Having discovered in last week's blog that Shakespeare may have been the first person to use the word 'tweep', further research uncovered the fact that William Shakespeare was a prolific user of the micro blogging phenomenon that is Twitter. I understand academics have erroneously suggested that Francis Bacon composed his tweets. The evidence is scant, and if you follow Twitter, Francis Bacon's @FrannyBacon user aphorisms seem to lack the poetry of a finely honed William Shakespeare @WillyShaking tweet. All of which must give the lie to that particular conspiracy theory. The evidence is right there before your very eyes. Compare them for yourself below and see if you agree.
Here are some from the William Shakespeare @WillyShaking archive.
"Tweet all, retweet a few, do wrong to none"
"If twitter be the food of love, tweet on"
"It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but our twitter feed"
"Tweet to many, message to a few"
"Better a witty tweet than a foolish tweet"
"There is nothing either good or bad but tweeting makes it so"
"Hell is empty and all the devils are on twitter"
"The course of retweets never did run smooth"
"And this, our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tweets in trees, tweets in the running brooks, tweets in stones, and tweets in everything"
"But O, how bitter a thing it is to look into happiness through another man's tweets"
"How far that little tweet throws its beams! So shines a good tweet in a naughty world"
"Life is as tedious as retweeted tale, vexing the twitter feed of a drowsy man"
"Tweets without thoughts never retweeted go"
"Tweeting isn't doing. It is a kind of good deed to say well; and yet tweets are not deeds"
"A retweet sought is good, but given unsought, is better"
"The empty tweet makes the loudest sound"
"Now, God be praised, that twitter gives light in darkness, comfort in despair"
"Pleasure of tweeting make the hours seem short"
"When tweets come, they come not single spies, but in battalions"
Here are a handful of Francis Bacon @BaconButty
"Tweeting is power"
"It is impossible to tweet and be wise"
"A prudent tweet is one half of wisdom"
"Twitter makes dull men witty"
"The job of the tweeter is to always deepen the mystery"
"Tweets are thieves of time"
and finally.
"blogging about tweets steals even more time" @museumu
Follow us all at @museumu, @WillyShaking, @FrannyBacon for insightful and poetic thoughts on social media
Showing posts with label Twitter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Twitter. Show all posts
Friday, 6 December 2013
Thursday, 28 November 2013
Be quiet, tweeps. Wherefore throng you hither?*
I am over the MA conference and back on terrafirma, but my thoughts have been on twitterfirma ever since. Learning the new word 'tweeps' was possibly the highlight of my conference (I'm not sure what that says about me - or the conference). My thanks must go to the prolific museum tweeter Rachel Cockett (@RachaelCockett) for introducing me to the word. Since then I've have been adding 'tw' to most things much to the annoyance of the general public. The process is simple, if you tweet, read tweets, or even think about tweeting whilst indulging in everyday activity simply 'twitterfy' the word or phrase. For example, since the conference:
I've been twubbing (tweeting in a pub)
I've had a nice relaxing twubble bath
I've twined in a restaurant
and I've tweeded the garden - and very nice it looks too.
The possibilities now become interesting. Cockney rhyming slang will have to adapt. Will cockney 'tweezers' go out for a 'twuby' on a Saturday night, dressed in their 'twistles', I would suggest this is no less incomprehensible that the real thing.
When the kids have an extra day's holiday is that because the teachers will be having a 'twinset' day?
Will bagpipers now indulge in a quick 'twirl' of the pipes?
Do you tweet in the hairdresser's? Having your fringe whilst sending a tweet would that be a 'twinge'?
If somebody gives you a hint and you tweet it, would it be a 'twinkling'?
If you share the highlight of the conference on twitter would that have been the 'twilight'?
Would a museum curator accidentally 'tweak' a Ming vase by dropping it on the floor?
I could go on, and probably have. This all very diverting - please tweet if you have some good suggestions with the long term aim of getting these words into the updated Oxford English Dictionary.
But beware - there are dangers. I'd never want a twitter chat to become a 'twat'. Or do I?
* A Comedy of Errors - I may have found incontrovertible evidence that Shakespeare invented the word 'tweep' although there is a large coffee stain on the page in question so I can't be certain.
I've been twubbing (tweeting in a pub)
I've had a nice relaxing twubble bath
I've twined in a restaurant
and I've tweeded the garden - and very nice it looks too.
The possibilities now become interesting. Cockney rhyming slang will have to adapt. Will cockney 'tweezers' go out for a 'twuby' on a Saturday night, dressed in their 'twistles', I would suggest this is no less incomprehensible that the real thing.
When the kids have an extra day's holiday is that because the teachers will be having a 'twinset' day?
Will bagpipers now indulge in a quick 'twirl' of the pipes?
Do you tweet in the hairdresser's? Having your fringe whilst sending a tweet would that be a 'twinge'?
If somebody gives you a hint and you tweet it, would it be a 'twinkling'?
If you share the highlight of the conference on twitter would that have been the 'twilight'?
Would a museum curator accidentally 'tweak' a Ming vase by dropping it on the floor?
I could go on, and probably have. This all very diverting - please tweet if you have some good suggestions with the long term aim of getting these words into the updated Oxford English Dictionary.
But beware - there are dangers. I'd never want a twitter chat to become a 'twat'. Or do I?
* A Comedy of Errors - I may have found incontrovertible evidence that Shakespeare invented the word 'tweep' although there is a large coffee stain on the page in question so I can't be certain.
Saturday, 17 November 2012
MA Conference (T)wittering Awards
In my attempts to let the world understand the true voice of unreason I use Twitter as my main method of communication. In the old days I suppose I would have been found ranting on street corners and being quietly moved on by the local constabulary. Now I am a respected sage in 140 characters or less.
The time to step up to the plate and bear my tweeting teeth came at the MA Conference 2012. I vowed to tweet as much as my RSI would let me. However I quickly realised I would be up against true professionals - could a yokel from somewhere south/north of Yorkshire mix it with top twitterators?
To begin with I noticed many tweets were quotes from sessions with an added 2 or 3 words of analysis - if you were lucky. The brief for speakers at next year's conference should be to keep sentences to 100 characters or less to help us tweeters. The problem is that this instruction may reduce the clarity of the message by making speakers' sentences a bit too sh
In the end I only managed 20 tweets, a meagre 10 a day. Let's put this into context. I met my new tweeting hero @MarDixon and she had tweeted 4,123,345 times before lunch on the first day with insight, engagement and above all enthusiasm. I was truly humbled. Her best tweets? Perhaps these two as part of a conversation with MannyC?
MarDixon,"Audience are embracing weird and wonderful - why aren't museum people / museums?"
mannyc,"@MarDixon embracing and encouraging a culture of change can be a long, hard process. Not an excuse to avoid it though..."
MarDixon, "@mannyc Culture change should come from within an I haven't seen much change there. The public has changed & is bored waiting."
Biting, perceptive and a too rare perspective from outside of the museum world.
Anyway, having gone through the #museums2012 and not slept for 10 days I have now come up with my own
Museum of Unreason Tweeting Awards
* Note I have edited the hashtags out of all the tweets in the interest of sanity
Best suggestion?
Lynz_M_Anderson, "Philanthropy session: Museum Staff should ALL donate to their museums... "
I'll be using that little morale booster at my next team meeting.
Best food for thought?
ee_ve, "Engaging session on conflict in museums. Is it ok to display conflict but not ok to have internal conflicts?"
I think I've got it the wrong way round in my museum.
Best reason to work?
Sharonheal, "Emma Varnam in cultural rights session; why do we go to work in a morning? It's all about social justice."
Best reason not to work?
RachelCockett, "If you work in an organisation for more two years you are complicit. Can you live with it?"
Well to be honest - yes
Best food reference?
AustenJocelyn, "Keith Nichol: 'The UK spends more on cheese than charity.' Love cheese, but a sad statement."
As a cheese based life-form I might be partly responsible for this
Most honest tweet?
museumsrepublic, "Worryingly in the last session I put my hand up by mistake and then saw a microphone coming towards me.."
Most Medieval?
Acuity_Design,"They spent years meticulously making beautiful copies to put on shelves." "Monks?" "No, museums."
Most Excluded?
leehutchinson, "My BlackBerry died (seemingly self-destructed). Consequently, I felt marginalised at MA conference as a non-smartphone user."
The Museum of Unreason Holy Moley award
TamsinRussell, "I loved the Jar. of Moles!"
Great use of a full stop for effect
My best tweet? It gets the 'reducing social media to school playground competitiveness' award
MuseumU, "last tweet 13 seconds can anyone beat that?"
If anyone would like to share their favourite tweets from the conference, or come up with their own awards, I'd be happy to hear from you.
Perhaps together we can put pressure on the MA to come up with some official awards of their own at the next conference.
The time to step up to the plate and bear my tweeting teeth came at the MA Conference 2012. I vowed to tweet as much as my RSI would let me. However I quickly realised I would be up against true professionals - could a yokel from somewhere south/north of Yorkshire mix it with top twitterators?
To begin with I noticed many tweets were quotes from sessions with an added 2 or 3 words of analysis - if you were lucky. The brief for speakers at next year's conference should be to keep sentences to 100 characters or less to help us tweeters. The problem is that this instruction may reduce the clarity of the message by making speakers' sentences a bit too sh
In the end I only managed 20 tweets, a meagre 10 a day. Let's put this into context. I met my new tweeting hero @MarDixon and she had tweeted 4,123,345 times before lunch on the first day with insight, engagement and above all enthusiasm. I was truly humbled. Her best tweets? Perhaps these two as part of a conversation with MannyC?
MarDixon,"Audience are embracing weird and wonderful - why aren't museum people / museums?"
mannyc,"@MarDixon embracing and encouraging a culture of change can be a long, hard process. Not an excuse to avoid it though..."
MarDixon, "@mannyc Culture change should come from within an I haven't seen much change there. The public has changed & is bored waiting."
Biting, perceptive and a too rare perspective from outside of the museum world.
Anyway, having gone through the #museums2012 and not slept for 10 days I have now come up with my own
Museum of Unreason Tweeting Awards
* Note I have edited the hashtags out of all the tweets in the interest of sanity
Best suggestion?
Lynz_M_Anderson, "Philanthropy session: Museum Staff should ALL donate to their museums... "
I'll be using that little morale booster at my next team meeting.
Best food for thought?
ee_ve, "Engaging session on conflict in museums. Is it ok to display conflict but not ok to have internal conflicts?"
I think I've got it the wrong way round in my museum.
Best reason to work?
Sharonheal, "Emma Varnam in cultural rights session; why do we go to work in a morning? It's all about social justice."
Best reason not to work?
RachelCockett, "If you work in an organisation for more two years you are complicit. Can you live with it?"
Well to be honest - yes
Best food reference?
AustenJocelyn, "Keith Nichol: 'The UK spends more on cheese than charity.' Love cheese, but a sad statement."
As a cheese based life-form I might be partly responsible for this
Most honest tweet?
museumsrepublic, "Worryingly in the last session I put my hand up by mistake and then saw a microphone coming towards me.."
Most Medieval?
Acuity_Design,"They spent years meticulously making beautiful copies to put on shelves." "Monks?" "No, museums."
Most Excluded?
leehutchinson, "My BlackBerry died (seemingly self-destructed). Consequently, I felt marginalised at MA conference as a non-smartphone user."
The Museum of Unreason Holy Moley award
TamsinRussell, "I loved the Jar. of Moles!"
Great use of a full stop for effect
My best tweet? It gets the 'reducing social media to school playground competitiveness' award
MuseumU, "last tweet 13 seconds can anyone beat that?"
If anyone would like to share their favourite tweets from the conference, or come up with their own awards, I'd be happy to hear from you.
Perhaps together we can put pressure on the MA to come up with some official awards of their own at the next conference.
Saturday, 29 October 2011
Tweet To Who
It is time to reflect on the Twitter experience.
The Museum of Unreason has been active in social media for 84 days. Why is this significant? 84 days was the record breaking amount of time for a man to spend in space (Jerry Carr on Skylab in case you were wondering). So as we are poised to break his record for time spent in (cyber)space where is the Museum of Unreason in this brave new virtual world?
46 out of 100 must do better
www.tweet.grader.com has marked the museum as 46 out 100 - we fail! Although I'm sure the modern education system does not allow failure, so we can claim alternative success. Further inspection bears this out.
5,902,876th out of 175,000,000 go to the top of the class
The Museum is ranked 5,902,876th is this good? Yes, why?
Twitter claims 175m. accounts. This puts the Museum in the top 5% (3.37%) of users. Success!
There are 56 million people following no-one. The Museum is following 31. Success!
There are 90 million people with zero followers. The Museum has 30 followers. Success!
Over 50% of accounts have 2 followers or fewer. The Museum is therefore in the top 50%. Success!
Best Tweeters starting 84 days ago
Hats of to @austinadderley1 7,795 followers and 10,507 updates (125 tweets a day) (1 every 5 minutes). Epic commitment and he deserves all the followers he gets. This is a 100 out 100 tweeter.
Hats off to @CondeElevator 88,663 followers from only 36 updates (2,462 followers for every tweet) based on things overheard in lifts. Has a museum tried this?
Hats off @andrewtmccarthy 7,982 followers from 390 updates. Alright I've only included him as he is a famous person that started the same day as the museum. The world should be grateful to him for 'Weekend at Bernie's' anyway
Best museum Tweeters
Hats off to @TacomaArtMuseum 5,062 followers for 786 updates. The top museum scoring100 out of 100 using the tweet.grader.com system
Hats off to @smithsonian 535,732 followers from 5,074 updates. epic numbers 100 out of 100
Museum of Unreason Social Media Forward Plan
The Museum of Unreason plans to be the best the museum on Twitter therefore we will have to have 600,000 within another 84 days. How?
We will tweet every 4 minutes, about the things overheard in a museum, whilst making a comic B movie about a dead body.
The Museum of Unreason has been active in social media for 84 days. Why is this significant? 84 days was the record breaking amount of time for a man to spend in space (Jerry Carr on Skylab in case you were wondering). So as we are poised to break his record for time spent in (cyber)space where is the Museum of Unreason in this brave new virtual world?
46 out of 100 must do better
www.tweet.grader.com has marked the museum as 46 out 100 - we fail! Although I'm sure the modern education system does not allow failure, so we can claim alternative success. Further inspection bears this out.
5,902,876th out of 175,000,000 go to the top of the class
The Museum is ranked 5,902,876th is this good? Yes, why?
Twitter claims 175m. accounts. This puts the Museum in the top 5% (3.37%) of users. Success!
There are 56 million people following no-one. The Museum is following 31. Success!
There are 90 million people with zero followers. The Museum has 30 followers. Success!
Over 50% of accounts have 2 followers or fewer. The Museum is therefore in the top 50%. Success!
Best Tweeters starting 84 days ago
Hats of to @austinadderley1 7,795 followers and 10,507 updates (125 tweets a day) (1 every 5 minutes). Epic commitment and he deserves all the followers he gets. This is a 100 out 100 tweeter.
Hats off to @CondeElevator 88,663 followers from only 36 updates (2,462 followers for every tweet) based on things overheard in lifts. Has a museum tried this?
Hats off @andrewtmccarthy 7,982 followers from 390 updates. Alright I've only included him as he is a famous person that started the same day as the museum. The world should be grateful to him for 'Weekend at Bernie's' anyway
Best museum Tweeters
Hats off to @TacomaArtMuseum 5,062 followers for 786 updates. The top museum scoring100 out of 100 using the tweet.grader.com system
Hats off to @smithsonian 535,732 followers from 5,074 updates. epic numbers 100 out of 100
Museum of Unreason Social Media Forward Plan
The Museum of Unreason plans to be the best the museum on Twitter therefore we will have to have 600,000 within another 84 days. How?
We will tweet every 4 minutes, about the things overheard in a museum, whilst making a comic B movie about a dead body.
Saturday, 17 September 2011
Bloggling: Can Museums Help Tech?
Museums are beginning to engage with 21st Century technology in the same way they failed to embrace the 20th Century. Naturally this leap is causing some problems. What do we do with social media?
As befits one of the world's great museums of the world the Smithsonian has been leading the way. They are fortunate in that they can have a Head of Mobile Strategy. At the other end of the scale we have a member of staff who knows what a smart phone is. So we need to learn from the big boys.
The Smithsonian's offering is mind bloggling (my new word for mind-boggling blogging) mobile & crowdsourcing apps, but also visual recognition and augmented reality systems.
What can be done on a fraction of the budget and yet still be up with the times? Cloudy thinking is needed.
Museums traditionally over time have redefined themselves to reflect the world around them. A pro active museum in the 21st Century should redefine the world to match the museums world. The world for most museums = no staff, no money. So get a grip of new technology by redefining what it is.
New museum definitions for social media
1. Facebook = a book with picture of the author on the front
2. Twitter = pre-pubescent conversation
3. Mobile app or application = using a caravan
4. Crowdsourcing = get the public to your work for you
5. Visual recognition = not ignoring people you know
6. Augmented reality = just make it bigger
Having redefined the digital world its time to put into practice the new museum digital agenda. Here is the alternative manifesto for the digital world for museums with no money.
1. Write a guide to the museum, but instead of a glossy publication do a cheap photocopy with a picture of you on the front, fold it carefully and sit on it. The boss comes and says we should be on Facebook you can legitimately say 'I'm on top of it sir/madam/you cretin'* (*delete as appropriate for the set of values inherent in your organisation)
2. Record the next school group that comes through your door and put it on a sound loop and play it regularly. The boss comes in and says we should be tweeting (see 1 for appropriate response).
3. Tell your boss you need to be given time to work on a mobile app then hire a caravan and go on holiday to the seaside.
4. Before leaving ask the next customer to mind the desk for you while you pop out (its up to you whether you mention the seaside trip). If the cash till is empty and the customer gone by the time you return you can write a report on the problems of community engagement and blame the boss.
5. Say good morning to the boss for the first time and actually use his/her real name (look it up and practice it beforehand).
6. Advertise the new augmented reality exhibition and charge visitors for magnifying glasses.
You are now offering the same facilities as the Smithsonian (make sure that goes into the marketing leaflet) at a fraction of the cost for a fraction of the audience.
As befits one of the world's great museums of the world the Smithsonian has been leading the way. They are fortunate in that they can have a Head of Mobile Strategy. At the other end of the scale we have a member of staff who knows what a smart phone is. So we need to learn from the big boys.
The Smithsonian's offering is mind bloggling (my new word for mind-boggling blogging) mobile & crowdsourcing apps, but also visual recognition and augmented reality systems.
What can be done on a fraction of the budget and yet still be up with the times? Cloudy thinking is needed.
Museums traditionally over time have redefined themselves to reflect the world around them. A pro active museum in the 21st Century should redefine the world to match the museums world. The world for most museums = no staff, no money. So get a grip of new technology by redefining what it is.
New museum definitions for social media
1. Facebook = a book with picture of the author on the front
2. Twitter = pre-pubescent conversation
3. Mobile app or application = using a caravan
4. Crowdsourcing = get the public to your work for you
5. Visual recognition = not ignoring people you know
6. Augmented reality = just make it bigger
Having redefined the digital world its time to put into practice the new museum digital agenda. Here is the alternative manifesto for the digital world for museums with no money.
1. Write a guide to the museum, but instead of a glossy publication do a cheap photocopy with a picture of you on the front, fold it carefully and sit on it. The boss comes and says we should be on Facebook you can legitimately say 'I'm on top of it sir/madam/you cretin'* (*delete as appropriate for the set of values inherent in your organisation)
2. Record the next school group that comes through your door and put it on a sound loop and play it regularly. The boss comes in and says we should be tweeting (see 1 for appropriate response).
3. Tell your boss you need to be given time to work on a mobile app then hire a caravan and go on holiday to the seaside.
4. Before leaving ask the next customer to mind the desk for you while you pop out (its up to you whether you mention the seaside trip). If the cash till is empty and the customer gone by the time you return you can write a report on the problems of community engagement and blame the boss.
5. Say good morning to the boss for the first time and actually use his/her real name (look it up and practice it beforehand).
6. Advertise the new augmented reality exhibition and charge visitors for magnifying glasses.
You are now offering the same facilities as the Smithsonian (make sure that goes into the marketing leaflet) at a fraction of the cost for a fraction of the audience.
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