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Posts Tagged ‘Twitter’

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Trendsetter Lindsay Lohan introduces 'legal defense via Twitter'

Posted by andreaitis on July 8, 2009

Speak album cover

Image via Wikipedia

So much news is getting lost with the wall-to-wall coverage of Michael Jackson: his death, the autopsy, the memorial service, the cost of the memorial service…

While all that’s been going on, turns out Lindsay Lohan a) created and launched a tanning spray called Sevin Nyne and 2) is being sued over the fake-tan formula.  Who knew?!

The facts, according to Perez Hilton:

The tanning mist that LOLhan launched this summer, co-developed with Lorit Simon, a Las Vegas celebrity air-brusher, was supposedly stolen from chemist Jennifer Sunday.

In January, Simon signed a confidentiality agreement with Sunday’s company, White Wave International Labs, as the two had been negotiating over samples of the tanning mist, but could never agree on a price.

“The next thing we know, Lorit Simon and Lindsay Lohan are partnering and Ms. Lohan is taking credit for developing this formula, which she indeed had no role in,” said Sunday’s attorney.

via Lohan Sued Again!!!! – perezhilton.com

Lindsay and her business partner Lorit are being sued for alleged breach of contract, theft of trade secrets, civil conspiracy, intentional interference with contractual relations and deceptive and unfair trade practices.

Sounds pretty serious, right?  I’d certainly expect a team of celebrity legal eagles to fly in for this one.  But – little did we know – Lindsay Lohan is apparently an actress, singer, model and…defense attorney.

She  responded to the accusations without legal representation.  In 138 characters.  On Twitter.

lindsay-lohan-twitter-msg

Quick, someone get Judge Wapner a Twitter account and we can resolve this on the TweetDeck Court.

Posted in Entertainment, technology | Tagged: , , , , | 3 Comments »

Walter Cronkite reportedly gravely ill

Posted by andreaitis on June 19, 2009

Walter Cronkite recording narration. (CBS- Feb...

UPDATE July 17th:   Almost a month after reports of failing health, Walter Cronkite has died.

My father, Walter Cronkite, died,” his son Chip said just before 8 p.m. Eastern. CBS interrupted prime time programming to show an obituary for the man who defined the network’s news division for decades. Read an obituary by Douglas Martin here.

Mr. Cronkite’s family said last month that he was seriously ill with cerebrovascular disease.

Walter Cronkite, Iconic Anchorman, Dies – The New York Times

He will be missed.  Video highlights here…

*                              *                              *                              *

From June 19th, when reports surfaced that Cronkite was gravely ill:

This news comes as events in Tehran continue to unfold live through a Twitter stream by ‘new journalist’ @persiankiwi.

The contrasts are stark, and yet perhaps not so different.  At the core lies  integrity and truth in reporting.  Authenticity. Platforms change, but the rest should not.

We will hear “end of an era” more times than we can count.  This time, though, it will be true.

Walter Cronkite, the longtime CBS TV news anchor who was known as “The cronkiteMost Trusted Man in America,” is gravely ill, according to media reports.The Web site Mediabistro.com cited several unnamed sources at CBS who say that Cronkite, 92, is near death and that the network has begun updating information for his obituary.

via Walter Cronkite: Walter Cronkite reportedly gravely ill – baltimoresun.com

After the initial news,  Cronkite’s assistant disputed “exaggerated” report

Former CBS news anchor Walter Cronkite isn’t well, but he is not nearly as ill as some web sites are reporting. “His condition is being grossly exaggerated,” Cronkite’s executive assistant Cynthia Dicrocco told us today. “He’s dealing with the challenges of being a 92-year-old man.” Thursday, Media Bistro’s TV Newser blog reported that the legendary newsman was “gravely ill” and perhaps near death. The web site did not cite a source for its information. Dicrocco said Cronkite had been ill recently, but is recuperating at home in New York with his companion Joanna Simon, sister of singer Carly Simon. Dicrocco would not reveal the nature of Cronkite’s illness, saying the family wishes to keep it private. “But it is not true that he’s gravely ill,” she said.

Posted in Current Events, technology | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »

Attention Newspapers: Don't 'Just do it.'

Posted by andreaitis on June 15, 2009

MediaShift’s Mark Glaser twittered the top 10 list below while he was hooked up to an iv,  stuck in a hospital bed for several days.   When I see stories like this, I tend to replace Newspaper with News.    After all, the paper is the platform; news will endure.  Newspaper/hospital  metaphor notwithstanding,  though, number 6 caught my eye.  A single sentence: Don’t do it just to do it.

Don’t let desperation or emotion drive decisions.   Don’t jump on a bandwagon because everyone else is jumping.  Don’t lose the essence of good reporting:  be curious, ask questions, piece together a cohesive story, ask more questions, look at the facts, strive to understand.

Don’t do it just to do it.

10 Steps for Saving Newspapers

1. Do custom small print runs targeted to neighborhoods and interests. Not daily.

2. Support local writers, reporters and bloggers; help market them, sell their ads; decentralize the operation.

3. Replace circulation, printing, print production staff with tech, SEO, community managers.

4. Find out what the community wants in real face-to-face meetings, not focus groups. Then do what they want.

5. Use pro-am methods. Include community-contributed content edited and vetted by pros.

6. Smart multimedia. Don’t do it just to do it. Use the right medium to tell the right story.

7. Promiscuous revenues. From ads, niche paid content, donations, non-profit grants to directory listings.

8. Produce mapping and database projects. Employ or train hacker-journalists.

9. Meet regularly with local businesses to gauge their needs. Create online directories of local businesses.

10. Create a bottom-up organization where innovation is encouraged and rewarded at the edges. Use good ideas from anyone.

via MediaShift . 10 Steps to Saving Newspapers | PBS

Posted in Newspapers, technology | Tagged: , | Leave a Comment »

Psych-out: What do your Twitter messages say about you?

Posted by andreaitis on June 15, 2009

Those 140 characters are feeling pretty heavy about now.

Social media and marketing researcher Dan Zarrella is debuting a new way to see into the minds of Twitter users by analyzing their most recent 1,000 tweets.

TweetPsych uses two linguistic analysis methods to build a psychological profile of a person based on the content of their tweets. It compares the content of a user’s tweets to a baseline reading Zarella built by analyzing over 1.5 million random tweets and shows the areas where that user stands out.

via What the Little Bird Told Me About You: Three Twitter Apps for Psych Analysis

Other tweet-analyzing apps:  Mailana, showing Twitter conversations and links between different users,  and  WhenDidYouJoinTwitter which shows, um, the date when you joined Twitter.

I really don’t want my Twitter messages analyzed.  I don’t want to have to think about my Twitter messages being analyzed.   I would like to opt out of Twitter analysis.

Meanwhile, I hear Twitter’s considering a new tagline: “Where id was, there shall ego tweet.”  And, in case you were wondering, @sigmundfreud has only one follower.

Posted in technology | Tagged: | Leave a Comment »

Deny no more: AP Stylebook includes Twitter

Posted by andreaitis on June 12, 2009

AP Stylebook, 2004 edition

Image via Wikipedia

As if the media bandwagon needed more incentive to jump – or more proof of the need to experiment, adapt and change – the bible for newsrooms everywhere has now legitimized Twitter.

Twitter, the social networking tool that has turned millions of people around the world into instant micro-bloggers, has made it into the 2009 edition of The Associated Press Stylebook, along with complicated business terms such as credit default swaps and derivatives that have gained more exposure amid the global recession.

Twitter, the Middle Eastern eggplant dish baba ghanoush and texting as a verb are among more than 60 new or updated entries in the new AP Stylebook, which includes more business, food, medical and Arabic terms and expanded information on major U.S. and international companies.

via Associated Press

Of course, CNN was way ahead of this curve.

Posted in Newspapers, technology | Tagged: , , | Leave a Comment »

7 Million Twitter accounts and the sounds of silence

Posted by andreaitis on June 6, 2009

Web security firm Purewire just released an analysis of seven million Twitter accounts.   Techcrunch did some number-crunching:

What stands out from this data is that about a quarter of all accounts are not following anybody, nearly 30 percent have zero followers, and more than a third have not posted a single Tweet. The problem with all of this data, however, is that it includes abandoned accounts (as most likely does the Harvard data as well).

Like any popular Web service, millions of people create a Twitter account, try it once, and never come back again. The Purewire data shows that about 40 percent of users have not sent out a Tweet since the day they created their accounts. You can compare this with the 60 percent abandonment rate claimed by Nielsen. But even these may not be the true abandonment rates. Just because you are not Tweeting does not mean you are not listening.

via On Twitter, Most People Are Sheep: 80 Percent Of Accounts Have Fewer Than 10 Followers

Are these numbers surprising? Nope.  But the last sentence is key: Just because you are not Tweeting does not mean you are not listening.

In online communities — forums, message boards, even blogs — there has always been a common ratio of active vs passive users.   That ratio shows that you will, without a doubt, always find more lurkers than post-ers.  Many more people will engage passively than participate actively.  At AOL, this was a constant, sometimes by a huge margin of readers to post-er.

Does that mean the ‘readers’ aren’t participating?  Of course not.  The word ‘follower’ gets a bad rap. One doesn’t have to post Twitter messages to be an engaged user. The followers are out there, and they’re not going away.  That only increases the need for organization of content on Twitter through search, trending and grouping mechanisms.

Now, come follow me at twitter.com/andreaitis.

Posted in technology, twitter | Tagged: , , , , | 1 Comment »

Traditional media makes an untraditional move

Posted by andreaitis on May 26, 2009

First, the June 1 cover of The New Yorker is created using a $4.99 iPhone app.

Now, the New York Times has hired a social media editor.

Right about here someone should yell “Stop the presses!”.

As readwriteweb.com notes:

It has come to this; the flagship institution of traditional journalism now has an editor level position dedicated to new media.

Little is known about Preston’s personal use of social media, she’s either using aliases or is remarkably quiet around the web, and details are still forthcoming about the new position she’ll fill. The Times has done a remarkable job of engaging with social media so far, though, and we have high hopes for this new post.

Preston has worked at the New York Times for more than a decade, and spent the last two years running the regional weekly sections and content for nytimes.com/intheregion.  She’s also an adjunct professor at Columbia University and a book author.   When RWW did some due diligence on her social media prowess, this is what they found:

She has a private Twitter account that she’s just begun to open up this morning – but apparently she hasn’t published any tweets there yet, ever. She is following almost 160 people so far, though, far more than are following her to date. So she could be using it for listening.

She’s also got a private FriendFeed account, a private Yahoo account and an unused Tumblr account. The BackType comment search engine can’t find any comments she’s left on blogs around the web.

After this announcement, her Twitter followers shot up to over 2000, and she was actively engaging with twitterers in her debut as Social Media Editor.

Two  steps forward in this expect-the-unexpected week.  Are they gimmicks, shallow nods…or a real effort to move beyond the page?  Does it really matter?  It’ll get people talking and thinking and perhaps push others to do something unexpected and untraditional.   Traditional media needs to try and test and tamper, to experiment and maybe even blow up now and then.    You gotta light the match before you start the fire.  And lord knows, there’s plenty of paper to burn.

Posted in media, technology | Tagged: , , , , | 1 Comment »

Twitter to make a TV show about…nothing

Posted by andreaitis on May 25, 2009

Braun HF 1, Germany, 1959

Image via Wikipedia

I saw this and thought: Well, of course. Why not turn Twitter loose on TV, if for no other reason than it’s the N.H.T. New.  Hot. Thing.  Can’t blame the Twitter guys, who wouldn’t take advantage of the surge in popularity?  But I feel compelled to translate this story about the up-and-coming collaboration.

The San Francisco-based web phenom has partnered with Reveille and Brillstein Entertainment to develop an unscripted TV skein…

Stop right there.  An “unscripted TV skein”?  What does that even mean??  Maybe we’ll get a clue in the rest of the sentence.

…described as “putting ordinary people on the trail of celebrities in a revolutionary competitive format.”

Nope, no clue.  Not even a quarter to buy a clue.  Sounds like ordinary people will stalk celebrities. Maybe it’s a cross between Punk’d and Amazing Race.  Maybe it’s totally ripping off Shaq’s twitter technique, where he twitters his location and whoever gets to him first gets basketball tix. Maybe they have no idea what the show is about so they’re using vague phrasing, an incoherent skein of words.

Project was announced with few details…

Few details! Shocker.

…Monday by Reveille and Brillstein Entertainment. Series concept was created by novelist/screenwriter Amy Ephron, who will exec produce with Kevin Foxe and Steve Latham, Reveille’s Mark Koops and Howard T. Owens, Brillstein’s Jon Liebman and Lee Kernis.

If my math is correct, that’s seven executive producers.  S-E-V-E-N.  They’re already over budget.

“We’ve found a compelling way to bring the immediacy of Twitter to life on TV,” Liebman said.

Another sentence that says nothing.

Worldwide rights to the show will be repped by ShineReveille Intl.

And there’s the pitch, they’re already trying to sell rights to a show about nothing so the rest of the world can share in the compelling revolutionary twitastic television experience.

via Twitter, Brillstein develop TV series – Entertainment News, Technology News, Media – Variety

To recap: Seven executive producers, two mediums melding, a fraction of a concept. I know nothing worked for Seinfeld, but can nothing become something this time?  Call me a cynic, but sounds like the traditional TV development machine is already processing them like cheese.  I’d have more faith if they had done the TV pitch in 140 characters.

Update:  One of Twitter’s founders, Biz Stone,  posted on the Twitter blog to clear up the confusion.

There is no official Twitter TV show—although if there were it would be fun to cast! In dealing with networks and production companies we sometimes have simple agreements. Regarding the Reveille and Brillstein project reported today, we have a lightweight, non-exclusive, agreement with the producers which helps them move forward more freely.

Lightweight, non-exclusive agreement.   That almost sounds like it’s an agreement to agree about something at some point which, for now, pretty much adds up to….yeah, nothing.

Posted in Entertainment, technology | Tagged: , , | 1 Comment »

New site calls out the twit-wits. And not in a good way.

Posted by andreaitis on May 20, 2009

The hate is on.  Or, perhaps, the mockery, snark and smirk.  Four pretty funny guys have launched Tweeting Too Hard, a site that brings us the “self-importance, pretense, braggadocio—it’s all here and it’s laid bare for the scoffing.”

It’s the Digg of twitter messages, where we in our self-righteous  right-ness get to vote on who’s twittering like a twit-wit.  Because, y’know, OUR twitter messages would certainly never appear there.  Um, right?  Sheesh.  As if we needed more pressure on a measly 140 characters…

Tweeting Too Hard

The concept is simple. You submit and vote for the most blatantly self-absorbed tweets that you see on Twitter. The most popular recent tweets get voted to the top. Like the million of other web sites that offer this sort of voting feature, you can also sort by “newly added,” “randoms,” and “today’s top.”

Tweeting Too Hard: A site for shaming the twitteringly self-important » VentureBeat

Posted in technology, twitter | Tagged: , , | 1 Comment »

WSJ Rules of Engagement

Posted by andreaitis on May 14, 2009

Image representing Twitter as depicted in Crun...

Image via CrunchBase

Staffers at The Wall Street Journal were the lucky recipients this week of rules for “professional conduct.”   These rules included a long and specific list related to social media and social networking.

Dow Jones spokesman Robert Christie declined to comment to E&P today on why the updated rules were put out at this time, saying they speak for themselves. But it is clear they are in place for those involved in social networking on the likes of Facebook or Twitter, requiring editor approval before “friending” any confidential sources.

“Openly ‘friending’ sources is akin to publicly publishing your Rolodex,” the rules state, adding, “don’t disparage the work of colleagues or competitors or aggressively promote your coverage,” and “don’t engage in any impolite dialogue with those who may challenge your work — no matter how rude or provocative they may seem.”

New ‘WSJ’ Conduct Rules Target Twitter, Facebook

I get why you shouldn’t ‘friend’ a source.  That’s pure common sense, the same way a cop wouldn’t ‘friend’ an informant’ or a lawyer wouldn’t ‘friend’ a key witness.  But don’t aggressively promote your work?  Sure, you don’t want to spam people but promoting your work on social media sites is one way to, y’know, get people to read it.  To draw attention, create a debate, engage the audience.

I think this one is my favorite though:

“Business and pleasure should not be mixed on services like Twitter. Common sense should prevail, but if you are in doubt about the appropriateness of a Tweet or posting, discuss it with your editor before sending.”

Don’t mix business and pleasure on Twitter.

Discuss a Twitter message with an editor before tweeting it.

Um, really?   Does the person who wrote these rules have anything other than a cursory knowledge of Twitter, Facebook and other social media?   Did anyone raise a hand and say, “The point’s over here and you’re missing it”?

For an industry that is supposed to support free speech, inquiry, discourse,  and — at its core — curiosity, I just don’t get how they don’t get it.

I do agree with one point, however.  Common sense should prevail.  Unfortunately, there’s not much common sense in these rules of engagement.

You can see the entire list of rules for online behavior, along with the other rules of conduct included in the e-mail.   What’s your favorite?  And what rules did they miss?

Posted in technology, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 4 Comments »

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