The Twitter[1] Twister[2]
Just about the same time Summer OLA[3] duty began, the news about James Karl Buck’s apprehension by the Egyptian authorities came out in CNN.[4] It would have surfaced the web just like any newsworthy, but not extraordinary, story of a UC Berkeley graduate student who was arrested by Egyptian police officers while photographing an anti-government protest for his thesis, were it not for the Twitter angle to it. It interested me more than any other news that day; I closely followed it just like the OLA cases I have then been handling.
What interested me is how Buck made it out of detention and how the news reached CNN online in a matter of minutes – he sent a tweet (a text-based post in less than 140 words) to his friends and network through his Twitter account, typing the message “Arrested”. Through his friends, the UC Berkeley administrators got the news and sent him a lawyer, who eventually got him out of jail. As soon as he was released, he tweeted “Free” to his friends and network.
After having gone back to California, he found out that his friend and translator Mohammed Maree was also, and was still, held in detention by the Egyptian government. Again, through his Twitter account, he called and solicited support for his friend’s release. Just this Wednesday, after Maree was set free, CNN again got word through Buck’s tweet -- "Mohammed is free! Mohammed is free!"
But even before Buck and Maree’s story, Twitter has already been a hit in US, Canada, India, and UK.
My friend, who is currently based in Palo Alto, told me about Twitter a year ago, as the accounting firm she has been working for has employed the services of Twitter for its employees. All the employees were required to be part of the firm's network to get alerts and urgent announcements through tweets from their superiors. She even told me that she and her other officemates were members of other Twitter account networks and they would send their own tweets to react to the messages that they would get from their bosses.
Just about the same time Summer OLA[3] duty began, the news about James Karl Buck’s apprehension by the Egyptian authorities came out in CNN.[4] It would have surfaced the web just like any newsworthy, but not extraordinary, story of a UC Berkeley graduate student who was arrested by Egyptian police officers while photographing an anti-government protest for his thesis, were it not for the Twitter angle to it. It interested me more than any other news that day; I closely followed it just like the OLA cases I have then been handling.
What interested me is how Buck made it out of detention and how the news reached CNN online in a matter of minutes – he sent a tweet (a text-based post in less than 140 words) to his friends and network through his Twitter account, typing the message “Arrested”. Through his friends, the UC Berkeley administrators got the news and sent him a lawyer, who eventually got him out of jail. As soon as he was released, he tweeted “Free” to his friends and network.
After having gone back to California, he found out that his friend and translator Mohammed Maree was also, and was still, held in detention by the Egyptian government. Again, through his Twitter account, he called and solicited support for his friend’s release. Just this Wednesday, after Maree was set free, CNN again got word through Buck’s tweet -- "Mohammed is free! Mohammed is free!"
But even before Buck and Maree’s story, Twitter has already been a hit in US, Canada, India, and UK.
My friend, who is currently based in Palo Alto, told me about Twitter a year ago, as the accounting firm she has been working for has employed the services of Twitter for its employees. All the employees were required to be part of the firm's network to get alerts and urgent announcements through tweets from their superiors. She even told me that she and her other officemates were members of other Twitter account networks and they would send their own tweets to react to the messages that they would get from their bosses.
She thought tweeting would interest me a lot because I enjoy getting updates from friends by reading their blogs, and receiving emails and SMS from them. And because lately, I haven’t had much time to be updated because of my tight work and class schedules, she thought that getting a Twitter account would work best for me.
Wikipeda traces Twitter’s origins from a San Fran start-up company, which was later incorporated as a separate entity (Twitter, Inc) with Jack Dorsey (the same man behind its initial success) as its CEO.
Wikipeda traces Twitter’s origins from a San Fran start-up company, which was later incorporated as a separate entity (Twitter, Inc) with Jack Dorsey (the same man behind its initial success) as its CEO.
At present, Cisco Systems and Dell have accounts with Twitter. Even the Los Angeles Fire Department got one. It has been also helpful to CNN and BBC. Even Barack Obama used it for his campaign.
With the release of Maree, the Twitter Saga may have already ended; but this does not, in any way, lead to the denouement of the Twitter hype.
With the release of Maree, the Twitter Saga may have already ended; but this does not, in any way, lead to the denouement of the Twitter hype.
To me, Maree’s release just ended the twister for Buck and Maree. As for Twitter, Inc, this shall just mean more bucks and money.
(for the week 06 to 12 Jul 2008)
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[1] “a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send updates (otherwise known as tweets) which are text-based posts, ranging up to 140 characters long” (source: www.wikipedia,org)
[2] “a localized… windstorm” (source: www.thefreedictionary.com)
[3] OLA stands for Office of Legal Aid, the legal clinic of UP Law
[4] Summer OLA duty officially started on 11 April 2008 (Manila time), while James Buck was apprehended on 10 April 2008 (East Coast time)
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