an interface to read and/or post to post to twitter, (other than for mobile access) why do you use it? (Do you gain some benefit using this interface, if so, what?)
3. How many people do you follow?
4. How did you check the above figure?

A far more clinical set of questions.

But two things happened.

Firstly, TweetRush released a “by client” set of stats, where I could see some of the data I was looking for.

and secondly, While I asked some clinical “what” questions, I also recieved some non-clinical “why” answers.

I’ll go through my data analysis in a later post, but I wan to comment on the “why”s.

People communicate. Its possible that some areas of our brain evolved differently because of communications, and given our abilities to read expressions (and see faces out of random patterns) it seems clear that our desire to be with someone is something what drives us.

What does a tweet do. It (somewhat) reassures us that another person is there. A constant flow of messages via Twitter indicates that people we care (enough to follow) are still out there. Conversations aside, a tweet (or Jaiku or Pownce or Facebook / linkedIn status message) is simple a status update.

“I’m having coffee”

“The food here is terrible”

“Its wonderful here”

“I’m alive”

ping

ack

Twitter is a communications channel. Tweets are important messages. Mundane sometimes (“I’m finally home”), but important to someone (“He’s finally home; I was worried”).

In short, the importance is not the medium, or the message; but the messages themselves.

Anyway, the slides from my presentation on November 1 are included below, and I’ll talk about my findings of the statistics in my next post.

Take care,
Will Knott