CNN responds to TWIT

Last week on This Week in Tech the panel had a prolonged discussion about how the "24 hour" cable news networks didn't cover the uprising over the Iranian elections whatsoever.  Twitter, however, had a lot of first-person information.  (Just have a look at the hashtag #Iranelection) Then today I saw this clip from the Daily Show

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John Stewart is busy making fun of CNN for never being accurate.  (I'm no CNN fan, but it's not quite a fair characterization.)  However, to me the story is that CNN is reacting to the criticism levelled against them by TWIT.  Namely that they have slipped into irrelevance and that the real news breaks on Twitter.  CNN is attempting to be relevant and timely.  They are also simultaneously trying to discredit Twitter and using it as their only source.  Any user of Twitter knows that it is really the quickest place to see breaking news.  It needs to be used as a reference rather than as a source, but when something happens (just look at Iran) you will see it there first.

At least CNN pretends to recognize this fact.  Even if they are being snarky about it, they know that there is news getting out of Iran mainly via Twitter.

Using twitter for church

Monday I am speaking to the NSRBA minster's meeting.  I have been attending those meetings for 4 years, but usually keep my mouth shut.  I finally feel like I have something to contribute so I asked to speak.  I am speaking about technology and how churches can use the internet, and other technology to enhance and simplify their ministries.   One of the technologies I plan to speak about is Twitter.  I know that some of my readers are tired of hearing me talk about it, but I want to run my thoughts by my blog before I talk about it at the minster's meting.  I would appreciate your feedback.

It is my belief that for most people in a church, the pastor is a bit of an unknown.  This phenomenon has two causes.  One is that people view the pastor as some sort of superman, not at all like them, with the same struggles and sins.  The other is that in many churches the pastor changes so often that the people don't get a chance to know him.  This goes both ways, because many pastors change churches often enough that they don't develop deep friendships within the church body.

What does this have to do with Twitter?  I believe that Twitter is a great tool for fellowship  (or community, if you prefer cool-church language;.)  Why is Twitter great for fellowship?  Because it allows people to see into your life, combine it with a camera phone and it enhances this.

One of the great things about Twtter is that you can keep up with a multitude of people at once and it takes almost no effort on your part.  For example, I have a  friend whom I haven't seen in almost 3 years, that I follow on twitter and I feel like I know as much about what goes on with him now as I did when we were riding to school together once a week.

If you are on Facebook you understand the power of the status update to keep you informed about people.  Twitter is like the status report on steroids.

I follow about 50 people and I have absolutely no trouble keeping up with that number.  I'm sure that somewhere around 200 people the ability to feel like you have a grip on everybody fails, but with some sort of client and just reading regularly it is easy to keep up with many people.

Recently, our church has even created a Twitter page.  It contains announcements, web links and prayer requests.  A very different use than a personal feed but still valid.

If you just want to test out Twitter and are not sure you are ready to commit and begin doing so yourself, you can simply subscribe to the RSS feed of any account.

Do you find Twitter to be a useful tool for fellowship?

Twitter...again

Despite Ryan's overwhelming negativity, today I will present my third and final (at least for a while) post about Twitter.  Oddly enough I have seen a half a dozen posts about it in the last week.  I think this phenomenon is because actual celebrities are now beginning to use it. Today's post is about some of the many websites that use the Twitter apps for a multitude of purposes.

I'll start with Twitterholic which shows you the top twitterers of all.  Even though President Obama hasn't twittered since the election he is #1.  largely because his campaign promised to announce his running mate by twitter first, he has a 60% lead over #2 Kevin Rose, the founder of Digg.com.

According to twitterholic I am the third most popular twitterer in Fayetteville NC. Behind this guy and this lady.

Next up is twitter grader.  It ranks twitterers using some fancy secret formula in order to judge your influence and power among the community.  It is no surprise that the twitter elite turns out to be a bunch of tech bloggers, because currently twitter is mostly used by techies.

According to twitter grader, I have a grade of 83* and am #2 on the elite list for Fayetteville NC.  Again I am behind this lady.

Then there is twittemperature.  This one is supposed to judge the relevancy of what you twitter.

I have no idea how this one works because I have gone from smoking hot to freezing cold in just a couple of weeks.  Currently I'm 13° F whatever that means

Then there is tweetscan.  It allows you to type in a word and see all recent tweets containing that word.  Give it a try, it's pretty neat. Type in Brian Regan, or Obama, or Macaroni, or explosion.

Here's a list of real and fake celebrities on twitter

Try out some of these tools and tell me your scores and ranks.

*Obviously that's 83 girth units

Twitter For the Masses

In predictions for 2009 I said that I thought Twitter would catch on and finally become popular with "the kids".  What I mean is that non-geeks will begin seeing it for the incredible tool that it is.  Later when listening to the Buzz Out Loud prediction show, I heard Tom Merritt make the same prediction. I know a lot of my regular readers read my twitters (they are supposed to be called tweets, but that is just so stupid that I refuse to) because I can see when you click on the links from my feed in the sidebar.  So my goal today is to get you to try out Twitter, and explain what it is exactly.  Next week I will post about different ways of using it, cool apps and stats, and some ways not to use it.

Twitter is microblogging, for lack of a better term.  You get 140 characters to say whatever you want.  Here's how it works.  You sign up, choose people to follow, then participate.  Your page will automatically show you all the updates of the people you follow.  Likewise, everyone who follows you will see all your updates.

You can update it from the web or by text message.  You can also post pics to twitter using twitpic.com.  It allows people to see into the lives of those you follow.  And in turn your followers can see what you are up to.  You can use it for prayer requests, to send out information or to keep up with old friends.  I follow people I know from college and from seminary.  And if you sign up, let me know and I'll follow you as well.

You can keep track of your twitter feed on the twitter.com website, but  the best way to use twitter on your computer is http://www.twhirl.org/ Twhirl works with Mac & PC and is a very handy tool.  (You will also need to install adobe air)

Here's a list of a few cool people to follow to get you started.  (I don't follow the last few)

me - https://twitter.com/jmmath Ed Stetzer - https://twitter.com/edstetzer Mark Hall (from Casting Crowns) - https://twitter.com/markhallCC Tom Rainer (Pres. of Lifeway) - https://twitter.com/ThomRainer Alvin Reid - https://twitter.com/docreid7 Darth Vader - https://twitter.com/darthvader Natalie Grant - https://twitter.com/NatalieGrant MC Hammer (Can't touch this) - https://twitter.com/mchammer Shaquille O'Neil - http://twitter.com/THE_REAL_SHAQ Greg Grunberg (Weiss from Alias) - http://twitter.com/greggrunberg

You can always just sign up and try it out. Let me know how you feel about it in the comments.