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Steve, K9ZW, has asked What’s the Worth of Twitter?

I’m slowing my Twitter “Tweets” and following of Twitter based on a difficult to use Signal/Noise Ratio.

…

One very active Twittering Ham has a goal of posting 10,000 Tweet posts during the year.

If everyone of those Tweets takes but a second or two out of my attention, that is asking me as a Twitter Follower to give up 5-6 hours of accumulated time.

It’s simply not going to happen.

This was followed up by N0HR’s Twitter Overload post:

Steve notes that one ham has a goal of “tweeting” 10,000 times in a year. Yikes. What possible value could that have to anyone? I could see some value in group using Twitter to meet at the Dayton Hamvention - when you’re all trying to meet you’d know that Frank’s at Denny’s having breakfast, Chuck’s in the flea market and Stan is lugging a boat anchor to the car. That’s about it though.

First off, let me state for the record that I am the said “active Twittering Ham”, but I do not have a “goal” of having 10000 tweets in a year. I did wonder if I’ll hit that number which is looking more and more likely now that I’m less then 50 shy of 9000, but I wouldn’t consider it a goal. Next off, I’m not pissed at Steve for unfollowing me at all. I did mention it in a tweet, but I am not saying that I am sad, angry, or disappointed in Steve.  I am very much in @mediaphyter’s corner regarding following:

…let me make a list of what Twitter is not:

1. A venue for a popularity contest
2. An obligatory mutual instant message system
3. A place where anyone has anything to prove

Exactly. Twitter is different things to different people. Suit your follow list to what you want to see. I’ll be the first to admit that I am a prolific tweeter. My sister never added me to her phone because it she was overwhelmed by texts. I tweet about Ham Radio, InfoSec, the MBTA not working, and any other completely random thing that floats into my head. A lot of my friends are the same. However, I know that this does not suit everyone. I have no problems with someone unfollowing me because I tweet so much, if you’re not going to follow a smaller group of people, I’m going to quickly overwhelm your “stream” on your page, likely providing more signal with noise. There are ways to sift through volumes of tweets, but a lot of people have neither the time or inclination to do so.  Don’t feel the need to follow anyone because “everyone else does it” or if they’re following you. Only follow the people that tweet topics that you’re interests and tweet at your pace. Also, look at the option of turning of

If you’re on Twitter, don’t think you’re going to hurt someones feeling by unfollowing them. I occasionally go through my lists and “purge” people that no longer interest me. If I no longer intrest you, unfollow me! Please! If I follow you, I’ll still reply when you say something I want to comment on and it will still show up in your stream.

Steve, I’m still following you, as you’re one of the Hams who’s tweets I always enjoy. I hope to see you around, and I look forward to you live-tweeting Dayton.

Over the weekend, the Federation of the American Scientists posted a presentation by the Army’s 304th Military Intelligence Battalion. This presentation went over a few things, focusing on the use of mobile technology and the possible use of Twitter by Terrorist cells for either Open Source Intelligence gathering (OSINT) or a Command, Control, Communication, Computers and Intelligence (C4I) tool.

Needless to say, most of the population of Twitter has basically taken the report to mean “Oh my god, the Army thinks Twitter is a Terrorist tool!” and has dismissed the report out of hand. Even some security weblogs I read have been fairly dismissive of the report. After reading up on the report, I completely agree with it’s findings. I’ve had similar concerns floating in the back of my mind since for a while now.

Twitter is a great tool for distributing information quickly, and while that is a good thing, it can also be used for not-so-good things as well. Twitter, with it’s mobile integration and the fact that everyone has a mobile device make it ideal for a distributed intelligence network. The report mentions that this was used with great effect during the Republican National Convention by dirty hippies activists in avoiding apprehension. The report looks at these uses and proposed three scenarios:

Scenario 1: Terrorist operative “A” uses Twitter with (or without) a cell phone camera/video function to send back messages, and to receive messages, from the rest of his cell… Other members of his cell receive near real time updates (similar to the movement updates that were sent by activists at the RNC) on how, where, and the number of troops that are moving in order to conduct an ambush.

Scenario 2: Terrorist operative “A” has a mobile phone for Tweet messaging and for taking images. Operative “A” also has a separate mobile phone that is actually an explosive device and/or a suicide vest for remote detonation. Terrorist operative “B” has the detonator and a mobile to view “A’s” Tweets and images. This may allow “B” to select the precise moment of remote detonation based on near real time movement and imagery that is being sent by “A.”

Scenario 3: Cyber Terrorist operative “A” finds U.S. [soldier] Smith’s Twitter account. Operative “A” joins Smith’s Tweets and begins to elicit information from Smith. This information is then used for… identity theft, hacking, and/or physical [attacks]. This scenario is not new and has already been discussed for other social networking sites, such as My Space and/or Face Book.

There a real-world examples of people using Twitter for things similar to Scenario 1 and 3 today and while Scenario 2 is the most far-fetched, it is still in the realm of possibility. While I don’t think that there are currently terrorists actively designing operations with Twitter in mind, I do believe that it has registered with them. I’m also sure that information on Twitter is going to be mind by both sides, so it is important to make sure that the “good guys” know that how it can be used against them and also how it can be used against the “bad guys.”

Figuring out your opponent’s next move is key in strategic battles and researching all the options is key. The report came up with a few not-so-far-fetched scenarios in which Twitter plays a key role. Coming up with these scenarios allows people to plan to combat them. While it’s easy to dismiss the report as paranoia and think as Twitter as 100% Sunshine and Puppies, it is important to realize that like any tool, Twitter can be used for good things and bad.

Well, I guess the best way to revive a project is to announce that it is almost dead… Ham Twits, since that post, has been growing by leaps and bounds and now boasts a membership of over 50 twits!

Growth is always a good thing, but, it quickly came apparent that the list, maintained as HTML in my CMS, was not the easiest thing to maintain. So, I contacted Peter Goodhall, M3PHP (aka magicbug) and asked him to help me come up with a design for a new website. That, combined with the generous donation of the HamTwits.com domain name by Dan Dawson, KI6ESH (aka DanDawson), allowed me to design a good looking, database driven website for the Ham Twit list.

Check it out at www.hamtwits.com

I am still working on it, but the basic features are there. Twits are classified under their DXCC entity and are currently sorted by region. I’ve also added the QTH and the FriendFeed name of those twits who have accounts there.I’ll be working expanding the information gathered and adding sorting and the ability for twits to update their own information. Not quite there yet, but as I believe in releasing early and often, I have opted to unleash the site in it’s fully-baked-but-still-nice-and-chewy-in-the-middle state.

As always, if you would like to be added, shoot me a e-mail, DM, or an @, and I’ll be happy to add you!

Share and Enjoy!

I’ve received some nice feedback on yesterday’s post and it has caused me to renew my effort into Ham Twits. I’m going to start going after Hams on twitter to see if they’ll let me add them, and as a community as a whole, lets see if we can’t get more Hams to sign up for twitter.

Corey, KB9JHU (aka cshields) posted a great comment that linked to his University Club’s website. Now, *that* is what a Ham Radio club website should look like! CMS! RSS! Clean interface! Brilliant! Thanks Corey!

Well. I must say, Ham Twits is on life support. Partially because I haven’t been pushing it hard enough, hoping that it would have a little bit of “if you build it, they will come” approach, and partially because of the regular downtime that Twitter has been experiencing lately.

The downtime has caused a bit of a chain reaction across the entire Twitter community, and the Hams are no exception. Some people have stopped tweeting altogether, others have severely curtailed their usage, and a couple of prominent people who have jumped ship to other services. The resultant landscape has left me scratching my head and pondering as to if there is any way to sucessfully leverage these services into Ham Radio.

The social web seems to be here to stay and it is starting cross the chasm into the mainstream. I looked at the Ham Twits list as a way of trying to get Hams onto Twitter and quickly find like-minded individuals. However, with the recent splintering of the landscape makes me wonder if trying to leverage such tools on the Ham Radio community is a foolhardy venture.

Ham Radio operators, for the most part, can be rather geeky, but are still a bit behind the curve on the computing side of things. While there are some bright people out there, just simply look at any Ham Radio club’s webpage and you’re treated to a trip back to the late 1990s/early 2000s. More often or not, the home page of your organization is your face on the web. Having it look like something straight out of the dot-com era does not help Ham Radio look “cutting edge”, which seems to be something that most Hams try to pass the hobby off as.

When I started to try to get Ham Twits off the ground, I pictured it as the first step in trying to get more Hams onto the social web. After I compiled a sizeable list, I was going to try to start talking up Twitter in various ham radio related venues. However, now that some of the more active community members have gone over to FriendFeed, Jaiku, or identica, it kind of torpedos the idea of trying to market a single service as a way to communicate with fellow hams. It’s easier to say “Hey! Twitter is easy to use! Look at some of the cool stuff we discuss!” rather then saying “There is some cool stuff on this social web thing! Sign up for Twitter. Oh, and Jaiku if you want to talk to these guys over here, oh, and FriendFeed if you want to talk to those guys over there.” It makes it less likely to sell people on the benefits.

Some people are taking a different tack and trying to make Ham Radio specific socail websites. Chris Matthieu has set up 73s.org and a group of Ham Radio operators in the UK is working on DXAnywhere. Both seem to be solid, good coded websites. However, I think the strongest plus of using existing social networks is that non-Hams use it as well. If we provide Ham Radio with good exposure, we can help shake off the stoddy image of Ham Radio being a dead technological area. I stirred up some interest when I posted my SEEDS Captures on Twitter and quite enjoyed explaining to people how simple it was. Stuff like that is great PR! We should be doing it more often!

In conclusion, I don’t know where Ham Twits is going. I also don’t know if trying to leverage non-Ham-Radio-specific social web services to Hams is a good idea at this point. I wouldn’t be surprised if in six months we’ll see everyone on a new twittagsocialblogcloudweb2.0-thing anyway…

As I get more and more involved in Twitter I keep stumbling across Amateur Radio Operators with Twitter accounts. This is great, as I am very pleased to see some Ham Radio operators on a fairly “new” thing such as Twitter. However, one of Twitter’s weak points is the lack of an ability to find like-minded people (such as fellow Hams) easily. Currently the best way to do it is to find someone who follows Hams on Twitter, slog through all the other hams’ follower/following lists in an effort to find more Hams and follow the same procedure with any other Hams you find. Not the easiest thing to do.

Jennifer Leggio came up a really good concept for Security geeks to find each other on Twitter and FriendFeed called “Security Twits.” In an effort to save my, and others, sanity on Twitter and being that imitation is the best form of flattery, I have co-opted the concept and started making a list of “Ham Twits” (As Jennifer pointed out, Twit is not a derogatory term, Twitter User == “Twit”).

So, without further ado, I present: Ham Twits.

Please, pass this around. Also, if you are on Twitter and are a Ham Radio operator, please contact me so I can add you to the list. Share and Enjoy!

Twitter Love Day Logo courtesy of Jennifer Leggio

If you have been following Twitter scuttlebutt recently, you’ll know that today is the day of the great “Twit-Out” in which certain users are abandoning twitter for a day to move to FriendFeed, an alternative service. Jennifer Leggio (aka @mediaphyter), who more or less got me hooked on Twitter by making it part of SOURCE Boston, had issues with the boycott and has come out with an alternative concept called “Twitter Love Day” in order to show support for Twitter, but also point out it’s shortcomings and try to offer suggestions.

I am very much in Jennifer’s camp. I don’t think a boycott helps anyone, but a bit of a “twitter intervention” (twitvention?) is constructive, as people are letting twitter know that while yes, we love your service, there are major issues you need to fix.

Jennifer has posted a good list of suggestions for Twitter, and I agree with most. However, there are a few I feel there are couple that are wrong

• Limiting API calls - Twitter has a great API. It is allowing people to build a plethora of applications for Twitter. However, this does put a healthy load on the servers. I think the idea that Twitter should further limit API calls from 70/hr down to something lower is the wrong direction. I think twitter should encourage people to be using 3rd party applications instead of hitting their website. Of course, I’m assuming that generating API responses generates less traffic then website hits. But, if it isn’t, shouldn’t it be?
• Groups and Tags - I think Twitter’s advantage is it’s simplicity. It doesn’t try to be everything to everyone, just provide a framework that people can extend. I do like the idea of filtering based on message tags, but I think that should be done on the end-client, rather then Twitter itself. Doing it this way would also provide incentive for users to move away from the web and to API-based utilities.

There is one I agree with wholeheartedly:

• Talk to Us - For the love of God, talk to us, tell us ANYTHING. Please *explain* why there is downtime. Tell us what we can do to help, even if it’s “tweet less”. Just tell us SOMETHING.

Anyway, only time will tell if Twitter continues ticking along or if the twit-out people are the smart ones who can see the storm on the horizon. I’ll be sticking it out for a while, downtime and all.