Tag Archives: Micro-Blogging

Christel House SA – A Tweet-up for a Cause

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This Saturday morning past saw a group of tweeters, press, teachers and school-kids arrive at Christel House SA in Ottery for what was truly an eye-opening experience. We planted trees on the school grounds, sharing in the construction and landscaping of what is truly an incredible institution. The Christel House school is an institution that provides education and nourishment to under-privelaged youths (grade RO to Matric) from the surrounding areas. The school bus fetches and returns the children daily, as well as the dining hall providing nutritionally balanced nourishment to the students. We had the opportunity to share in the construction of the brand new Christel House school premisis, as well as a walk-through tour of the grounds and the incredible fascilities the school is offering to it’s students.

Costing in the same bracket as an average public school in South Africa, it is a wonder why more schools have yet to adopt the Christel House SA model. With two sports fields (including a cricket pitch), lush fertile grounds, spacious classrooms, a vegetable garden for each classroom and a host of other fascilities, Christel House SA provides a place where students want to be, to learn and to develop.
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Tweet-ups, Meet-ups, Relish and Tree Planting

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Tweet-ups and Relish

Last night saw the gathering of Captonian tweeters at Relish in town for a tweet-up (meeting of Twitter users). Relish was a great choice of venue for the evening and accommodated everyone perfectly. The event was held in honour of Mike Stopforth’s trip to the Cape. Many turned out for the occassion which made the evening, in my opinion, a great success.

Meet-ups and Tree Planting

Tweet-ups are such a great way to meet people. At each one I have been to, I have met new people and gotten to chat with those that I have met before and discuss things further. I find it very interesting to listen to others, find out more about what they do and enjoy doing, and to learn more about them. Last night, I met a wealth of great tweeters and had some great conversations. I look forward to the next Tweet-up (going to Union was discussed?).
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HOW TO: Track the sports score using Twitter

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Here’s an interesting paradox. Sports (lively, active, outdoor, sweaty) and Twitter (prodominantly indoor, digital, non-verbal, ‘geeky’). Who ever thought that ‘geeks’ liked sport? It seems that many do.

Since the cricket started a few weeks ago, I’ve seen streams of tweets coming in from avid cricket fans, commentating on virtually every play and sharing their thoughts. This is a great way to get the score and the latest info on what’s going on with the game currently being played. Just the other day (before, during and after the Manchester United vs Chelsea soccer game) I saw a tweet congratulating Manchester United and, almost straight after in the same stream, a tweet from another user cheering on Chelsea. What is the common denominator here?
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Cape Town tweeters end the holiday in style

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Last night saw the gathering of several Cape Town “tweeters” (users of Twitter) at the Alba Lounge for some drinks and conversation about Twitter, technology and general “getting to know people” chat. A group of around 15 people joined for the evening. These are my thoughts.

I find tweet-ups (and the concept) quite interesting. It’s a new experience for me, introducing myself by my name, and having to say “a.k.a” and my Twitter username for the confusion to lift. Once you pass that point and everyone knows everyone on a first name basis, conversation begins to flow. I think it’s like that with introductions in general though. Moving past the “hi, my name is” moments, some great conversations were had. Everything from WordPress and tech talk, to music and cats was discussed.

Tweet-ups are an amazing way to meet people and get to know familiar faces better. The power of advertising on Twitter also became quite evident to me. Having posted and re-posted a “tweet” (message on Twitter) advertising the tweet-up and having seen the message re-tweeted by a few people, I was glad to see how many users came through who I, at the time, was not following or didn’t know. The power of multiple Twitter streams is evident in this.

@MarcPerel of From-The-Couch was filming the evening for the world to see. He and @gabyrosario filmed interviews with some of the tweeters at the event. Should be an awesome video.

Thanks to everyone that came through last night. It was awesome to meet you all and the perfect way to end off the festive season holiday. Here’s to many more tweet-ups in future.

Were you at last night’s Tweet-up? If so, what’d you think? If not, why not? :)

What does your Twitter web look like?

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Twitter, the revolutionary micro-blogging startup, has taken the web by storm, introducing a vast array of users to the concept of blogging, turning social media marketing strategies on their heads, and creating a new way for users to interact with one another. With it’s 140 character limit on updates (or “tweets”) the character count allows for ease of update via a variety of devices, be it the web interface, a desktop client, your Apple iPhone or a generic mobile device (via SMS or web client).

With so many Twitter clients and update services popping up on the web today, we have such a myriad of options at our disposal. A list of popular Twitter clients, compiled by @michielb and posted by @problogger, has got me thinking about my journey on Twitter and the various clients and update facilities I’ve used. I went from web updates, to mobile web and TweetDeck updates, to TwitterFox and now to my (current) staple of a web that looks like this:

Web Interface (web) <–> Twibble (mobile) <–> FriendFeed (aggregation of services onto Twitter) <–> TweetDeck (desktop client)

So, My question today is;
What does your Twitter web look like?

Please share your web and thoughts & experiences in the comments below.

Fail Whale spotted off the coast of Twitter

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So, I just had my first viewing (I think) of the Fail Whale. Very cool.

I’ve heard plenty stories about the Twitter Fail Whale and have now seen it for myself. A rare sighting (like any whale, ofcourse) the Twitter Fail Whale arrives when Twitter’s servers are at capacity with the number of tweets passing through. TFW (The Fail Whale) has grown into an internationally known craze, sporting a merchandise range and many various articles discussing it’s sightings and general habits. Continue reading →

TwitterLeague – The follower count showdown

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Many approaches have been taken to using Twitter (the popular micro-blogging service). Some choose a minimalistic approach, following only users of interest and keeping their “tweets” simple and effective, or choosing rather to listen more than to tweet.

Others, however, take a more, shall we say, active stance on Twitter, following as many people as possible, in the hopes that those many people will follow them in return, creating a larger network of users that may view their tweets.
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