Portuguese Journalists on Twitter and @JayRosen_nyu’s List | Jornalistas Portugueses no Twitter e a Lista de Rosen

Who are the top portuguese journalists on Twitter? Who is more popular, chatty or has a better following/follower relation? Tireless João Simão, teacher at UTAD (by the way, check his new project of live video interviews using Twitter) did an analisys on who are the journalists on Twitter, using data from TwitterPortugal, and came up with a top 25 list. It’s a nice crowd, and you should be following  at least some of them.

Quem são os jornalistas portugueses que estão no Twitter? quem é mais popular, falador ou tem uma melhor relação seguidores/seguidor? O incansável João Simão da UTAD (já agora, vejam o seu novo projecto de entrevistas video em directo usando o Twitter) fez uma análise dos jornalistas no Twitter usando dados do TwitterPortugal, e criou um top 25. É um grupo porreiro e deviam seguir pelo menos alguns deles.

Know anyone? | Conhecem alguém?

After this analisys was published  i got a whole new batch of followers (thank you all), but my major source of tweeple lately has been  Jay Rosen’s “600” list. I recommend it to everyone who is looking for media related tweets. (shameless self promotion moment, so sorry for that…)

Depois desta análise ter sido publicada ganhei um monte de followers (obrigado  a todos), mas a minha maior fonte de seguidores nos últimos tempos tem sido a lista dos “600” de Jay Rosen. Recomendo-a a quem quer tweets relacionados com media. (momento desavergonhado de auto-promoção, as minhas desculpas…)

The "600"...well, some... | Os "600"...bem, alguns...

3 somewhat related posts | 3 posts mais ou menos relacionados

Twitter, news, Iran, citizen journalism and how journalists fit in the news process, all in three posts that reflect the new news logic.

Twitter, notícias, Irão, jornalismo do cidadão e como os jornalistas se encaixam no processo informativo, em três posts que reflectem a nova lógica noticiosa.

• How to verify a tweet

Twitter is the great equalizer. It doesn’t matter if you have 100 followers or 10,000, you can break news. That’s because all tweets are recorded and indexed at search.twitter.com. If someone types the right keyword(s), they can find your tweet.

Breaking Tweets prides itself on giving many different types of Twitterers credit for breaking news, whether it be someone in Honduras with a dozen followers recording the first “earthquake” tweet or a news organization providing the first details of a major story.

But how do you know a tweet’s legitimate?

• Iran: When journalists can’t be heard, how successful can citizen journalism be at providing back-up?

In the absence of an abundance of professional reporters, amateurs have stepped up. One of the most watched and discussed videos to come out of the tragedy, and one which is emblamatic of the role of citizen journalism in reporting from Iran, is that of the death of Neda Agha-Soltan, a young Iranian woman who was walking near the scene of clashes between pro-government militias and demonstrators when she was shot. The video has prompted international outcry and the girl’s death has since come to represent the tragedy of the conflict, a “symbol of the anti-government movement,” according to the New York Times. It was taken, not by a reporter with a camera, but by a bystander on a mobile phone, and posted on Facebook and YouTube after the man sent the 40-second clip to a friend who then forwarded to friends and news sites in Europe and the US.

• Editor claims Twitter ‘humanises’ journalists

At a discussion on Twitter’s impact on media and journalism, Colgan claimed that journalism has “never been healthier” with Twitter a powerful reporting tool. “It enables you to gather and distribute information very quickly and make it common property of the nation and the world,” he said.

He added, that by allowing journalists to express themselves personally and professionally on Twitter, can “humanise” the writer and make them more accountable. He said:  ”As professionals, our job is to try and be objective. It makes journalists accountable. You’re not just doing your job in public you’re doing a whole lot of other things in public. I think it’s a positive thing for journalism.”

But he stressed that tips sourced from Twitter still need to be checked as it is a new form of source. “The dynamic has changed to how people report on the web whether it be by Tweet or longer blog post or by aggregating a whole lot of opinion. When it comes to reporting on the web, verifying information still remains paramount,” Colgan said.

See how neatly we are directed right back to the top? Other thing: back in the presentation i gave at a convention in Guimarães, i said that journalists are becoming news traffic controllers, and media outlets are becoming more and more aggregators than generators of information, being one of the final steps of the news cycle. Now and then i don’t feel so lonely in the world.

Viram a maneira catita como somos reenviados para o início? Outra coisa: na apresentação que fiz na convenção em Guimarães, disse que os jornalistas tornaram-se controladores de tráfego informativo, e que as empresas de media são cada vez mais agregadores do que geradores de informação, sendo uma das etapas finais do ciclo de informação. De vez em quando não me sinto assim tão sozinho.

Where do you come from? | De onde vocês vêm?

I notice a trend... | Detecto um padrão...

“Aw, twitter is killing blogs, twitter is this, twitter that…”  Bollocks. It looks great in my blog stats, better than RSS. And people often discuss my posts with me using Twitter instead of comments. Welcome to realtime editing.

“Ah, o twitter mata os blogs, twitter é isto, twitter aquilo…” Tretas. Está bem colocado nas estatísticas do blog, melhor que o RSS. E as pessoas costumam discutir os  posts comigo pelo Twitter em vez de usarem os comentários. Bem vindos à edição em tempo real.

How to Search Twitter

The inspiration

Searching Twitter is not an exact science. The available tools aren’t accurate and respond differently to the same parameters. I hope this post – that is inspired in  Justin Parks’ tips to check other peoples favorites, and shared at TwitterPortugal by Paulo Querido – may help you find what you’re looking for in Twitter.

Searching Bios

Justin Parks explained how to search in other people’s favorites using Google. I thought about it, and i came up with a variation to search Twitter users’ Bios. Are you looking  for people that share a common interest, have a specific profession, or are from your hometown? As long they have these data in their bios it is all pretty simple.  Type in the Google search box the following:

site:twitter.com/* location+Lisboa

You can change “Lisboa” to your chosen location. Of course you’ll have to go through the results to make your selection. If you find this a tiresome procedure, you can always use the Adobe AIR based app  TwitterLocal. You can follow twitterers from a specific location and in a configurable radius in real time. I don’t think this is really accurate and sometimes i just need to find someone, and i don’t have the time to wait for he/she to tweet, so i’d go for Google first. But if you’re waiting for something to happen somewhere TwitterLocal may come in handy.

If you want to find people with a specific activity using  Google, do as follows:

You’ll have an instant list of journalist tweeple without having to add water. But if you’re into directories and lists you have the following options: Twellow, Twitter’s Yellow Pages, or WeFollow. Both organize users under different categories or tags. There is a couple more interesting general user  search tools like TwitSeeker and TweepSearch, but they leave a lot of users out of the results.

Smart Ann Smarty wrote about Identify. I like her work.

But if you are curious to know in which other social networks a Twitter user dwells, you can add the Identify add-on to your Firefox. Ann Smarty posted a review about it here.

Tag and Topic Search

But lets give some privacy now to Twitter users and search for content. And how can we do it? Let me count the ways…

Most desktop apps like Twhirl or Tweetdeck rely on two major search tools TwitterSearch and TweetScan, both pouring results into the interface, though i’m a fan of other online tools to follow tags and topics in real time, like Monitter, or TwitScoop. Hastags.org is also real useful in the tag front, but somewhat limited. Recently i found PeopleBrowser, a multitask online Twitter app that seems to hold a lot of potential, still under development.

Monitter live streaming

Looking for something else?

Of course Twitter can be searched for almost anything, even for a job. Everyday there’s a new tool to get the most out of it, and fortunately there are people making lists of essential and useful tools to enhance the Twitter experience. These are the ones i know best and use in my everyday Twitter activity. If you think this is too much, well you have the plain search box in your Twitter homepage. But  if you know other techniques and tools to squeeze information out of the blue bird, share them with us.

Bigger, not smaller – Frank Kelly on 140

Leiam a versão em português no TwitterPortugal

Twitter has a huge impact on how we express ourselves. Never mind the critics that accuse Twitterers of being shallow, narcissistic and obsessed with their food. Twitter is all about sharing the small moments that compose our lives, and Frank Kelly is trying to do a film with those shards of existence.

Synchronicity

Kelly is an independent filmmaker from Ireland, with two shorts in his resume. His latest project is built around Twitter: he’s asking 140 volunteers to shoot footage at the same time, showing what they’re doing at that precise moment. And how is he putting it all together? Via Twitter.

I like the expedient nature of the website and how information, through concise messaging, can be communicated immediately to mass groups. It inspired the theme of connection. From there I began to build the structure around the idea taking the number 140 as a cue.

There have been many critics of the site, calling it a waste of time. I wanted to see if I could use it as a tool rather than a distraction and see if I could use it to unite people to create something valuable and tangible, a piece of art.”

The level of synchronicity and sharing in web communications has risen tremendously. Mindcasting and lifestreaming are concepts becoming more and more common everyday for users. I asked him where is this taking us. He said he wants to take us outside.

I’m not sure. For me I want to take 140 further, I want it to become more than just a film but a life experience, so everyone involved can take it back into the community and use the experience to connect with other filmmakers, their environment and people around them.

But he has some concerns.

I worry that people will get swallowed up by their online existence, that’s why the essence of this project is to get back outside and experience and think about life, real life, and our connection to it, to our planet and each other. It’s not an environmental piece; it’s a piece about remembering who we are. I hope that’s what the internet will do, not to serve as a distraction from life but to be a tool to enhance life.

Bigger, not smaller

Frank Kelly has been taking some advantages of  social networking on the web, though he says it has no impact on a personal level. But professionally, it’s been rewarding.

As an independent filmmaker who has no funding and is still trying to break into the film industry, the internet is an essential tool to continue to create work and connect with like minded people. It has allowed me to create a channel for my creativity.

It has helped me greatly and indeed influenced me in a direction I never imagine I would go, or ever be able to go in – the idea that I could coordinate 140 filmmakers worldwide so quickly, and then synchronise them to film together would have been impossible for me to do 10 years ago.

And they come from all over the world. By the time Frank answered to my questions he was just a few volunteers short of the required 140. I asked him if he felt the world was getting smaller, and if a smaller world means a better world.

I don’t think the world is ‘getting smaller’, I think it’s bigger, there are more opportunities to travel, to connect, to see and do things we couldn’t have generations ago. When my parents were kids international travel was for the rich. Not now, anyone can go anywhere for very little. It has opened to world up to all of use, whereas before our world was smaller, it was our hometown, now it’s anywhere we want to be.

In his point of view, it doesn’t really matter where his filmmakers come from.

As humans we’re the same, we share experiences – we all feel pain and love and sadness etc. We want the same things: happiness, care, love, food, clothes and the same for our children, that has never changed and never will. We share those universal similarities. And technology, or the fact that we can communicate so quickly now, won’t change that.

Perhaps the fear is that as we become more connected we become more the same and begin to lose our culture, our identity. I don’t think that’s going to happen and I don’t see that being able to share our individuality is a bad thing either. The internet has allowed us to experience more, share more, see more, be aware of more and celebrate our diversity. I think it has taken down many barriers that distance, geography, race, religion and culture have put up. It has allowed us to educate ourselves and understand more about our neighbours.

And he sums it up pretty neatly:

At the end of the day we’re all human, we need to be connected and we need to share our existence on this planet.

The 140 filmmakers will be connected and sharing next June 21st at 8pm GMT.

Frank Kelly can be found at www.frankkelly.blogspot.com about his work as a filmmaker, frankasides.blogspot.com about other work and thoughts and eyethroughalens.blogspot.com as a photographer. He also has a podcast on iTunes via his company www.palestoneproductions.com. And, of course, he’s on Twitter.

Attack of the Twoons

Este texto pode ser lido em Português aqui

#twoonday

Last Friday Twitter timelines were invaded by cartoon and comic characters. It wasn’t an ACME spam action, but the second edition of Twitter Cartoon Day, this year tagged as #twoonday.

Once again the organization of this event relied on me and Paul Bradshaw, and it even had a bigger impact than last year. The huge growth in Twitter users since then had a lot to do with it (12 months ago i had 150 followers, now they’re  more than 1600) and it seems they’re always up for some fun. Besides, we announced it in our blogs, at TwitterPortugal, and also on TwitterBrasil (thanks Gabi), which allowed to create some momentum to launch the event.

We put up a map where users could place their location and avatars (it quickly became chaotic because it was a open collaboration), where we had over 150 placements and around 5000 hits in just one day, which makes a small sample of the real number of people who joined this event worldwide. Portugal, UK and Brazil were the most represented.

Invading Europe

This kind of participation is every Twitter marketeer’s wet dream come true, since it involves a significant number of people, has viral power and it affects their online experience. Early in the morning a website announced that whoever used the  “Twoonday” code would get a discount in the purchase of one of their products. This was an excellent idea, and a good reaction to a “spontaneous” event like this, and i was surprised it didn’t happen more through out the day. A portuguese Digital Marketing specialist suggested that if he was Disney or WB – who provided most of the toons –  he would roll out apps and tools for those who wanted to participate. It is a good idea, especially if we take in account that is a massive copyright infringement, with all of those copy/pasted images used in personal behalf.

In the middle of the day we had the unexpected collaboration of the misterious LV, that registered the Twoonday.com domain,and that somewhat became the semi-official website of the event. He did some polls and a word cloud, two things Paul and i expected to do, but we didn’t had the time. Despite my inicial doubts, it became very useful to gather some important data to analyze that day. So, LV, merci beaucoup.

Twitter Cartoon Day is – like i said last time -a moment of pure fun. But it is also an important online social experiment, and a moment of community bonding, costumization of the individual presence of each user: one can express himself with his choice, his recognition and perception on the part of the other users are influenced by the chosen alter egos (the choice of the avatar is important in the definition of the online user), and an experience was shared, which reinforces the notion of group, and that becomes part of it’s history. And that is what defines a community.

There were some ideas for Twoonday spin offs, but i feel Twitter has already too many theme days. I thought about having theme Fridays every week last year, but people advised me it was a bad idea. We hardly knew what was expecting us … However, anyone can organize their own party, and, who knows, it might turn into a Twitter tradition.

Above all, it was a different day, our very own online Carnival. I hope you all enjoyed it. I know i did.

Twitter Cartoon Day next Friday

Those who were already around last year must remember this. TwitterCartoonDay was one of the first and fastest memes in Twitter’s history, and also one of the funniest ones. And it’s happening again this Friday. For those who never heard of it, here’s the abridged version.

It all began one day when Paul Bradshaw used a  Dick Dastardly avatar and i suggested organizing a day using only avatars and backgrounds with our favorite cartoon and comic book characters. Back then, my modest network of a little bit over than 100 followers joined the party, especially across the Atlantic, among my brazillian followers, but Paul managed to mobilize lots of people in the UK and in the United States, creating one of the most interesting viral phenomena in a virtual community until then. Remember, a year ago there weren’t this much Twitter users, and most of them were communication and other more “serious”  professionals, that for one day, started discussing their cartoon preferences and their childhood memories, when they used to read comics under the blankets at night with a flashlight, or woke up real early every Saturday morning to sit in front of the TV and watch their favorite cartoon shows.

This Friday we’re bringing it back, this time in a tad different environment. We all know that Twitter had an exponential growth in these last few months, and it is not as an innocent space as it was. But it is still a good place for sharing, and especially, for having fun. There are some details that need to be worked out, but Paul and i already decided a few things: this year’s tag will be #twoonday (last time it was a long #twittercartoonday) and i’ll be putting a map up so you can share your avatars. There is also a Flickr group from last year where you can see some of the participations from that day, and that can be used again this year. There will be other news about this throughout this week , so look out for them.

And if you didn’t  get what the Twitter Cartoon Day is for, i’ll explain: it’s for you to have fun.

Jay Rosen: Social Media

When i started thinking about my presentation for last weekend’s Convention, i wondered how i could explain the shift from mass to social media. And where Twitter fits in the picture. Ok. Rosen did it before and i didn’t knew. As i was watching this video i felt really uncomfortable, all the items i wanted to adress are there. But Jay does it better. I’ll take this as a sign i’m going in the right direction, or, at least, that i am aware of what is going on.

Quando comecei a pensar na minha apresentação para a Convenção do fim de semana passado, tentei imaginar como é que podia explicar a mudança de mass para social media. E onde o Twitter se encaixava. Ok. O Rosen fez o mesmo antes e eu não sabia. À medida que ia vendo este video senti-me desconfortável, tudo  que queria dizer está ali. Mas o Jay fá-lo melhor. Vou tomar isto como um sinal de que estou a ir na direcção certa, ou, pelo menos, de que estou consciente do que se está a passar.

via @raul_pereira

Entrevista completa ao Semanário Económico

Sorry all you english speaking people, but i don’t have time today to translate this. Maybe next week.

Estas são as perguntas da Ângela Marques para a sua reportagem sobre o Twitter que saiu no fim de semana passado no Semanário Económico. Como acho que ela levantou questões interessantes e eu dei algumas respostas com piada, vou publicar aqui o integral da entrevista.

1. Como conheceu o Twitter?  Usa outras redes sociais como o Twitter (Facebook, Hi5, Myspace)?

Comecei a ouvir falar do Twitter na parte final de 2007, associado a outros serviços semelhantes como o Jaiku e o Plurk. Confesso que a início não fiquei fascinado com o microblogging, mas à medida que ia lendo alguns bloggers , como o Paul Bradshaw do OnlineJournalismBlog.com sobre esta ferramenta, fui ficando cada vez mais interessado. Além disso, era novo e gratuito,e achei que não custava nada experimentar. Acho que é assim que funcionam os early adopters.

Tive algumas dificuldades a princípio para entender o potencial do Twitter, mas à medida que ia entrando em contacto com outros utilizadores e a aumentar a rede de contactos esse potencial foi-se revelando. Acho que o ponto de viragem foi durante o incêndio de Camden Market há cerca de um ano, em que pelo Twitter estava a recolher mais informações e mais depressa do que pelos canais tradicionais, enquanto as partilhava com amigos meus em Londres, que nada sabiam do acontecimento. Depois com as aplicações que fui descobrindo, consegui ter uma utilização mais efectiva da aplicação. Na altura ainda dava para receber gratuitamente mensagens do Twitter no telemóvel, o que era o verdadeiro intuito do Twitter. A partir daí tornou-se realmente num vício.

Estou inscrito nessas três redes sociais, com uma presença mais efectiva no Facebook, mas a partir do Twitter achei-as limitadas, são na prática plataformas expositórias, enquanto que o Twitter na sua essência é uma ferramenta de partilha e diálogo.

2. O que lhe interessa no Twitter?

A interacção com as pessoas. Desenvolvem-se conversas, debates, partilham-se links, em 140 caracteres. Por muito pouco que tenhamos para dizer esse pouco pode ser valioso, tenho descoberto e aprendido muito com o que os elementos da minha rede de contactos partilham. Depois é a ubiquidade, demonstrada nos em alguns acontecimentos como a amaragem no Rio Hudson, onde a informação estava a ser divulgada por pessoas no local. Soma-se a isto a possibilidade de toda a gente ter telemóvel com câmara fotográfica, e haver uma evolução nos dispositivos móveis que permitem retirar o máximo do canal. Alguém partilha um dado com o seu grupo que é repetido exponencialmente pelos elementos desse grupo com os seus próprios seguidores e por aí fora. É o boca a boca à velocidade da luz, e é por isso que os media tradicionais têm ficado para trás em algumas situações porque precisam de enviar meios e pessoas para o local do acontecimento. Se alguém com Twitter estiver lá, o mundo também está.

Outro factor que me interessa imenso é o facto de as pessoas continuarem a agir como numa rede social tradicional: partilham as pequenas coisas do dia a dia, músicas, fotos, damos os bons dias, o que humaniza o relacionamento virtual. E depois, se alguém precisa de ajuda basta só pedir, alguém pode , ou tem alguém na sua rede que pode, ajudar. Existe um espírito muito solidário.

3. Por quantas pessoas é seguido no Twittter?

Graças à recente divulgação do Twitter houve um crescimento notório no meu número de followers, com 7 a 10 novos utilizadores a adicionarem-me por dia. Neste momento exacto tenho 716 mas espero chegar aos mil em menos de um mês. E são pessoas do mundo inteiro, mais ou menos ligados às minhas áreas de interesse, e muitos são amigos de amigos. Existe o FollowFriday que basicamente são tweets a recomendar algumas pessoas, todas as sextas. Já fui recomendado várias vezes, especialmente por utilizadores norte americanos. Há uma coisa que gosto de fazer cada vez que chega um novo follower que é dizer olá, tratá-lo pelo nome próprio, dar as boas vindas, e se através das bios ou dos links para os seus blogs eu vir que existe alguma coisa que interessa deixo sempre um comentário extra. Tenho a noção que são pessoas reais do outro lado e dizer olá é o mínimo que posso fazer já que se interessaram por aquilo que eu digo em 140 caracteres.

4. (Vamos tentar fazer uma pergunta sem a palavra Twitter?) Continua a
alimentar o seu blogue com a mesma frequência?

Mais ainda. Tenho mais público no Twitter do que um dia normal de visitas no blog, e muitos chegam aos meus posts lá, porque são notificados através do Twitter que escrevi mais alguma coisa. Depois quem achar o texto suficientemente interessante para ser partilhado, reenvia o meu link para a sua rede. É um processo viral, que me tem dado mais visibilidade ao meu trabalho como blogger. O que acabo por fazer de diferente é partilhar mais links via Twitter do que recomendá-los no blog.

5. Quantos Twitters segue?

Essa é a parte curiosa na minha construção da rede de contactos no Twitter. São cerca de menos 30, em média do que o meu número total de seguidores. Neste momento são 691. Isto acontece porque há utilizadores que ou não disponibilizam dados suficientes ou não vejo interesse em segui-los, tenho algum cuidado em filtrar os meus contactos. Mas procuro sempre que seja um número equilibrado e normalmente sigo de volta todos os novos followers. Há utilizadores, especialmente aqueles com um perfil público notório – actores, comediantes, músicos etc- que não seguem quase ninguém de volta. Eu por um lado percebo, mas por outro o Twitter não é um palco, é uma plataforma de intercâmbio. Eu não quero falar com ninguém que não queira saber do que eu digo. O mais interessante é que nessas quase 700 pessoas que eu sigo, eu adicionei por iniciativa própria menos de 50, não porque não tenha interesse em fazer mais contactos, mas porque as pessoas têm vindo naturalmente a adicionar-me. Ainda não atingi um número crítico de pessoas que seja difícil de seguir e filtrar a informação, mas às vezes há muita coisa a acontecer ao mesmo tempo. Mas há quem lide bem com mais de vinte mil fontes de informação no Twitter, por isso acho que não me posso queixar.

6. Como analisa o aumento do número de utilizadores do Twitter no último mês?

É o reflexo natural da divulgação da plataforma entre os utilizadores comuns e claro, entre os jornalistas, que começam a usar e a falar cada vez mais do Twitter. É uma ferramenta que é fácil de usar e devido às ligações que se estabelecem dentro da rede de contactos torna-se viciante. Há encontros de utilizadores do Twitter, como disse , há um lado humano muito forte dentro desta rede social. E espero que os operadores móveis reparem nisso e comecem a apostar no Twitter, eu apostei há uns meses com o Paulo Querido que no espaço de um ano iria aparecer um telemóvel com uma tecla específica para usar o Twitter. E eu não quero perder.

Interviewed about twitter again | Entrevistado sobre o twitter de novo

Download .pdf

The Semanário Económico did a story about  Twitter’s popularity growth in Portugal. They talked with me in the quality of Twitter expert, which sounds kinda cool.  This is my second interview in two months for a story about Twitter, and both for national editions. I don’t write for any, but i show up in them. In Portuguese only, sorry.

O Semanário Económico fez uma reportagem sobre o aumento da popularidade do Twitter em Portugal, e vieram falar comigo na qualidade de estudioso do Twitter, o que até soa  porreiro. Esta é a segunda entrevista que dou em dois meses para uma publicação nacional, não escrevo para nenhuma mas saio nelas. Cliquem na imagem para ler em .pdf.