twittervision & micro-blogging

I've written about twittervision before. It's a mesmerizing mashup, combining data from Google Maps and Twitter, providing a real-time geographical view of tweets from all over the world (and in many languages). Now, twittervision has a new 3D view that displays tweets on a rotating globe (just click the "3D View" button). There are also controls for zooming and panning. Pretty cool!

Tweets are text messages that twitter users send to answer the basic question "what are you doing?"--using text messages and the web, people use Twitter to keep in touch with friends. Once you add someone as a "friend" on Twitter, then you'll instantly receive their updates (tweets) on your cell phone or, if you prefer, on the web or your desktop. It's just one form of micro-blogging.

But this micro-blogging phenomenon isn't just enabling individuals to keep in touch with friends. Imagine the many uses of a platform which empowers anyone to instantly disseminate text and pictures to a global audience via their cell phone! It's being used by organized protesters to coordinate efforts and instantly disseminate information to one another. Journalists (and other folks) are using it to update blogs with text and pictures of breaking news--here's an example from Sky News. TV shows and radio stations have used text messaging for years to engage their audience. Now, tools like Twitter enable anyone to use text messaging for almost any purpose they can imagine!