Correcting follower and following counts 2 hours ago

For some time, the follower and following counts we display have been incorrect for some folks. We’re soon to push a change that will address this issue. This means that the count you see in your sidebar should match what you see on your follower and following pages.

However, a consequence of this change is that follower counts will drop for some people. In particular, those with large followings may see significant changes as we correct for spam accounts and data inconsistencies. No legitimate followings should be affected—we’re just cleaning up artifacts in the system.

– so says Twitter.

     Nope, I’m not talking about knitting!  Twine is a new social aggregation site and now there’s a twine for St. Louis.

     So what’s a twine exactly?  A twine is a collection of items about something.  Vague? Yeah. Once a twine is started on a subject, say St. Louis, Twine users can add things such as bookmarks, documents, notes, images and video under it.  As time goes, the collection will grow.

     Users become members of individual twines.  Members can add more items to that subject’s twine as well as commenting on already added content.  Members can also share items, such as bookmarks, with their contacts, or other twines.

     Diversity in what can be shared on a subject sets this apart from a wiki.  Instead of just links, actual descriptions and previews of those links are available, as well as member comments about those links.  And it’s not just links. The ability to add documents and video contributes to that diversity.

     Beyond diversity though is the ease of contribution.  Members can contribute by adding a Twine bookmarklet, posting on the twine page, or sending an email in.

     Twine content is enjoys another benefit.  It’s able to be searched for the instant it’s entered. That’d be pretty interesting on its own, but Twine take it up a notch.  They find key words in the content.

     A great example is on the St. Louis Twine page.  I added the Missouri Botanical Garden website to the twine.  It not only picked up the tags from the entry, but also recognized that Henry Shaw is a relevant person.  The Botanical Garden was actually founded by Henry Shaw. Amazing.

     Will people really find this useful? I’m imagining that the more people have access and get involved, the better a twine will be.  There are already twines with hundreds of members and even more links and items.

     So now you’re ready to get involved but you need an invite.  I can help you there.  Just drop me line with your email address and mention Twine and I’ll send you one.  Once you’re in, invite your friends.  You receive plenty of invites to pass on.

     See you on Twine!

Twitter was first media source again today, and here’s the lead in.

St. Louis residents were awakened around 4:30 a.m. by a 5.2 magnitude earthquake centered several miles from West Salem, Illinois. The forceful shaking which lasted nearly a minute. As the shaking stopped, many St. Louis area Twitterers (and beyond) went to their keyboards to discuss damage. This was nearly 30 minutes before any word from the local media.

     The full article, shared on the St. Louis Bloggers Guild, gives a first hand perspective of new media’s impact. Twitter was the source for folks to find out what the all the shake, rattle and roll was about.  Waking to find pictures falling, windows rattling, and dogs going crazy, the TV and radio had nothing to say.

     Has the world turned on it’s ear when the first place people are going for live and important news is online, perhaps to people they’ve never met?  The Bhutto assassination news came to me with live reports relayed from the scene over Twitter. Now that’s speed. With the contacts I have, I can get the unabridged version of what’s said at many televised speaking engagements.  It’s neat to hear a first had report of Hilary Clinton’s remarks as she’s snuck out the back at an appearance and a few stray reporters are there to see.

     It’s not just Twitter were the news comes.  Many of my contacts have not only written blogs, but video blogs, and can do live video recording on their phones.  Talk about exciting to not just have someone tell me the news over Twitter, but to show me.  What better than pictures captured at an event and instantly transmitted across the world.

     Not only has new media brought us new tools, but a whole new sense of community to news.  No longer is an overly primped strong chinned host the only face on the news.  Becky down the street can bring me live coverage of her first walk for Cancer. Sanjib in overseas in the East can share what life is really like there, free from the cleansing of national and international television rules.  Jim in NY can share pictures of the Pope, pictures you won’t see on the news.  Want crowd reaction, why listen to some guy on NPR report on it.  Get it from the folks in the crowd through Twitter, Utterz, and Qik.

     Downsides you say, what about not coming from a professional? Heck, I’ll trade polished and good looking for raw footage any day. I’ll trade super quality video and sound for fresh and interesting as well.  So no, maybe the guy sharing isn’t briefed in world political history, and can’t comment except about how he feels.  But that guy bringing us a fresh view, and a view not likely tied to keeping his reporting job.

     There’s one thing I forgot to mention though in my excitement to brag about new media.  You can’t just tune in and turn it on and get the news.  You can’t just know which of your contacts will bring it to your door, and not even where the news might be about.

     How to get around that? Contacts and quality = value. Lots of contacts isn’t enough if most of them live down the street, though you might be surprised.  Contacts who never engage in conversation and never share, they won’t be of much news value either.  But you can cultivate great contacts.  I’ll leave that for you the reader to think about how to do it.

     To wrap up, is Twitter and such the end all and be all of getting your news? No, but it’s quickly becoming the place in my day to day life that I find out first about breaking news.

     What about you? Has your online network of friends, contacts, and feeds brought new life into finding out about the world around you? Or are you certain that the only good news is brought through nice safe professional channels, like Fox and CNN? Where do you stand?  Is a bloggers voice good enough? Or do you only read the newspaper?  Tell me where you get your info.