Masters of Media

Twitter is a combination of different elements and content that other Internet sites and platforms already had. To me, this is what makes Twitter so great: in a way my usage of the Internet is being channeled and collected by one single website or app (depending on whether I access it via the Web or via my phone). It’s a…

So, Twitter. It seems to be all the rage these days. Blog posts about it seem to be popping up everywhere. Then again, a tool that simultaneously fuels revolutions and allows me to share with the world the mundanity of the wonderful sandwich I’ve just eaten is bound to be divisive. Could there be more to it, perhaps?

Most people think Twitter was “created” in 2006. These are the same people who think Richard Gere created Buddhism in the 1990′s, just before Madonna created yoga. Folks, like the sun, moon, and stars, Twitter has always been.

This is what you can read in the ‘about’ page of the ‘Historical Tweets’ website. The idea is simple but…

Twitter, for many critics, is seen as the platform on which a lot ‘irrelevant’ information, whether personal or not, is shared. Arguments of the presupposed irrelevance of Twitter are paralleled by critics who argue the possible predictive potential of Web 2.0 and social media in particular. My motivation of writing this post is that social media which is the product…

Activism has been around for centuries: Revolts, revolutions, coups, etc. have taken place through the entire course of human history. These countercultural movements have always been in need of some sort of platform to get organised on, be it a marketplace, postal pigeon or an underground resistance newspaper, the need for communication in these resistance movements has always been one of their key aspects and usually the success rate of the entire operation depended on whether or not the communication lines were utilized properly.

In doubting the power of Facebook and twitter as institutions that proliferate political and social activism, the The New Yorker columnist, Malcolm Gladwell says:

“Social networks are effective at increasing participation— by lessening the level of motivation that participation requires.”

Gladwell’s article openly refutes the notion that micro-blogging and social networking platforms such as twitter and Facebook can…

When packing your bag for school, make sure you have your lunch, books, and favorite Twitter client. The social network is making great strides as an academic tool, as more and more educators realize the benefit of fast, transparent messages that are updated in real time. Twitter allows teachers to announce changes in class schedules, homework, or study tips in…

Last month musician John Mayer deleted his Twitter account. From that moment, 3.7 million people followed one person less. Why would anyone throw that away? What where the reasons that Mayer stop microblogging? A couple days ago, Mayer finally gave an explanation for his drastic action:

“It occurred to me that since the invocation of Twitter, nobody who has participated

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I tweet this last week on my twitteraccount. This question leads me to an overarching question:

Why Twitter and why should we participate?

Twitter is a tool for microblogging, let see how this works:

Twitter can also be seen as an awareness system around news and events. As Hermida says about Twitter:

“For this I

…

In stead of most media, I couldn’t use Twitter right away, I had to learn it. It took me three attempts to learn Twitter. The first time I started using it as myself, @lottewoerde. I tweeted things like: “doing the dishes”, “sitting in the sun” or “tired, need a vacation”.  Unfortunately no one was responding my humble messages, and I…

Since its meteoric rise in 2007 Twitter has been hailed as a revolutionary service that was sure to change all social interactions and structures of communication. The hype has reached such levels that mainstream media actually report on instances when Twitter is down or has been  hacked. But how important a tool has Twiter actually become for the…

Following the example of foreign publishers, Dutch publishers also decide to give away free content. The idea is to boost sales of the printed book and to be ahead of piracy. Users will be able to find a way to download content anyway. Does this model work and how does the media handle this?

Every old medium was once new. And when something gets old we’ve got to search for a way to give it its old glance back. The printed book was once a new medium. It was revolutionary, groundbreaking. But today the book is just a commodity. It is still used very often, but for how long? Terry Flew wrote in his…

The role of the journalist has been changed, or some would argue that it is not there anymore. How is democracy functioning with all the social media around us? Twitter is a powerful tool for politicians to get in contact with the public, but where is the journalist?

Now a days you can do anything online. You can watch television or video's online, games, you can play them online. You even can have a conversation online through e-mail or chat programs. A new online trend is e-publishing. Instead of taking ten books with you on vacation, you can buy an e-reader, put a hundred books on the little machine and you doesn't have to sweat one's guts out. So you can read books in a digital version, but also articles and news papers.

Twitter provides a platform where grassroots organizations can build a new type of relationship with their beneficiaries, partners and critics. It offers a way to maintain transparency, but maybe more importantly immediacy. In disaster situations, it certainly helps when someone on the spot can tell you what's going on. Unmediated and uncensored. Though using Twitter for non-profits as a way to raise money is still a little Utopian. There are new ways and of course it is always nice to have an extra source of income, but we should be careful in our enthusiasm to directly name Twitter the new donation machine. We are just not there yet...

In a recent work about the future of printed literature, italian intellectual Umberto Eco describes the book as an eternal technology, something similar to a spoon or a bycicle: while time goes by and innovations pop up ceaselessly, some specifically well-designed objects tend to remain pretty stable. Moreover, he argues, the book-shape is determined by our own anatomy…

Pecha Kucha Amsterdam

Here I am, sitting on a couple of pillows in the front row of Mediamatic’s jam-packed main room. In just a few minutes, the PechaKucha Night Amsterdam Volume 15 will start. 12 presentations given at lightning speed (20 slides of 20 seconds each). Amsterdam is one of the 360…

From ambient awareness to addiction to the virtual world of tomorrow

When your social life is only one Tweet away

“What are you doing?” or in more recent words “What is happening?” is a question that can be answered in 140 characters or even less. A question that can be your only link to people you used to know, people…

The people at the church of Google believe we do not have to dress up every Sundaymorning anymore, go to church and watch the preacher to experience something like a God. We experience an actual God everyday at work or at home: but forget all those supernatural Gods that are not scientifically provable but Google is the closest thing…