Microblogging—the term given to short status messages reporting on the details of one’s life—arrived on the scene as a major communication channel in March 2007 when Twitter became the hit of the South by Southwest Conference in Austin, Texas. The young company set up large screens to display content provided by conference attendees, who signed up for the service in droves. Site creator Evan Williams didn’t invent communication through text, but his company did construct a scaffolding that gave new power to short messages.
Home Tweet Home
I have been tweeting since early March, just before Twitter exploded into the mainstream Internet with a strong showing at the South by Southwest conference. Since that time, I have followed the growing interest in the service and saving hundreds of links that I will try to process over the course of the next week. Over the next week, BlogSchmog will explore different aspects of Twitter based on eight months of use.
Lecture Browser
No, it’s not a flying car, but it’s pretty damn cool. MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) released a new lecture search tool that facilitates keyword searches of transcripts from about 200 recorded lectures.
Hidden communities
Two examples of how latent readership can become real-world interaction, courtesy xkcd and Homeless Man Speaks. When we are able to connect the little things we read with the humans behind them, the world grows significantly smaller.
Superheroes support backstab writers
As someone with a Piagetian view children as domain props, I can respect Neal Pollack’s ability to see his profession through the eyes of his kid. This is a video meme the Makice’s could have some fun producing. Archie has told me on several occasions that he believes I go to campus to play with cars and playdoh, just like he does at his school.
Picky, Picky, Picky
This morning as I was waking up (or trying not to wake up).
Archie: sounding very nasal, Mom, when I pick my nose it feels funny.
Me: Well, you’re really supposed to blow it instead of pick it.
Archie: Oh. quiet for a moment I guess that’s why Daddy keeps pulling my finger out every time I put [...]
Stupid is as stupid does
There is an effort underfoot to filter stupidity from Internet discussions. Seriously. Although it sounds like it could be a headline from The Onion, Gabriel Ortiz and Paul Starr are actively collecting a corpus of data in the hope that some Bayesian analysis will generate a reliable tool to intervene before a commenter makes their stupidity public. StupidFilter got BoingBoinged last month without much reaction but popped back up in the blogosphere this week with some ferocity.