Last night some edubloggertweeterwikiists launched a pretty cool idea for marking the best Twitter posts for the month of March. The idea is pretty simple; see a valuable Tweet and ReTweet it with the hashtag #gr8t. You can then either read them as they come through on this wiki page, or subscribe to the RSS feed from the search.twitter.com results page.
Used judiciously, this could be a fine way to track some of the most informative Tweets out there. I’ve been trying to keep the number of people I follow to a minimum, so for me, tapping into the best of the edutwittersphere in this way could be pretty helpful. It’s like a delicious for Twitter, kinda sorta. (It should also benefit those who follow like 10, 459 people too.)
I’ve always struggled (though not too mightily) with the signal to noise ratio on Twitter. Through the people I follow and with the varying amounts of time I spend on it per day, I probably average about half a dozen good links a day. While I enjoy the back and forth somewhat, I’m really looking for links more than anything, and I’ve been pretty successful at mining Twitter search for Tweets that contain certain words AND a link. Lots of ways to do it.
So, anyway, for next month at least, add your #Gr8t Tweets to the list…
Twitter is getting a lot of attention. It fits in nicely with the idea of precision in writing: the six or fifty word narrative…or 140 characters.
Some writers endorse brevity and thus the Twittersphere:
Less is more. ~ Robert Browning
And yet still leave room for eloquence:
I love writing. I love the swirl and swing of words as they tangle with human emotion. ~ James Michener (Yes, I included this one on Twitter: #gr8t
Hey Will,
Good to know you’re back in southwestern Ontario. Your citizenship should be coming through any time soon.
Knowing you’re an efficient user of both Twitter and Delicious, I’m wondering if you see the value in having teachers ‘bookmark themselves’. A little while back, I invited folks to use specific tags to identify themselves so that Twitter could be mined through Delicious, and I think if the idea caught on, it could allow experienced teachers to add new teachers to their extended network.
More on this idea: http://thecleversheep.blogspot.com/2009/02/tag-yourself-as-twitterteacher.html
“It’s like a delicious for Twitter, kinda sorta.”
Wonderful analogy! Thanks for sharing Will, I look forward to the #gr8t Tweets you and your readers will offer up next month.
Dave.