Innovation is a hallmark of third-party developers using the Twitter API, but the same is still being done with use of the channel itself. Two of the more interesting, creative accounts showed up on my radar today: laundryroom and soxblagforaday.
At Olin College, laundry machines tweet their availability to students.
The former was featured on the developer blog for Twitter today. LaundryView Online—developed and maintained by Mac-Gray Corporation, a laundry facilities contractor providing services to 60,000 U.S. laundry rooms—is a product currently utilized by the Olin College of Engineering. Sensors in the machines of four different campus laundry rooms allow people to check on availability of washers and dryers before trucking down flights of stairs with dirty unmentionables. Thanks to some Olin students, the third-floor west hall room is also connected to a Twitter account, posting over 4500 updates on its own status. Part of an energy-awareness program, the LaundryView site also offers statistics on use and an email or text alert system.
The latter is a new account that was used by the brother of Bloomington expatriate Katrina, tweeting as she drives east to her doctoral program at MIT. Wednesday afternoon’s 15-3 win by the Chicago White Sox over the Seattle Mariners was live-tweeted, offering a great way to follow sports action. The 2-1/2 hour game resulted in 75 updates, from Matt Clement’s opening strikeout to Bryan LaHair’s whiff to complete the three-game sweep.
Twitter is a great channel for baseball play-by-play
A similar flurry of activity is rather common for conferences and major announcements, but this is the first prolonged coverage of a pro game I’ve encountered. Slate Magazine has been tweeting the Olympics, providing snarky commentary about outcomes, athletes, and the world’s hosts, but I found a the near play-by-play of a baseball game much more appealing to follow as I worked. It wasn’t as tedious as reading a traditional play-by-play on ESPN and had a good mix of observation and action.
I’m hoping to get some of the backstory from the author (Is the guy a big Sox fan? Has he done this before, or plan to do it again? Is the “a” supposed to be an “o”? etc.) at some point in the future.