Tech T.I.P. Article 2/2/2012

What’s the BUZZ?

By Denise Barrett Olson

Twitter may seem like a simple announcement/messaging system to most people, but it’s actually quite an amazing news service. This edition of Tech T.I.P. will not only show you how Twitter manages the news, but will also introduce you to @genBUZZ - a growing news service for the genealogy community.

If you are not familiar with Twitter, it is a free online service where members post short status updates. These updates - called tweets - can’t be more than 140 characters long and are visible to any other Twitter user who is following you. Tweets can include hyperlinks to web pages and even photos. And, since a tweet is short and sweet, you can send one from just about any Internet-connected device - even via mobile phone text messages. Because people can tweet from just about anywhere, lots of breaking news stories - like the airliner that “landed” in the Hudson River - get their start via Twitter.

It’s a challenge to tell a story in 140 characters, but you’ll be surprised how well folks have adapted. Application developers have found Twitter’s API (application programming interface) lets them develop great apps for collecting and sharing these announcements. One very good example is the Flipboard news reader for the iPad. This app not only collects the tweets, it follows included hyperlinks to pull in the photo or article the tweet links to. As you can see in this example, the result is a delightful reading experience.

So, with Twitter as your news source, you can build your own version of an Associated Press® news service.

But wait! It gets better! Twitter has several features that help you organize and manage all the news you collect. You can organize the tweeple (Twitter people) you follow into lists. This will allow you to separate family tweets from genealogy-related tweets and so on. Once you’ve created your lists and assigned Twitter accounts to them, then you view just the list you want when you want. You can also follow other tweeple’s lists.

Another feature - the hashtag - is used to collect tweets associated with a specific topic or event. Each hashtag begins with a hash mark (otherwise known as a pound sign - #). Then, every time someone tweets about that topic/event, they include the appropriate hashtag in their tweet. Twitter users can search for tweets associated with a specific hashtag to keep up with the news related to it. For example, if you want to keep up with the happenings at RootsTech this week, you’ll find it by using the #rootstech hash tag in a Twitter search. You’ll see all the tweets with that hashtag - not just the people you’re following.

These Twitter capabilities make it easy to keep up with people and topics you find interesting, but what can you do to make it easy for us to keep up with you? If you’re blogging, there are several ways you can announce each post via Twitter. If your blog platform doesn’t support sending updates to Twitter as you post, you can take advantage of services like TwitterFeed to do it for you.

Now, about that @genBUZZ news service . . .

I’ve created a Twitter account (@genBUZZ) just to provide a comprehensive news service to the genealogy community.

As you can see in this example, several lists have already been created to organize the service into various topic areas - including one about Graveyards. You can follow the @genBUZZ user and get a curated feed of interesting items related to genealogy or you can follow the Genealogy list for all the news from all the followers. And, you can follow just the lists you find interesting. Right now @genBUZZ is following more than 350 Twitter accounts, but this will continue to grow. I’m always on the lookout for new tweeple to follow so, if you don’t have @genBUZZ as one of your followers, send me a tweet and I will be delighted to make you part of the @genBUZZ news service.

@genBUZZ is just getting started. It will take time to grow and mature, but with your help it can become not only an informative news service but also a fascinating reading list.