Thing 15: Twitter (Week of 3/23)

This week's topic is Twitter.

This last Thing will introduce you to the social networking source Twitter (but you won't be required to set up a Twitter account). Twitter is a way to send a brief, informational e-mail, or "tweet," to all of your contacts at once. Though extremely popular as a tool for mobile devices, Twitter is not meant to be a two-way conversation. It simply answers the question, "What are you doing?" Responses must be 140 characters or fewer. Twitter is being used by businesses, news sources and political campaigns (including Barack Obama's and Ralph Nader's) to provide information updates to their users, who have signed up to receive the tweets.

This week's Tech Play Exercise:

1. Start at http://www.twitter.com/.
2. View the "Twitter in Plain English" video by clicking on the red box in the upper right corner.
   
3. Go to the La Grange Public Library homepage. Scroll down the menu bar on the left. Let your mouse hover over "Young Adult Services" and select "YA Services Home." Note that Noël has added a Tweeter widget to the page. This allows Noël to provide brief, timely updates to teens who view the page.
   
4. Post a message to blog. Do you Twitter, or do you know anyone who does? Can you think of a useful application for Twitter?

That's it! If you feel inspired, you can set up Twitter accounts with your friends and family so you can share...what you're doing.