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June 23, 2008
So Far, Twitter Falters On The Political Front
This weekend, the Personal Democracy Forum hosted a Twitter-only political experiment. The participants gave it the old college try, including a Time magazine blogger and Obama and McCain representatives. At least so far, Twitter falters on the political front.
My main complaint is that it's too hard to follow the topics among the participants. Also there's no simple way to browse all their tweets together, beyond the most recent 20 messages. Finally, a search mechanism is conspicuously missing in action.
To see the commentary, please link to any of these formats: (1) individual tweets from Time's Ana Marie Cox, Mike Nelson for Obama, and Liz Mair for McCain; (2) side-by-side tweets from all three; and (3) mixed tweets based on time posted.
One bright light? The participants intended to communicate about the presidential candidates' tech policies and positions. Everyone adhered to that mission pretty faithfully, and here are a few tweets about net neutrality:
* For the last q tonite, we acknowledge the elephant in the tweets: Net neutrality. Responses in the AM, pls. (Jun 21 22:21:31)
* JSM warns "caution" ( http://tinyurl.com/69y9b8 ) abt the gov't enforcing net neutrality-that means he's against it, y? (Jun 22 17:14:59)
* Re: Net Neutrality. Barack has set clear goal of NN and an open Internet: http://www.barackobama.com/issues/technology/ (Jun 22 18:18:10)
* What I've said previously being noted, JSM favors market-based approach except where gov't intervention abs. nec. (Jun 22 19:45:49)
* But note JSM pledge to seek perm. ban on internet taxes & track record of leadership on keeping net free of taxes. (Jun 22 19:46:20)
While Twitter messages seem almost long enough to say something, it takes too much effort to "connect the dots" among the participants. Old-fashioned chat rooms worked better than this!
Posted by on June 23, 2008 4:15 AM
Comments
I wonder if this is the best or only way Twitter is used for political purposes. Remember that Obama had until recently the most followers on Twitter. Why? Maybe people followed him in hopes of having their Tweets read or even (gasp!) taken into account in policy-making. More likely, people followed Obama simply to register their support. So maybe Twitter's purpose will be as a kind of straw poll. A way for candidates to measure up one against the other. The difference in support for Obama versus Clinton was reflected in the final result of the primaries. Will the same be the case for the national election?
Whatever, the case, it is interesting that Obama's candidacy seems to have breathed life into Twitter at a time when it was beginning to wane (see my blog entry: http://snipurl.com/28i95)
Roger June 23, 2008 11:28 AM
To be honest. I never thought twitter had too much value anyway.
Nate Nead June 26, 2008 3:07 AM
Yes,you are completely right to say ''it's too hard to follow the topics among the participants. Also there's no simple way to browse all their tweets together, beyond the most recent 20 messages. Finally, a search mechanism is conspicuously missing in action.''.
Arama Motoru Optimizasyonu December 14, 2008 10:45 PM
I agree with above commenters.Also,I do not think that Twitter is so valuable.
Epilasyon April 29, 2009 6:58 PM
To be honest. I never thought twitter had too much value anyway
NesMedya Haber Video Oyun Seo Yar??mas? May 2, 2009 5:45 AM
I agree with above commenters.Also,I do not think that Twitter is so valuable.
NBA September 9, 2009 2:19 AM
