Activity 7: Twitter

This week we’re exploring Twitter. This assignment is due on Tuesday, November 3.

• View the video “Twitter in Plain English” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddO9idmax0o&NR=1) and the video “Twitter Search in Plain English” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGbLWQYJ6iM&feature=video_response)
  
  
• Read the following short articles on real-life applications for Twitter:
• “Amazon Learns a Painful Lesson about the Twitter Hashtag” (http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2009/04/amazon_learns_a_painful_lesson.html)
• “Twitter Craze is Rapidly Changing the Face of Sports” (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/the_bonus/06/05/twitter.sports/index.html)
• “Now 4 Restaurant 2.0” (http://www.newsweek.com/id/187008)
• “A Twitter Timeline of the Iran Election” (http://www.newsweek.com/id/203953)

• Sign up for a free account at Twitter (http://twitter.com/). Your name and username will be visible to Twitter users, but you can choose to keep your updates (tweets) private or put them on the public time line. Only approved friends will be able to see tweets for protected or private accounts.
  
  For more details on how Twitter works and your Twitter page, as well as a brief overview to using Twitter, you can also read this beginner's guide: (http://www.webjunction.org/social-software/articles/content/449889)
  
  
• Then, find some people to follow and try a few tweets!

Post in your blog:

1. Label this post Activity 7: Twitter.
2. Talk about your experience with Twitter, either previously or after completing the activities in this assignment.
3. Did you like micro-blogging? Do you love it, hate it, or are you ambivalent? Explain.
4. Based on the ideas in your readings, how might you imagine using Twitter in your future career?