Josh Catone on how Twitter can be used to harvest information from events that are in progress, such as voting in elections. Sure there's a few hurdles to clear, and a lot of sometimes useless data to sift through, but it can very effective. Twitter works well as a vehicle for news or data gathering because it allows researchers or organizers to crowdsource those tasks and create a ... Read full entry

Marketing agency Shifted Pixels have compiled a list of Australia's 100 most influential twitterers, or Twitterati. While the list has created some controversy in regards to who should actually be ranked, it nevertheless makes a great place to find local twitterers to follow. Hmm, Malcolm Turnbull influential? Not in Kingsford Smith he isn't. ;) Via The PR Warrior.

Qwitter will track Twitter members who stop following your tweets... and they'll even tell you why: John Gruber (gruber) stopped following you on Twitter after you posted this tweet: What's the difference between Arial and Helvetica? As to Gruber, who the hell told him that I can't tell Arial from Helvetica? ;)

Australian ISP BigPond® has become a Twitter member... I guess with the intention of offering improved customer service. Being a part of Australia's largest telecommunications company, Telstra, the people at BigPond® would surely be well placed to offer some interesting insights into the ever changing industry, but to date their tweets have been distinctly mediocre: BigPond® would like 2 chat about the concerns U have. Click [linked ... Read full entry

The recent marked improvement in micro-blogging website Twitter's performance, that you may have noticed, is in-fact not a figment of your imagination. According to uptime figures from Pingdom, Twitter has been doing very well recently. According to Pingdom, Twitter's uptime the past couple of months has been stellar. The site went from down 11.5 hours in July to down just 54 minutes last month. And has been ... Read full entry

Let's take shallowness and superficiality to a new low by taking advantage of Friendfeed's new fake following utility. The Friend Lists also support "Fake Following" - a seemingly unintuitive feature that allows users to look like they're following their friends without actually getting their updates. Users often expect to have their "Follows" reciprocated by their peers, and a failure to do so can lead to bruised egos. ... Read full entry

A list of jobs where you could utilise the knowledge, and networks, you have acquired through the use of social networks and micro-blogging websites, such as Facebook and Twitter. Pity the college kids who are readying themselves for the boredom of working in an office where online profile views are sharply limited or not allowed. Don't they know that there are jobs that demand this stuff? More and more ... Read full entry

So far Twitter has been relatively free of spam. Sure there's a few "bots" following large numbers of members (and hoping their following will be reciprocated) but otherwise spam hasn't been too big an issue. That could change though should more determined types exploit the "reply spam" option though. The defence against spam followers is not to click on their links and not to follow them back. But, ... Read full entry