June
2009 Website of the Month
Disability Resources on Twitter
You may be with someone who is anxiously texting away on
their mobile device and if you asked them what they were
doing they may say that they just sent a
"Tweet." A "Tweet?," you may wonder.
Actually that person was doing something rational.
They were posting a micro-blog to the social networking
site: Twitter.
Twitter was created in 2006 and emerged out of a
brainstorming session from developers at the podcasting
company Odeo. It was envisioned as a way to
connect groups of people with their mobile phones and
devices using texts. Twitter evolved to integrate the
traditional website and It eventually was spun-off into
its own company and a mere three years later (at the time of
this writing) it is booming
in popularity and has generated a lot of media buzz.
This article is aimed at people who may not be familiar
with Twitter. Our purpose is to provide a basic understanding of what
Twtter is before visiting some of the sites we have selected for
this month, so some explanation of what Twitter is and what
people use it for is in order:
Essentially Twitter is a micro-blog, meaning each post is
limited to only 140 characters (which includes any web link a
user of Twitter might include in their post). Users
of Twitter who want to post links to web pages and resources
on their "Tweets" will use URL shortener services
like: SnipURL, ShortURL or TinyURL,
among others.
Twitter is free to join and use and it allows a person to to
connect up with other Twitter users. These users are
termed "Follow" for both the user and the people
the user is connecting with. A person could have a few
people following or thousands of people or in the case of
some celebrities such as: Demi Moore, Oprah or
P Diddy, over one million.
When you see"@reply" preceding a message - this
signifies that it is a message sent from one person to
another that is public.
A direct message on Twitter is a private message from on
user to another. Direct messages can only be viewed in a
users direct message Inbox after logging into a personal
Twitter account. Direct message can only be sent to
Twitter users that a user is already following.
When people post to Twitter by email that posting is
automatically sent to the people following them via email as
well.
People can also access someone's "Tweets" via the
web as a web page for that user and can also get a users updates
(new "Tweets") via RSS feed.
Confused? Don't be - it's all a part of the social
networking revolution that has changed the web and the transition of
larger and larger groups of people accessing the internet
using mobile devices.
How does this fit in with our Site of the Month
feature? Is Twitter really our site of the
month? Well, not exactly. Twitter plays an
important role but our feature this month is actually to
introduce our visitors to a sampling of users and
organizations using Twitter related to traumatic brain injury,
respiratory conditions and other
disabilities.
Not only are individual people on Twitter but also
businesses, not-for-profits, universities, hospitals, media,
publishers, and a host of different kinds of organizations.Visiting Twitter pages will help you see how different people
and organizations are using this social networking phenomena
as well as seeing its potential value as another web
resource for information and support.
Keep in mind that many of the people and organizations
presented here have only been on Twitter for a short period
of time so you may not find a user with a long archive of
"Tweets" (at least as of the date of this
writing).
Here are some interesting Twitter users we found which serve
as examples:
Headway Ireland
http://twitter.com/HeadwayIreland
We have featured the traditional website of Headway (a large
brain injury organization in the UK) in a past article in
this series, but
here Headway in Ireland is using Twitter and much like other
users Headway is communicating about recent events related
to that organization. On the day we visited there
were "Tweets" about fundraising activities, links
to news items related to brain injury, and research
articles.
In the right hand column you will see some of the people and
organizations who are "Following" Headway
Ireland. There is also a link to their home
website. At the bottom of all Twitter pages is a link
to older postings.
Brain Injury Association of Arkansas
http://twitter.com/BIAAR
From their Twitter page on the day we visited we saw that
the Brain Injury Association of Arkansas (BIAA) had recently
joined Twitter and had thirty Following. Compared with Headway
Ireland, there were relatively few "Tweets,"
however, you can assume that they are finding their way
through using Twitter and that will increase over time.
Remember at the time that this article was written, many
people and organizations have only just moved onto Twitter
and as with the early web it will
be interesting to see how organizations like BIAA end up
using Twitter and defining themselves through social
networking.
Lee Woodruff
http://twitter.com/LeeMWoodruff
Lee Woodruff, wife of Bob Woodruff of ABC news and one of
the founders of Remind - The Bob Woodruff Foundation has a
personal Twitter page and discusses ongoing goals of Remind
including daily updates of the foundation's current campaign.
Remind itself is also on Twitter http://tweettoremind.org/
and other Twitter users can help support injured troops with
physical, traumatic brain injury and psychological wounds
through their ongoing campaigns. More and more not for
profit foundations are using Twitter as an adjunct to their
traditional websites for both communication and fundraising.
Wheels in Motion
http://twitter.com/WheelsInMotion
Wheels in Motion is the foundation of Rick Hansen, who is an
Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) survivor in Canada. Wheels In
Motion, is an annual event held in communities across Canada
to raise funds that help improve the quality of life of
people living with SCI and the Rick
Hansen Foundation is a registered charitable organization
that works to create more accessible and inclusive
communities, and supports the search for
a cure.
You can follow the activities of Rick Hansen and the latest
work of the foundation through their "Tweets."
MarcyArmatiage
http://twitter.com/MarcyArmtiage
Marcy L. Armtiage is a C/6-C/7 SCI and closed head injury
survivor. Her Twitter page tells the story of her
daily life and ongoing rehabilitation. This is a good
example of how an individual survivor is using Twitter to talk
about what she is experiencing in negotiating her way
through recovery and becoming as independent as possible.
There is great value in those "Tweets" for other
survivors and family members who follow Marcy's experiences
and her comments on success and frustrations in life post
SCI. If you follow the link to Marcy's traditional
website from her Twitter page you will read the story of what happened to her and learn how her SCI was
undetected for three weeks. Her experience with
insurance coverage is horrendous and unfortunately not an
uncommon event.
What you find in her "Tweets," however, is someone
who positive and focused on working to move on and getting
independent. And along the way a lot of wisdom
is passed on to those who follow.
About COPD
http://twitter.com/AboutCOPD
Deborah Trendel is a Registered Nurse and a freelance health
writer who specializes in critical care and who authors the
about.com Guide to COPD which like many of the many topics
on about.com is comprehensive. Her "Tweets"
link to her many articles and blog postings on about.com.
This is a good illustration of another benefit of following
on Twitter, the ability to get alerts immediately when new
information is posted elsewhere such as a traditional website.
Current Medical Research and Opinion
http://twitter.com/CMRO_Journal
Current Medical Research and Opinion (CMRO) is a medical
journal that uses twitter to alert followers to its latest
articles. The British
Medical Journal is also using Twitter and this is likely the start of a
trend of journals utilizing social networking to alert those
who follow to research.
The sites presented above are a small sampling of what you
can find on Twitter. Remember, Twitter is growing
daily so you may search for a particular term or condition
and not come up with a lot of applicable results. We
suggest you keep trying over time as new users are coming on
every day.
One facet of Twitter is not that impressive and that is
their search function. Their search results will bring you back the
latest "Tweets" with the key words you are
searching for, however, it is not that intuitive.
Using the advanced search tools helps. Better yet,
however, are 2nd party search engines that crawl Twitter -
twazzup http://www.twazzup.com/
gives real time searching and we found that it returns more
comprehensive results. Twellow http://www.twellow.com/
is another search engine that bills itself the "Twitter
Yellow Pages." Entering a search term will return
actual profiles of Twitter users, organizations, and businesses
rather than "Tweets." Even Google has
developed its own Twitter
search which is now testing in Beta. There are
other smaller search engines as well and clicking on: this
article gives you a listing of more options.
Unless you are second nature with social networking it would
be of value to have a guide to Twitter terminology.
Here are three articles to reference:
Twitter
Lingo
Twitterspeak
Twittonary
For more specific help using Twitter you can visit their
support page:
http://help.twitter.com/portal
Below are some other interesting Twitter users we found in
our visits:
Twitter is the latest social networking site that melds
the traditional web with mobile devices and blogging.
Like other facets of the web it is being embraced by the
disability community.
Once you understand how it works and get acclimated to its
technical aspects, style and lingo it is another great web
tool that connects survivors, family, caregivers, and
professionals to information, resources and most importantly
support.
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