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Twitter in Plain English

Twitter in Plain English

Twitter Handbook for Teachers Disruptive Conversations: The 10 ways I learned to use Twitter in 2007... (aka Why and How I use Twitter) UPDATE - April 9, 2008: Four months later, I revisited the ways I've learned to use Twitter and added a few more. How have I learned to use Twitter in my online communication? Let me count the ways... After Chris Brogan posted his "Twitter Revisited" piece last week and on the same day Jeremiah Owyang talked about popularity and Twitter, I put some thought into how Twitter has substantially changed the ways in which I communicate online. Some of this I talked about in my segment into Mitch Joel's Yuletide podcast, and some of it listeners to For Immediate Release will hear in my report into today's FIR. In this post, I want to lay out in a longer form (< 140 characters!) 1. This morning (US Eastern time) former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated. Most days are certainly not (thankfully!) In fact, there are many days when I don't read RSS feeds at all, but instead find myself relying on information passed along through the Twitterstream. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

How Common Craft Stopped Doing Client Work, In Plain English - R Five years ago Lee LeFever was an online community manager for a B2B healthcare company called Solucient. Today, his voice has been heard by millions of people around the world, making strange new applications feel easy to use and offering some of the clearest explanations of how the Internet is changing. LeFever is the founder of Common Craft and his story is an inspiring one. He's gone from social media consulting to co-producing the wildly popular "...In Plain English" video series. Editor's note: Looking back over 2008, there were some posts on ReadWriteWeb that did not get the attention we felt they deserved - whether because of timing, competing news stories, etc. The History of Common Craft Common Craft started out as a consultancy focused on creating and teaching organizations about online communities. By 2007 the LeFevers began trying something that many social media consultants and trainers try - they began making videos explaining certain tools and trends emerging online.

Wikis in Plain English These four friends are going on a camping trip. They need to bring the right supplies because they're backpacking. The group needs to plan and plan well, so coordination is key. They're all computer users, so they start planning with an email. The important information is scattered across everyone's inbox. There is a better way. Most wikis work the same. The buttons are really important. Here are our camping friends and here is a wiki website. Once you're finished editing, you click save and the document becomes a webpage once again, and is ready for the next person to edit it - easy! Edit - Write - and Save. Mary signs up for a wiki site and then sees the new site for the first time. Now it's John's turn. Henry visits the wiki, clicks edit and he can edit the page. Frank saves the page and realizes something awesome. But wait! John visits the wiki and clicks edit to edit the page. John clicks save and next, Frank visits the wiki and sees the lists and the link to the new page.

Twitter in Plain English - Common Craft - Our Product is Explanation So, what are you doing? It's one of the first questions we often ask friends and family. Even if the answer is just mowing the lawn or cooking dinner, it's interesting to us. Unfortunately, most of our day-to-day lives are hidden from people that care. edchat / FrontPage quot;cartoons drawn on the back of business cards&quot;: my increasingly twitter&#039;d world February 29, 2008 my increasingly twitter'd world [follow me on twitter] [In case you haven't figured this out already:] Besides my blog and my e-mail account, the other main tool I use to communicate with the online world is Twitter [I don't really use Facebook anymore, but that's a story for another day]. The general M.O. these days is, I use gapingvoid for publishing my cartoons and my more permanent, "archival" written stuff. Yesterday, I joked on Twitter, "Note to World: If you're not on Twitter, I don't want to make friends with you." [In Conclusion:] Twitter is now the best way of [a] keeping up with what I'm doing on a day-to-day basis and [b] getting my attention. [PS. Posted by hugh macleod at February 29, 2008 5:02 PM | TrackBack I've been following you for a while on Twitter and really warming up to the service as a whole. I'll be sure to follow back. I've noticed the same thing with my own communication habits lately. Fully agree with everything above.

18 Lessons Learned in 2008 | Common Craft - Explanations In Plai It's time for our 2nd annual Year-End Lessons Learned post. 2008 was a great year for Common Craft. While we published a number of videos that we're very proud of, 2008 was all about building a foundation for the future of our business. Going into 2009, we're feeling confident that we have a solid foundation in place - and now is our time to put more videos into the world. Here are a few things we learned: Overall Business: Build Foundations. Always Test Business Models. Constantly Build Brand. Start Now. Have a Positive Impact. Working with Others: Assume Positive Intentions - We're so happy to be able to put our videos into the world for free with a Creative Commons license. Every Contact is an Opportunity. Tools: YouTube Creates Brand Awareness. Listen to Twitter. Finally: We learned that you can't underestimate the power differing points of view. See also: 15 Lessons Learned in 2007.

Social Networking in Plain English Networks get things done. Whether it's sending a letter or lighting your home. Networks make it happen. To get from Chicago to Santa Fe, we need to see the network of roads that will get us there. We see that Chicago is connected to St Louis, which is connected to Dallas, which is connected to Santa Fe. Of course, people networks can help us with finding jobs, meeting new friends, and finding partners. The problem with social networks in the real world is that most of the connections between people are hidden. This problem is being solved by a type of web site called a social networking site. Here's how it works. When you find someone, you click a button that says, "Add as Friend". What's really cool, is that you can see who your friends know, and who your friends' friends know. This solves a real world problem because your network has hidden opportunities.

Twitter as Dinner Conversation: A Guide to Using Replies In this post Chuck Westbrook (follow him @cwestbrook) looks uses the analogy of Dinner Conversation to explain the basics of different types of communication on Twitter. Image by Thomas Hawk Twitter is a lot like a dinner with a large group of friends at a big table in a busy restaurant. Everyone is chatting, there’s a lot being said, and if you’re not focused on a particular conversation, it sounds downright noisy. So just like a large group setting in real life, there are some conventions about how people tune in to listen and the most effective ways to be sociable. Whispering: The Direct Message Sending a direct message is like quietly chatting with the person next to you at the table. On Twitter, you should lean in with a direct message when the discussion is private or if it just won’t be of interest to others within earshot. Talking Normally: An @ Reply to Begin the Tweet Telling Everyone: An @ Reply Inside of the Tweet Good Manners

Twitter for Teachers: Home - Twitter for Teachers Anything Could Happen - Twitter - Evan Williams What is Evan Williams doing? I ask myself this as I consume a second cup of strong coffee in a quiet San Francisco café. It is early in the morning on the first workday of the new year, and Williams is apparently blowing me off. For the past two weeks he has ignored my e-mails, phone calls, and text messages. We were supposed to meet this morning to discuss his next move; instead we have radio silence. This is odd. Eventually, Williams sends me an apologetic text message--we resolve to push back the meeting slightly--and then he does something else: He uses Twitter to send a text message to, oh, a few thousand people: "Late for my first meeting of the year and in need of a shave." Like so many technology entrepreneurs, Williams, whose friends call him Ev, is a software engineer. What is Twitter? The Idea Factory Williams's office is his business philosophy made manifest: Find smart people; put them together; stand back. This is Twitter, in all its wildly popular, ridiculous glory.

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