twitter

Tapatio

Basic Information
Organization that developed the Tool:
Main Contact:
Evoltech
Problem or Need:

During mobilizations or small protests there is often a hostile environment for protestors.  Spread out over the distance of a city there is a lot of information circulating, with no decent way to verify or customize the delivery of that information to individuals with specific requests.

Main Contact Email :
Brief Description:

The Tapatio software, along with a general communications infrastructure and team, are able to receive, verify, and dispatch information tailored to the interests of activists in the streets to their mobile phones via SMS.

Tool Category:
Is a web-based application/web service
Key Features :

The following features are all provided by the tapatio software which is a module of the Drupal web platform.  As such all of the features of a Drupal system are also available to operators of a Tapatio system.

* Operators, users with access to the Drupal system, associate twitter accounts with organic groups. All tweets from followers of those accounts will automatically get pulled into the drupal system as nodes.

* Communications moderation
Operators will then add and moderate posts, voting on them (automatically dispatching at a configureable value), specifying priority levels, associating with other groups (twitter accounts), marking as a duplicate of another post, and dispatching.

* Detailed search / display interface
Operators also have the abilty of searching for nodes by minutes since last recieved, wether or not the node has been dispatched, the current vote level, and wether or not the node has been prioritized.

* SMS Dispatching through twitter
After a operator deems that a node is valid (ie. it has been verified by an alternate source, it has been assigned a SMS message, and it has been associated with a group) he or she can dispatch it. This is essentially posting the sms message of the node as a tweet for each twitter account (group) that is associated with the node.

Main Services:
Bulk SMS
Display tool in profile:
Yes
Detailed Information
Tool Maturity:
Currently deployed
Release Date:
2008-12-01 00:00
Program/Code Language:
Javascript
PHP
Current Version:
1
Platforms:
Linux/UNIX
All phones -- SMS
Organizations Using the Tool:

March-Hare : http://march-hare.org

Hackbloc : http://hackbloc.org

Number of Current End Users:
100-1,000
Number of current beneficiaries:
Under 100
Handsets/devices supported:
All SMS capable phones.
Support Forums:
http://drupal.org/project/issues/tapatio?categories=All
https://lists.hackbloc.org/mailman/listinfo/march-hare-dev
Languages supported:
English, Drupal base has many translations, but the tapatio mdule still needs translations
Reviews/Evaluations:
There are a few case studies available from the March-Hare communications collective here: http://www.march-hare.org/node/101, http://www.march-hare.org/node/171
License
Is the Tool's Code Available?:
Yes
URL for license:
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html
Is an API available to interface with your tool?:
Yes
Regions deployed
Please choose at least one Country or Global Region: *
Countries:

The Mobile Minute: JQuery for Mobile, a New Mobile Magazine, Twitter Usage on the Weekends, and Indian Farmers Going Mobile

Global Regions:

Today's Mobile Minute brings you coverage on how mobiles are helping farmers in India, jquery on mobile, a comparison of patterns between mobile and desktop Twitter usage, and a mobile-only magazine. 

Camera Phone Images, Videos, Live Streaming: A Contemporary Visual Trend

Author:
Gaby David
Publication Type:
Journal article
Publication Date:
1 Mar 2010
Abstract:

Writing for a new media review is like writing history as events unfold. In a short time, this article will be out of date and perhaps no more than a few personal 2.0 snapshots taken of a slice of our lives circa 2009. Nevertheless, it is useful to draw a clear picture of how this medium is being used today, to define some of its emerging social properties, and to document and pay closer attention to its influence on our daily experiences and self-mediations. By self-mediations I refer to how each one of us decides his or her digital imprint: what we post online, whether they are videos, photographs, CVs, and the like. Due to the enormous quantity of content produced by users – now usually called prosumers – we should pay close attention to these
doings.

My focus will be on how camera phones affect how news is created and shared, reminding us of how closely the concept of ‘newsworthiness’ is linked to immediacy. Then I will briefly compare the camera phone video experience to the cinematic experience and discuss how film narrative and conventions have affected camera use for better or for worse. Finally, I will pose some open questions that touch on the academic and social value of the camera phone images, and on how contextualising them remains a crucial ingredient in all analysis. I will conclude by considering the visual impact that this handheld object is having on our lives and relationships.

1 Million Tweetshirts - How to Fail Fast and With Scrutiny

Countries:

Or: Why the 1 Million T-Shirts x Twitter is the most important thing happening in Tech4Dev on Wednesday, 28 April 2010.

This is how realtime information will inform the future of development work.

A guy came up with an idea: "Let's collect 1 million t-shirts from the US and send them to Africa."  Ok.  It's an obviously bad idea.  It's probably a viral promotion for his own company.  It was covered by Mashable on Tuesday the 27th of April. None of this is revolutionary.

The guy social-mediazed his "idea".  That's how you go viral. "Hey, twitter, facebook, THE INTERNETS...let's collect 1 million t-shirts...." This is what one does, these days.  Make it public, and put it out there.  It's an idea for "aid" to "Africa."  Why not. It's got a hokey website that said (as of Wednesday, 28 April) "625 shirts collected." Inflamatory. engaging. Also not revolutionary.

Briefing: Twitter against Tyrants - New Media in Authoritarian Regimes

Author:
Transcript of a briefing. Witnesses: Daniel Calingaert, Nathan Freitas, Evgeny Morozov, Chris Spence, Chiyu Zhou
Publication Type:
Other
Publication Date:
1 Oct 2009
Abstract:

The Helsinki Commission is an organization monitoring the implementation of the Helsinki Accords, the Helsinki Final Act across 56 participating states.  The Commission monitors freedom of media.  This briefing considers the ways in which new media and Internet communication technologies affect the balance of power between human rights activists and authoritarian governments. Panelists focus on new media’s role in protests and elections, the ways in which it empowers civil society activists, and the darker side: how dictators use new technology to control and repress their citizens.

Moldova Update -- The Twitter Revolution?

UPDATE, April 8, 2009:  There is more coverage on Moldova and the use of mobiles and Twitter in organizing demonstrations on the front page of the New York Times today, and a round-up of posts from Moldova and the use of social networking tools is on Global Voices. Twitter updates from Moldova are also live-tagged here. 

For a critical view on "The Myth of the Twitter Revolution" see also this.

UPDATED: Terror Attacks in Mumbai: Mobiles and Twitter play Key Role in 24/7 Reporting

UPDATED POST: Mobiles are yet again playing a key role in citizen reporting as terror attacks grip the Indian city of Mumbai.  Twitter, the microblogging service that is available in India, was especially instrumental in conveying first hand reports as the chaotic events were unfolding in the city.  Twitter users set up aggregator accounts at Mumbai, Bombay@BreakingNews and with the search tag #Mumbai.

Using Twitter in Emergencies

Twitter might tell you what the friend of a friend ate for breakfast or when your cousin is doing his laundry. But, charges Nate Ritter, Twitter is way more than a social networking tool used to communicate the mundane details of everyday life. The mobile phone service has potential -- and in fact, has been used in the past -- for emergency communication and response.

Twitter for Organizations #1: Guest Blogger Nate Ritter

In a series of posts about Twitter for organizations, guest blogger Nate Ritter gives an overview of the benefits and pitfalls using Twitter. And because he is a geek, he's got an aggregator at the ready... (Modified and posted with permission from Nate's blog.)

My experiences in the San Diego fires in Southern California in late 2007 gave me an interesting outlook on how Twitter, as a tool, could be applied in different circumstances. For those of you not in the know: Twitter is a "free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send "updates" (or "tweets"; text-based posts, up to 140 characters long) to the Twitter website, via short message service, instant messaging, or a third-party application such as Twitterrific" according to the Wikipedia. Just a few months after (and some even during) the 2007 firestorm some organizations are scratching the surface of what’s possible with this service.

Twitter is a tool. It’s a good one in some cases and and for some organizations, and useless for others. Don’t make Twitter the hammer and start looking at everything like a nail. Twitter does some things very well, but it doesn’t fit every organization’s goals. Here are some considerations that will help determine if Twitter could be useful for your organization. If one of these criteria benefits your community without too many hurdles for adoption, then Twitter might be the right tool for you.