The Staggers: twitter

Among all the year end reviews, here's something a little bit different. Mick Hodgkin has been tweeting the news each day in the form of a limerick - and naturally within the 140 word character limit.

Mick is a programme editor for Al Jazeera, a former colleague, an Arsenal fan (oh, yes) and clearly a talented and dedicated limerick writer. Here's a selection -- and there ... read more

Twitter loves nothing more than a story about Twitter, so the news yesterday that a US company is planning to sue a former employee for taking his followers with him spread fast.

Noah Kravitz tweeted for Phonedog as @Phonedog_Noah, building up 17,000 followers. When he left the company, he changed his username to @noahkravitz but took the followers with him. He claims that his former employer gave him permission to continue ... read more

"Commons votes unanimously for modernity," tweeted Conservative MP Matthew Hancock.What on earth could he be referring to? The vote against banning tweeting in parliament, of course.

Tory MPs James Gray and Roger Gale tabled an amendment to prohibit the use of handheld devices during Commons debates. Gray argued:

I think [MPs using electronic devices in the chamber] brings the whole nature of debate in this place ... read more

Here's David Cameron on 22 February in Kuwait, talking up the power of social media in the wake of the nascent Arab Spring:

[The movement] belongs to a new generation for whom technology - the internet and social media - is a powerful tool in the hands of citizens, not a means of repression.

And here's Cameron on Thursday 11 August talking up the perils of social media in the ... read more

The advocates of intervention in Libya have all strenuously avoided any comparison with Iraq. David Cameron and Hillary Clinton have pointed repeatedly towards the costs of inaction in Bosnia in the mid-1990s instead. This has not gone down well with Donald Rumsfeld, who wants the 2003 Iraqi invasion to get some credit.

The former US secretary of defence tweeted:

There's a reason Gaddafi isn't contemplating using a nuclear/radiological weapon today: he saw ... read more

Last week Paul Chambers was unsuccessful in his appeal of his conviction under section 127 of the Communications Act 2003.

As I am his solicitor, and as I am a servant of the court and subject to professional rules of conduct, I cannot say more here about that particular appeal than is otherwise in the public domain. Paul is disappointed, and he is taking advice on whether to take the case ... read more

Twitter is in revolt after Paul Chambers yesterday lost his appeal against a conviction for sending a menacing electronic communication.

Chambers sent the following tweet publicly over the social networking website:

"Crap! Robin Hood Airport is closed. You've got a week and a bit to get your shit together, otherwise I'm blowing the airport sky high!"

This flippant and foolish comment has read more

On the day that the first "Twitter Joke Trial" concludes, the site is at the centre of another legal controversy. Gareth Compton, a Conservative Birmingham City councillor, has been arrested after he "jokingly" called for Independent columnist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown to be stoned to death.

Compton tweeted: "Can someone please stone Yasmin Alibhai-Brown to death? I shan't tell Amnesty if you don't. It would be a blessing, really."

He soon deleted the ... read more

This is a great spoof trailer: after Facebook: the Movie (aka The Social Network) we have Twitter: the Movie (aka "The Twit Network") with such dialogue gems as:

I need to create a way to blog that is as random and incoherent as writing on a bathroom wall.

Why?

Because normal blogging is tedious and dumb and leads to fully formed ideas.

. . . and:

If Twitter was as useless and as boring as ... read more

The people over at Tweetminster have been analysing all the activity on Twitter related to the coalition government since David Cameron walked into 10 Downing Street on 11 May. It amounts to over five million tweets and, on the eve of Cameron's 100th day in office, they've released their findings.

From which we learn that:

[Click on the image to enlarge]

David Cameron may once have poked fun at the social networking site Twitter when he said in a radio interview, "Too many twits make a tw*t", but yesterday the Conservative Party took a rather different line on the power of the tweet as it announced it had amassed just over 30,000 "followers" on its microsite.

"Thank you for your support -- we have now reached 30,000 followers," the Tories tweeted. Indeed, ... read more

So Twitter has claimed its first political scalp. Once the Labour candidate Stuart MacLennan's abusive tweets were uncovered today, his position looked untenable to me.

Strangely, less than half an hour before he was removed, the Scottish Secretary, Jim Murphy, was still insisting that MacLennan would remain the party's candidate for Moray and was fighting off Tory and SNP calls for his head. But clearly once Labour high command realised ... read more