6. #Hashtag Activity
• With a partner:
• Search #AgChat on Twitter
• Peruse the 10-20 most recent tweets
• Discuss: What do you notice?
– Who is tweeting
– Are there any re-occurring topics?
– Are there citations/links to other sources?
– Do many tweets include (links to) images or
videos?
7. Bora Zivkovic an expert about scientific blogging and
microblogging, and chair of ScienceOnline states that:
8. Perhaps the best way to think of Twitter as relevant to science
was put forth by James Dacey
9. Primary Uses of Twitter in Science (via @DrCraigMc)
• Eavesdropping: follow informative people to get
information and learn
• Dialogue: exchange, discuss, and debate information
• Broadcast: used by news organizations and businesses
to inform audience about news or products/services
• Data collection: e.g. using Tweeting fishermen to
monitor fish populations
• Accidental journalism: e.g. landing on Hudson river,
Mumbai attacks, Iran post-election protests
• Mindcasting: following a single story or topic, with
links, for a period of time, e.g. my interest in GM food
& policy #gmo
10. Steve Tucker: Tweeting Farmer
@Tykerman1
“People out in the cities aren't familiar with
agriculture like it used to be 100 years ago.
They may not have an appreciation or an
understanding of what goes on out in the
rural side of things…. I just try to be an
information source for whoever may be
listening.”
Quoted in Leslie Bradshaw’s 6 Trends in Social Media & Agriculture presentation.
11. FACT: Twitter posts are helping bridge the urban-rural divide.
FACT: Phones and social media are connecting eaters with sources of food.
Content Credit: CNN.com; Steve Tucker (@Tykerman1), Leslie Bradshaw
12. @SpringCreekRnch
“We’ve been riding cattle trails for a few generations – long enough to
build an enduring respect for our land and the food it produces.
My name is Kirstin Kotelko and I am a proud member of the fourth
generation of the Kotelko family. Today, my dad Bern and my Uncle
Mike run our ranch (Highland Feeders) and partner in Growing Power,
Canada’s first integrated BioRefinery that produces Green Power and
BioFertilizer.
I direct my passion to Spring Creek, which we started in 2003 as a
means of adding value to the cattle we’ve been breeding and raising for
many years. Through Spring Creek, we are able to offer a line of
premium beef products that are raised without antibiotics or added
hormones to create an exceptional eating experience.”
Image and text from: http://springcreek.ca/welcome/our-story/
14. But :: Can Tweets be Meaningful?
• Yes but
– You need to be critically literate
– You need to discover what is of interest/pertinent
to you & your research
– You need to evaluate your sources; whom you
choose to follow on Twitter is key to the quality of
information you receive (who is tweeting?)
• The Library of Congress will archive *every*
public tweet since March 2006
15. Tweets as Meaningful: Jonathan Eisen
• Evolutionary Biologist
• University of California, Davis
• Academic editor in chief of PLoS Biology
• Joined Twitter Feb. 2009
• Then: joined to follow Lance Armstrong in the
Tour of California
• Now: uses Twitter to communicate and share
information with other scientists
16. Activity :: Following Meaningful Content
• Find a scientist/farmer/someone in your field
on Twitter
• A useful place to start is TweepML and search
for “scientists”:
http://tweepml.org/search?query=scientists&
x=0&y=0
• Or try wefollow:
http://wefollow.com/twitter/scientist
• Tell @JessL WHY you chose to follow a
particular scientist & HOW their tweets will be
meaningful to your studies
18. Homework
• Tweet two short reflections on what you
learnt today. Think specifically about case
studies of how people in science/ag use
Twitter.
• Remember to mark all class tweets @JessL
and use our #ALES204 hashtag
• Read “Why Twitter Will Endure” - David Carr,
NY Times, 2010:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/03/weekin
review/03carr.html
