Full Circle Associates

This is going to be in two parts, because I realized what I had intended to post was getting long in my "notebook in my head" even before I started typing. So here is part 1 - sharing practices.

For the unitiated, Twitter is a group web/IM/mobile phone group messaging platform. In a nutshell, you send 140 character or less messages to the group of people you have selected as your "friends." From their FAQ they say...

Twitter is for staying in touch and keeping up with friends no matter where you are or what you’re doing. For some friends you might want instant mobile updates—for others, you can just check the web. Invite your friends to Twitter and decide how connected you want you to be.

When it first came on the scene, many people found it fun, amusing, etc. but others wondered if it could be a productive part of their personal web tool configuration. How would it balance between its inherently interruptive nature and the possibility for both individual, group and network connections and productivity?

Earlier this week, through a series of interesting tweets from the "edublogging" part of my Twitter network, came a question about how people productively use Twitter as a way to convince a school administrator to allow it. The result of that tweet was me setting up a wiki page to collect some stories. It has been a productive week. The ideas are so good I'm reproducing them here and I hope all you wonderful contributors are ok with this. I have the wiki set up as creative commons, so this should be an ok leap of faith. Below is a copy of what has been shared as of this morning.

I think there are some patterns to be discerned. Anyone game to do some pattern mining? How do these stories compare to your use (or choice to discontinue using) of Twitter? What practices might you share? (Add them to the wiki!)

How have you used twitter to collaborate?

Tell a story about how you have used http://www.twitter.com to collaborate. Please indicate the context as well (I.e. in a K-12 classroom, in a virtual team, etc.)

• Using a twitter network - project twitter on screen in F2F event. Ask a question out to the network. See the (FAST) response.
  
• Find job candidates.
• During a power outage, use mobile Twitter to coordinate information about the nature of the outage and the availability of internet cafes in the area with power for the team to reassemble.
  

Using twitter as a virtual water cooler.
I work from home, and my colleagues are my collaboration buddies, clients, colleagues. Twitter is a great way to keep up with what is happening, so face-to-face meetings get up to speed much quicker. Blogs work the same way, though they tend to contain a different set of content.

Inviting people to collaborate -
A twitter pal of mine asked about how to convince school administrators that using tools like twitter can be useful. I replied that sharing stories of useful application and value might help. So I set up this wiki, then sent a twit out to invite others to add their stories. And within minutes, there are stories! Nancy White Full Circle Online Interaction Blog

I too have made collaborative connections on twitter...I skyped Vicki Davis one evening to see if she could do a skype demo...she was busy...put out a twitter....and got Jason Hando to join our skype chat...He not only did a demo for my skype session, but helped during a web2.0 tools workshop I was presenting. Several weeks later...Jason (who I was now following) twittered about a flashmeeting...I saw his twitter...asked about flashmeeting and was invited to demo a really powerful learning tool. For me Twitter was the best professional development tool of the summer (Kristin Hokanson, The Connected Classroom)

SerendipitousDiscovery - It was via a tweet from Vicki Davis that I discovered her Flat Classroom Horizon Project that was built on NMC's 2007 Horizon Report. As a result, I got involved, and was amazed at what students in 5 countries could show us for collaboration (http://cogdogblog.com/2007/04/18/flat-classroom-horizon/) And twice in oneweek "HeyJude" in Sydney, referred me via twitter to 2 very useful web tools (http://cogdogblog.com/2007/07/13/heyjude-again-tweets-me-to-touchgraph/) Alan Levine, cogdogblog

Instant Collaboration (You Don't Even have to Add Water) real time suggestion (in space of minutes) were folded into a presentation by Rob Wall (Twitter Mediated Co-Presentation) - picture at http://flickr.com/photos/cogdog/502750540/

Call for Suggestions - Better than email as there is an echo chamber effect- people you may not know chime in with ideas when you ask for them out lout. A few weeks ago, we used both twitter and a listserv to compile a list of "Hall of Fame" type people in the field of New Media - http://wiki.nmc.org/nmcpedia/New_Media_Hall_of_Fame Alan Levine, cogdogblog

SerendipitousImprovement -- A colleague in another state reported proudly on Twitter the purchase of a cellular modem for their laptop. I let them know I recently done some research on them and that one from another vendor was significantly better, and recommend that he return it before the 3-day return policy expired. He picked up the new cell modem, confirmed that it was indeed twice as fast, and returned the first. Christopher Allen: blog, twitter

Dissemination of Publications and Materials - I have used Twitter to post links to our grant deliverables as soon as they are published online. Twitter friends with more followers then post the link and it is quickly spread to hundreds of people.
Jennifer D. Jones, injenuity

Product Recommendations - While in the store, I've posted to Twitter by phone requesting recommendations for products. I've received instant responses to help make purchasing decisions.
Jennifer D. Jones, injenuity

Locating Original Sources of Ideas, Quotes, Etc. - I have seen people post partial quotes, descriptions of theories, ideas they've heard somewhere, pieces of presentations, fleeting memories, and Twitter pals have responded with the original sources.
Jennifer D. Jones, injenuity

High Speed Tech Support After spending weeks preparing for 3 workshops I was giving at an international conference (Alan November's Building Learning Communities in Boston) I had one day at home in Winnipeg to finish them. Then my laptop had a major meltdown; I was to catch a plane early in the next morning. My twittermates came to my rescue and helped me recover the data in real time.
Darren Kuropatwa, blog: A Difference, twitter: http://twitter.com/dkuropatwa

Live Real Time Database I was giving a series of workshops in Denver. A group of people in the workshops were interested in using scratch in their classes in a variety of ways after I had described it to them. Problem was, I couldn't remember the name of the software (scratch). I tweeted a vague description of what I was looking for. In less than 60 seconds I had the name along with a link to the web site.
Darren Kuropatwa, blog: A Difference, twitter: http://twitter.com/dkuropatwa

Global Presence and Participation in Professional Development While giving workshops I had a screen and projector set up displaying my twitter account using twittercamp. We were chatcasting the workshops at the same time. I tweeted what I was doing and the skype ID of colleagues who were participating. People from various locations around the globe came into the workshops via skype and made excellent contributions sharing their expertise and valuable links.
Darren Kuropatwa, blog: A Difference, twitter: http://twitter.com/dkuropatwa

Fostering Professional Connections The principal of my children's school was considering using a blog as a communication tool for the school. He wanted to see some examples of other elementary principals who were already doing this. I tweeted a request for links to exemplary elementary principal blogs. Got a list of 4 excellent ones in minutes. I emailed him the results.
Darren Kuropatwa, blog: A Difference, twitter: http://twitter.com/dkuropatwa

Informal Research - On several occasions, I have used TwitterPolls to get instant feedback about issues facing educators. After asking whether specific web sites were blocked by schools, over 30 people responded in about an hour. Perfect for getting some authentic results in a very short time, to either verify other research or letting you know if you're on the right track.
Steve Dembo, Teach42

Web Conferences "On-the-Fly" - People tweet links at the start of virtual conferences. If you are available, you can join. This enhances productivity because you aren't scheduling around it. You aren't sitting around waiting for it. You attend if it fits!
Jennifer D. Jones, injenuity

Finding and Polishing, rather than "Reinventing" the Wheel - I needed to complete a trends analysis on virtual worlds in a short period of time without becoming fully immersed in the technology. I followed Twitter users and discovered their projects and research. I was able to use what had already been accomplished, rather than spend hours and hours of my own time learning the technology.
Jennifer D. Jones, injenuity

Group Stream of Consciousness - I find that Twitter gives me a "feel" of the group. I can tell when in aggregate we are frustrated, or when we are in the flow. I can see memes flow from one otherwise disconnected colleague to another. Christopher Allen: blog, twitter

Examples from others:

• Why Twitter May Matter - natural disasters- Mexico earth quake
• Can Twitter Save Lives? Andy Carvin

Using Twitter to help improve and maintain the interactions from the various social networks you belong to - Been using Twitter for a few months now and, if anything, it has helped me tremedously in keeping in touch at the same time with the various social networks that I am a member of, so much so that those interactions sparked the creation of "10 Reasons Why Twitter Will Help Improve Your Already Existing Social Networks". Luis Suarez

Using Twitter as a people-powered search - Courtesy from Web Worker Daily: "Try Twitter Instead of Mahalo for People-Powered Search". Luis Suarez

Twitter invites seasoned bloggers to comment on new blogs during a workshop.
This summer during our workshop, as people were trying out the whole blogging thing, we had discussed how validating it is to have someone else comment on your blog. (Students feel this same validation, BTW) Bob Sprankle and I both twitted our circle of friends and within minutes people in the workshop were shouting out I got a comment from Wales, from Illinois... immediate reinforcement. Thanks Twits!
Cheryl Oakes, blog Wocsdtechtalk.blogspot.com, cheryloakes.com, Bob Sprankle, blog Bit by Bit

I use twitter to remember flash of ideas that comes to me (almost) daily
I use twitter to remember flashes of ideas that come across me so sudden everyday. Twitter allow me to capture those ideas before it's forgotten. Later on I can "recollect" those ideas, and through "twitter list" I can see how the ideas formed in the past, how it linked to ech other, and what can be done next to turn it into something useful for business and society. In a way -- for me -- twitter is the enabler for rapid recording and rapid storing of snippets of ideas, that one day -- once it is being collected and organized together -- could perhaps turned into something useful and powerful for everybody. Arvino, http://arvino.typepad.com ps: If you'd like to know some useful twitter command, you can take a look here.

Examples of How Having A Twitter Network Would Have Helped

(or other improvements)

• My wife wishes her friends and family all had gmail accounts so they could "see" when each other were online to make plans, chat, or just keep up to date with each other. Twitter would have helped. Darren Kuropatwa, blog: A Difference, twitter: http://twitter.com/dkuropatwa[[http://adifference.blogspot.com/]]

• I'd like to be able to segregate some of the networks that are evolving in my twitter contact list to help me focus Nancy White http://twitter.com/NancyWhite