TweetCommons Dispatches

This weekend at PodCamp Montreal: New Media and Open Government

tweetcommons — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 21:28:50 +0000

Our very own Tracy Rose is slapping together a nifty presentation for PodCamp this weekend in Montreal. If you’re in town, be sure to check it out! If not, we can’t make any promises, but past PodCamps have featured live streaming video of the presentations so you can enjoy it from the comfort and privacy of your very own computer, with or without pants.

She’ll be talking about the media: what it’s been, what it is, and what it can be. We’ll explore the clash of paradigms between the bullhorns of more traditional media and the user-generated content of new media.

She’ll also be talking about government, more specifically the Canadian one in its current state of affairs. Using recent poll data and news stories to frame the discussion, we’ll talk about the relationship the government has to the people it serves and why Canadians haven’t been too enthusiastic about it in recent years.

With these things in mind, we’ll bring it all together with recent developments in the world of social media and how it changes the ways in which we’re interacting with and influencing our elected representatives in Parliament. The answers to Canada’s dire state of voter apathy may very well lie in how our national conversation is framed and presented to us.

We can’t wait to see you there! Registration is like the best things in life: free. You can sign yourself up at PodCamp’s website, and also get a taste of the other awesome presentations they have on offer. If streaming video is indeed an option, we’ll post the link here as soon as we have it.

New Streams for New Seasons

tweetcommons — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 17:26:26 +0000

Labour Day is over, kids are back in school, and a federal election may be on the horizon. While people across the country are having to get organized in their everyday lives, we here at TweetCommons have put a lot of effort into keeping organized, too! We now have three main TweetStreams to keep you up to date on what everybody’s talking about.

House

This was formerly the singular TweetStream, now renamed to reflect the elected representatives who are in there. As always, MPs are on the left and responses are on the right. You can organize by political party by clicking the tabs on the right, or keep tabs on all of Canada’s provinces and territories by clicking along the top. Finally, because we’re awesome, you can now also see Elizabeth May’s tweets in this stream.

Candidates

This is your source for Canada’s 41st election! As with the House, every tweeting candidate is on the left, and responses to them go on the right with navigation by province or territory along the top and by party in the sidebar. Many of the candidates have already been chosen regardless of when the next election is called, so they’re definitely worth keeping an eye on. You might compare what you see from Candidates to what you see from the House; their job is to impress you!

Commons

Everybody who isn’t either an elected representative or a candidate to be one gets listed under the Commons. By default, everybody we follow will go on the left hand side with responses on the right. Since this group is so large and diverse, we have a richer system of categories to sort what you actually want to see into that left-hand column. These categories are on the right sidebar like the party affiliations are for the politicians. You’ll notice that clicking on any one of them sorts the Tweeters out broadly, but you can further refine any category if you wish.

Some final notes

We’ve installed a couple of widgets throughout the site. The green boxes with numbers and the word ‘Tweets’ work a lot like Digg; you can click on them to share something you like on TweetCommons with all of your followers on Twitter. We’ve also put in a comment system so it’s super-easy for you to have input on any aspect of our site. Don’t be shy; we’d love to hear from you!

Some provinces at the top aren’t highlighted in the Candidates and Commons sections, indicating that nobody’s tweeting for them. This is unfortunate, but we have the structure in place and ready to go for whenever those tweets start coming in. Always feel free to Direct Message @TweetCommons on Twitter or leave a comment somewhere on our site with anybody we’re missing, or your own Twitter account that we should follow.

Finally, be sure to keep your eye on our new media guide. We’re responding to new questions all the time! A lot of people are understandably confused by Twitter and social media, so we’re doing
everything we can to make TweetCommons more accessible. The more people who are on board, the better this service is for us all.

TweetCommons gets a facelift

tweetcommons — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 17:21:05 +0000

If you’ve visited TweetCommons before today, you’ve no doubt noticed the site’s new logo and design. Not only is it cleaner and easier to use, it also comes with some very cool new features.

The photo stream in the sidebar automatically sucks in the most recent pictures tweeted and linked to by MPs. You can browse them quickly by using the slider (most recent pictures to the left, older to the right), or if a picture catches your attention you can click on it to go to the page it was linked on, which should also show you the relevant tweet. Not only do you get to hear about what your government is up to, you also get to see it right on the TweetCommons main page!
We’ve added an ‘About’ page with a brief explanation of how TweetCommons works, so it’s easier than ever for everybody, citizens and politicians alike, to jump in and join our conversation. It also includes a handy list of the other tweeting governments around the world. If you know of one we’ve missed, please let us know!
If you like what you’re seeing on TweetCommons, we’ve made it super-easy for you to let your Twitter followers know. By clicking the ‘Retweet’ button under the banner and to the right, a message linking to TweetCommons will be loaded into your Twitter page and ready to go. You can either post it like it is, or edit the text as you see fit.
We just love our new goose, don’t you?

Currently in the works is a new community feature with dialogue between all kinds of folk, possibly including you! If you’d like to be one of the first users, send a direct message* to @tweetcommons with your location and what sort of twitter account you have (whether you’re a blog, media, political candidate, satire, or regular user).

If you’re a new follower and can’t direct message @tweetcommons because it’s not following you back yet, check back in a few hours and you should be able to.