Monday, June 1, 2009

The Gay Revolution Will Be Twittered

Sacramento Bee Online Content Developer Nathaniel Miller says, "I first learned about the Iowa gay marriage Supreme Court ruling from Twitter." He's not alone. On Friday, "Iowa State Supreme Court" was the highest trending topic on the site, highlighting how Twitter has quickly become integrated into our daily lives, or at least the lives of the hyper-wired. For gays and lesbians, the service, which allows users to blast short messages of up to 140 characters each, has become not only a source of news, but a way for communities to connect. We asked the gay Twitter horde (by Twitter, naturally), how they're using it and who they're following. If you're just getting started with Twitter or want the inside scoop on the best of the LGBT Twitterverse, look no further.

How Gays are Using Twitter

Twitter was originally designed to allow people to give short status update, essentially answering the question, "What are you doing now?" But in practice, the service has become much more, especially when it comes to news. The immediacy of Twitter, coupled with its ability to deliver messages to your phone or web-client, means that breaking news is even more, to coin a Colbert-ism, "breakier." All the major news services use Twitter to deliver headlines, but for LGBT folks, gay-specific LGBT twitter news accounts serve as one-stop gay wire news services. Camilo Arenivar of L.A. says Twitter "can be used for news reliably, I like it more for that than anything else, it can be incredibly useful for specialized news." Kevin Cobb of Ft. Lauderdale explains that "I follow @qrty and @tlrd for national news + entertainment; @SteveRothaus for South Florida news."

Twitter's not just for breaking news, however. Unlike traditional one-way media, Twitter allows users to respond to each other, meaning that news becomes a conversation. Consider Same Sex Sunday, an idea hatched by the kids over at the Billerico project. The concept is simple: Tell folks about your favorite gay Twitterers and include the "hash tag" (a way of making similar tweets easily searchable) #samesexsunday. By putting like-minded folks in touch with each other, news carries.

The community aspect of Twitter had special significance for LGBT people the last few months in a way that is both radical and practical. As Prop. 8 protesters marched and rallied for equality, they used the service to organize and keep each other abreast of what was going on as it happened. Bao-Viet Nguyen of California says Twitter is "great to follow during marches and rallies… [I] got updates on March route changes, celeb sightings, police activity, new "chants" going on in other parts of the march, etc…" I have personal experience with this. During the Prop. 8 marches in L.A. I used my Twitter account (that's japhy79, folks) to keep updated with fellow marchers as well as get news about where the police were moving crowds and let those at home get an on-the-ground view of the marches. Prop. 8 protester Mark Oshiro tweeted his arrest after an altercation with a Yes on 8 supporter and the news was up online in minutes. As civil organizing tool, Twitter is an ad-hoc Nextel device on steroids.

10 Gay Twitterers You Need to Follow

So, who should you be following? We asked around and here are the hottest LGBT twitters out there today (as well as some personal favorites):

qbug_bigger @qrty: Oh, sure its self-promotion, but Queerty's own Twitter feed was mentioned by nearly every person we asked (and on Twitter, anyone can reply to you, so it wasn't just our friends). You get our latest posts sent to you as soon as they're posted, plus we often live-tweet important events, such as the inauguration and the Prop 8 Supreme Court hearings, giving our Twitter followers a sneak peek at our news stories as they happen.

t_lit_up_towle_bigger @tlrd: Andy Towle's twitter account is a rehash of what's on his site, but the man has mad skills at covering New York gay news and gay violence reports. Since we're talking about Towle Road, his last name is pronounced "toll." We only mention it because everyone keeps talking to us about Andy "Towlie." Consider it our good citizen move of the day.

davidbadash2009a_bigger @davidbadash: New York based LGBT activist David Badash is Twitter's gay uncle. In addition to keeping folks updated with news, he can be awfully chatty and enjoys discussing the latest news with people who reply.

fb_prop8_logo_button_bigger @noonprop8: Love or hate em', Equality California's Twitter account is a great source for authoritative news about the LGBT struggle in California.

g_bigger @gaysdotcom: While we don't have time for the world's "social network" for gays and lesbians, Gays.com's twitter feed is uniformly excellent, pulling up stories that don't get covered elsewhere.

qs_logo_twitter_bigger @queersighted: A very gossipy London-based feed, you're as likely to get tips about how to date via iPhone as you are to hear news about UK gay issues.

flyer05-both-h_bigger @qpocc: A good example of an "event-based" Twitter, Queer People of Color is covering the conference by the same name held this weekend at UC Davis. Feeds like this become watering wells for participants before, during and after the event, keeping the discussion going long after you're back home.

sig_mug_bigger @msignorile: Michelangelo Signorile's own feed is an inside look at the work that goes into his radio show (as well as the occasional random discussion about glue traps) and a good example of a "celebrity" twitter done right.

overtun8_crop_bigger @JoinTheImpact: The official Twitter of the Join the Impact site is a great resource for the latest demonstrations and protests across the country, if you can wade through the middle-school-esque acronyms and overuse of exclamation marks.

rainbowflag_bigger @queerunity: A little gem of a Twitter feed, Queer Unity is a San Francisco based feed that wears its activist heart on its sleeve. Worth following just to see the occasional flame wars that erupt between them and social conservatives who provoke them via tweets.

Are you on Twitter? Who are you following? Share with us in the comments.

–Japhy Grant

Posted by TheOneAll at 2:02 PM 0 comments Links to this post

Lazy Twitter stars call in ghost writers

Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore

Tweets by Kutcher and Moore have left fans feeling cold

John Harlow, Los Angeles

CELEBRITIES are hiring ghost writers to help them twitter in the latest social networking craze as the burden of writing 140-character messages for fans proves too onerous.

“Tweets”, as the messages are called, are supposed to be composed and dispatched live across the internet.

But there are growing suspicions that celebrities’ and politicians’ tweets are written by speechwriters and publicists.

Last week it was disclosed that the rapper 50 Cent had handed over his tweets to a ghost.

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Earlier this month the New York star, whose real name is Curtis Jackson, told 215,000 fans: “My ambition leads me through a tunnel that never ends.”

The words were not live but were lifted from an earlier interview by Chris Romero, who runs 50 Cent’s web pages. Last week Romero admitted that his boss did not use Twitter but said “the energy of it is all him”.

The comedian and author Stephen Fry, 51, probably Britain’s most popular twitterer, said it was a joy and a duty to keep posting on the site – “and it keeps boredom at bay at airports”.

Since Twitter emerged from a San Francisco high-tech company in August 2006, its users have developed their own code of conduct: be engaging and personal, do not embarrass anyone else and do it yourself.

America’s most popular sporting twitterer, the basketball star Shaquille O’Neal, last week told an American newspaper: “It’s 140 characters. If you need a ghost writer for that, I feel sorry for you.”

Britney Spears, the 27-year-old singer, advertised for staff to help her compose tweets.

Fans can distinguish between the professional tweets, which promote Spears’s music, and those written by the star herself. Last week she confined herself to bland messages such as Friday’s “had a great dinner with all of the [concert tour] dancers last night”.

But Demi Moore, 46, and her husband Ashton Kutcher, 31, tease one another in an affectionate style that sometimes leaves fans feeling cold.

The number of people twittering is growing fast, with the latest estimate at about 10m regular users worldwide.

The website has some practical uses. The Red Cross says it works well in emergencies: Twitter users broadcast the first accounts of last November’s terrorist attacks on Mumbai, helping rescue services reach victims quickly.

When a US Airways flight ditched in the Hudson River in New York in January, the first news appeared on Twitter within four minutes.

Sceptics, such as the television satirist Jon Stewart, suspect Twitter will prove a short-lived fad. A correspondent on his show said: “There’s no surprise young people love it – according to reports of young people by middle-aged people.”

This weekend Fry, posting from Bali, gave an answer to what to do when he runs out of things to tweet about: “Oh yes. E-mail backlog.”

Posted by TheOneAll at 2:02 PM 0 comments Links to this post

Why You Should Give a Tweet About Twitter

Become a Blogger
If you just came back from a year’s vacation in the Crab Nebula, perhaps you haven't heard of Twitter. It’s a social-messaging service that lets you stay hyperconnected by incessantly sending and receiving micro-updates to and from friends, family -- and complete strangers. So if you just had a "yum-e latte!" you can write a text to that effect on your phone and tell everyone on your Twitter list. This vital information will also be posted on your Twitter webpage, where people can read it and bask in the radiant glow of your happy and successful life. Or hate you. Their choice.

But is Twitter useful for anything? tour_1 Till now we thought not, because...well, we really don’t care if someone we don't know (or do know) just enjoyed a latte. We have better things to do. Like "watchin TV" or "bleachin d shower curtain" or "goin 2 d pub. LOL!" Turns out, though, that there are some serious enterprise uses for Twitter and a growing number of entrepreneurs are using it to promote themselves. Check out the Little Biz blog at Search Engine Watch, which has helpful details on the Twitter tools you can use to tell the world about your business. Or your yum-e latte. Wotev.

Facebook for small biz. It’s not hip like Twitter but the SBA just launched its own social-networking service for small businesses. It goes by the clunky name of Business.gov Community. It’s a place where people share information and experiences related to starting and running a business. The technology is more Steelcase than Aeron Chair but there’s plenty to learn if you spend a little time to connect and converse with others in your field.

A not-so-social networker. SBA press office director Mike Stamler is building a reputation as a less-than-social fellow. Rather than befriend members of the press and encourage them to write good things about the SBA, Stamler monitors the news and berates anyone with negative things to say about the SBA. We’ve been on the receiving end a couple times ourselves. (It's not what you’d call constructive criticism.) Now Stamler is going to court with his arch-enemy Lloyd Chapman, president of the American Small Business League and longtime critic of the SBA’s small-business contracting program. Chapman is suing the SBA for withholding records related to its contracting program and for libel, claiming Stamler has mounted a campaign to smear the ASBL in the media. Exhibit A: Stamler’s expletive-laced e-mail to the Long Island Business Journal, which dared to quote the ASBL in a story. The LIBJ wondered if maybe Stamler had too many lattes that morning. But Stamler says he doesn’t drink coffee. Hmmm. He just doesn’t seem like a chai tea kind of guy.
Posted by TheOneAll at 2:01 PM 0 comments Links to this post

How to Speak Twitter

A TWITTER GLOSSARY

At Reply, or "@reply": A direct tweet sent to another Twitter user.

Dweet: Tweet sent while drunk

Hash Tag: The "#" sign. Allows Twitter users to group tweets by topic, making it easier to search particular conversations using Twitter Search.

Link: Including a URL in your tweet.

MisTweet: A tweet one later regrets.

ReTweet: To repost something that's already in the Twitter stream. Usually preceeded by "RT" and "@[username]," to give credit to the original poster.

SnapTweet: A tweet that includes a photo taken with a cell phone, uploaded to Flickr and posted to Twitter via snaptweet.com.

Twittcrastination: Procrastination brought on by Twitter use.

Twadd: To add someone as a friend or follower.

Twaigslist/Twebay: To sell something on Twitter.

Tweeter/Twitterer: Someone who uses Twitter.

TwinkedIn: Inviting friends made on Twitter to connect on LinkedIn.

Twittectomy: To remove someone from the list of people you follow.

Twitterati: The A-list twitterers everyone follows.

Twitterfly: Twitter's version of a social butterfly, marked by the extreme use of @ signs.

Twitterlooing: Twittering from the bathroom.

Twitterpated: Overwhelmed with Twitter messages.

Twittfeinated, Twigged Out, Twired: To be so hyped up on twittering that you cannot sleep.

Data: Twitter Fan Wiki

Posted by TheOneAll at 2:00 PM 0 comments Links to this post

Simon Cowell criticises fellow celebrities for Twitter obsession

Talent show producer Simon Cowell has hit out at the Twitter craze in which celebrities have been publishing updates about their day to day activities.

By Alastair Jamieson
Last Updated: 9:16AM BST 02 Apr 2009

Simon Cowell: Simon Cowell criticises fellow celebrities for Twitter obsession
Simon Cowell is thought to have lost patience when American Idol co-host Ryan Seacrest used his Twitter page to describe Mr Cowell as looking old Photo: PA

The X Factor guru criticised friends who use the micro-blogging site where users constantly reveal tiny details of their lives.

Mr Cowell, 49, said told American television viewers: "Why would you want to talk to people like that? It's like phoning someone randomly whose number you don't even have and saying: 'Hi, it's Simon, I went out with my family this weekend'."

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He is thought to have lost patience when American Idol co-host Ryan Seacrest used his Twitter page to describe Mr Cowell as looking old.

The criticism follows a survey which identified Russell Brand as the most self-obsessed British celebrity based on usage of Twitter.

Celebrity gossip website Holy Moly analysed stars' use of the site and accused them of using it purely to promote themselves.

It found that comedian Brand has 143,548 fans following his regular updates of his antics but is only interested in 14 fellow Twitterers enough to bother following their progress. One of those is Jonathan Ross while another is fellow comic David Baddiel.

The huge gulf between his followers and those he is following sees Brand tops Holy Moly's 'Celebrity Twitter Narcissism Rating' with a score of 99.9902 per cent.

Singer Lily Allen, 23, apparently has almost as big an ego as Brand with a rating of 99.9900 per cent, according to the research. The singer has 101,500 followers but is tracking just 10 people – including fellow pop star Britney Spears, model Alexa Chung and comic Alan Carr.

Third in the showbiz league of shame was outspoken DJ Chris Moyle, who has 106,013 followers but is following just 13 people. His rating is 99.9877 per cent.

Among British celebrities, Twitter addict Stephen Fry has the most followers, with 348,699. Fry, who recently gave fans a running commentary when stuck for an hour in a lift at London's Centre Point building, has somehow found time to track 55,251 fellow Twitterers.

Posted by TheOneAll at 1:59 PM 0 comments Links to this post

Does the Twitter Whale = Twitter Fail?

For now, Twitter remains untouched on its journey up the road as a Social Network Superstar.

Twitter’s next big hurdle on its ascent may be its biggest to date: turning a profit. Twitter needs to start making money. Ideas are plentiful, but execution remains to be seen. Everyone knows it; even Twitter’s brass have fallen just short of claiming 2009’s objective will be to make money.

But seemingly unnoticed, the frequent overload of Twitter servers seems to be the ‘elephant’ in the room that may hinder efforts to create and maintain revenue.

As recently as yesterday, Twitter’s faithful got a wakeup call that Twitter’s ‘Fail Whale’ was still circling the parking lot. It began by stalling out on avatars, tweets and DMs and finished by crashing down the service for 45 minutes.

With my own Twitter usage I have experienced some of the site’s flakiness. If Twitter can’t abolish all potential Fail Whales, will it ever be able to capture the market confidence necessary to make the money its popularity seems to promise?

It is important to point out that Twitter has made significant strides to drive the Whale off of its site completely. What at first seemed to be glitches that Twitter could accept as necessary evils have been eliminated. But as the site’s thoughts turn to profits from its users and advertisers the question arises: will any site stall-outs will be accepted?

As long as Twitter remains a free service, occasional glitches are easily overlooked. After all, what do users really have to complain about? Just about the only thing users have to lose is time and, with the affinity out there for Twitter, it seems to be something with which users are willing to part.

An example of this can be seen in a recent quote by Jason Kincaid of TechCrunch. Of the recent 45 minutes of downtime, he said it was, “not too shabby”. I know I have personally thrown fits, canceled accounts and sent scathing e-mails for considerably less.

As soon as money becomes involved, expectations rise dramatically, especially with a site like Twitter. When services go from free to something that users are paying for, they will suddenly have much heightened expectations. The service was always there. Service you can count and rely upon is what users believe they are paying for. No matter how much allegiance users have with Twitter, this will be the case when they start paying their money.

If you were a Twitter users paying for premium value-added services, would you be willing to tolerate glitches such as disappearing tweets, avatars and DMs? Or, if you were an advertiser with Twitter would you be willing to accept that your ads weren’t getting viewed as often as expected due to slow and unreliable services? Certainly not.

As Twitter enters the commercial phase it must be cognizant of the fact that making sure its Whale gets harpooned will not be priority of a technical nature, but rather of a commercial nature. How it handles and prioritizes its commercial aspects will become vital to Twitter’s success.

Posted by TheOneAll at 1:59 PM 0 comments Links to this post

Field recording, pre-amps, and Twitter

Reader Craig Messerman is hitting the trail to record the sounds of the world around us. He’d like to use his MacBook in the process, but has hit a snag. He writes:

How can I use an AudioTechnica Pro24 stereo microphone for field recording with my MacBook? It makes beautiful recordings with my Sony DV camcorder (with plug-in power), but I can’t get high enough gain with the MacBook. It has a battery, and I’ve tried plugging it into the computer’s audio input, and into a Griffin iMic (first gen.). It doesn’t matter what I set the iMic switch to, it’s just no good. All I get is pretty good close up recording like we can with our Shure SM57 and 58. Any thoughts?

As much as I love geeking out over microphones and recording setups, I understand that this question has the potential to interest exactly two people—me and Craig. But hang on, there’s a moral here.

Before we get to that moral, the answer is that because your MacBook lacks a FireWire port (so you can't use a FireWire bus-powered audio interface) you need either a battery-powered pre-amp that sits between the microphone and your MacBook (this pre-amp, for those that don’t know, will amplify the mic’s signal) or you do what others in the business do and use a digital field recorder. These things are made by any number of companies including Sony, Marantz, Samson, Korg, Yamaha, Edirol, and Tascam; use removable media (Compact Flash and SD cards); and often include a microphone.

But this is Mac 911, after all, so let’s address the pre-amp-to-MacBook issue, which leads us to the moral.

I did my best to scour the Web for battery-powered pre-amps and came up with a few schematics but no single great suggestion. So, I turned to the power of Twitter (where I appear as @BodyofBreen). I put out a general call for such a pre-amp and follower/AV tech/all-around-helpful-guy Chris Eschweiler (@chrisesch) piped in with the suggestion that I check out Sound Devices’ $350 MM-1 Portable Mic Preamp With Headphone Monitor. It’s powered by AA batteries and offers impressive audio specs.

The moral, of course, is that good as Google can be, it sometimes doesn’t hurt to raise up your head and shout, “Say, anybody here have a recommendation for….”

Twitter: It’s not just about breakfast.

Posted by TheOneAll at 1:58 PM 0 comments Links to this post
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