Found on Twitter
Search: Porter Ranch Fire
mellemusic @ophelia I can see the smoke from our office and we also watched the planes (carring H2O) take off from our conference room last night
twitpic - Freeway was closed! Sean Geraghty
twistedcat: the porter ranch fire has jumped the pass above calgrove
iamhannah: The Porter Ranch fire seems to be picking up again.
yeohbaby: Bags are packed as we wait to see if we need to evacuate. Sesnon/Porter Ranch fire is 0% contained right now.
Mightypeter: I'm coughing up parts of the Porter Ranch fire, and loving it.
jaym: Porter Ranch fire - Moving at 10mph on 101e. Thinking of hopping of freeway and take Ventura blvd. Oh, ye, it smells like a fireplace.
bloomsday16: They think the fire near Porter Ranch could burn all the way to PCH (15 miles)! http://tinyurl.com/42ggzt (expand)
tbone37: @kittyalague . . Is the fire in porter ranch/granda hills away from ur grandpas house?
The fire on the ground spreads as fast as the voices on Twitter. An event happens in real time as we watch from our monitors. One example, the earthquake on Tuesday, September 30, 2008 was reported in less than 20 seconds on twitter by Vixy.
We live in a world of instant reporting through text messages, emails, blogs and now Twitter. You can hear the death knell for the news in print with every keystroke. What is Twitter? Twitter is a microblogging site that allows you to post 140 characters or less. Your network receives each "tweet" the moment you press "upload", broadcasting to a wide net around the world and around the corner. I use Twitter to catch up on the latest in technology, to network, to kill time and to be part of a worldwide community. When I read the tweets on Twitter, I get a feel of what the world is thinking; I can spin from one thought to another in a matter of seconds. Twitter users use it as a communal virtual campfire to story tell, to trade stories about ourselves and to reach out to collaborate. And as a community that comes together in times of need by reaching out in bursts of instant tweets.
Is this the Town Crier of the new age? Yes, with it's unlimited reach, Twitter heralds in the digital age of ...I post this question on Twitter:
"who's the guy that cried The British are coming?" on Twitter.
Replies:
greatcorbinski @ophelia paul revere
elzbeth @ophelia paul revere
bluestbutterfly @ophelia Paul Revere if I remember correctly.
DominusNoctis @ophelia Paul Revere
jeastvold @ophelia wasn't it Paul Revere?
Answered in less than 40 seconds.
Yes Twitter is the Paul Revere of the new digital news age.
Posted on Twitter Oct. 16. 2008
Twitter Food Bank Day Nov. 15th, 2008: Donate a box of food to your local charity. A community effort to donate to those in need started on Twitter. For the latest updates search #twitterfoodbank
Image: DominusNoctis
We live in a world of instant reporting through text messages, emails, blogs and now Twitter. You can hear the death knell for the news in print with every keystroke. What is Twitter? Twitter is a microblogging site that allows you to post 140 characters or less. Your network receives each "tweet" the moment you press "upload", broadcasting to a wide net around the world and around the corner. I use Twitter to catch up on the latest in technology, to network, to kill time and to be part of a worldwide community. When I read the tweets on Twitter, I get a feel of what the world is thinking; I can spin from one thought to another in a matter of seconds. Twitter users use it as a communal virtual campfire to story tell, to trade stories about ourselves and to reach out to collaborate. And as a community that comes together in times of need by reaching out in bursts of instant tweets.
Is this the Town Crier of the new age? Yes, with it's unlimited reach, Twitter heralds in the digital age of ...I post this question on Twitter:
"who's the guy that cried The British are coming?" on Twitter.
Replies:
greatcorbinski @ophelia paul revere
elzbeth @ophelia paul revere
bluestbutterfly @ophelia Paul Revere if I remember correctly.
DominusNoctis @ophelia Paul Revere
jeastvold @ophelia wasn't it Paul Revere?
Answered in less than 40 seconds.
Yes Twitter is the Paul Revere of the new digital news age.
Posted on Twitter Oct. 16. 2008
Twitter Food Bank Day Nov. 15th, 2008: Donate a box of food to your local charity. A community effort to donate to those in need started on Twitter. For the latest updates search #twitterfoodbank
Image: DominusNoctis
Subscribe to 404 City's feed.
I could have sworn it was Paul Bunyan.
Seriously though, I think Twitter is a great tool for real time events being reported. There's no need to wait for the 24 hour news people to report on an event when the community is live and right there.
If you are following the right people on Twitter, you will be able to build a great community right in front of your monitor.
Danh,
I have found it invaluable during the Presidential debates. The flurry of opinions and links that fly on Twitter is amazing. Plus during the after shocks of the September earthquake, it was a relief to hear that everyone was okay.
Thanks for commenting!
I love Twitter. You know how I feel about it. I've made some really good friends locally, and I think of all the immediate messages I got as soon as news of the most recent earthquake hit (especially since cell phones were jammed).
Seeing as to how it's survived beyond what most tech applications and their tiny lifespans, I'm curious to see how it will be utilized in the future.
Derrick,
You and I both. We both use it to communicate each morning to our networks and to gauge the world outside before we step out. It is invaluable for making connections with like minded folks. (we don't use "folks" enough)
I would suggest anyone who wants to experience the full force of Twitter to use http://search.twitter.com/ on the next Presidential Debate by putting in Obama or McCain in the search field.
Thank you for commenting!
Ophelia,
Once again, a triumph.
Connection, bridge-building, community, relationship. From a systems approach, the micro and the macro interconnect, intertwine, and affect each other intricately. Pundits and media, often the more technophobic, too quickly decry Twitter and other similar forms of communication as distancing, disengaging, and isolating, yet another step toward some vague quasi-Heinleinian future. Yet here we are, "Tweeple," we who have exchanged very real moments of connection using this tool, not to mention as a result of our Twitter connection, very real moments in "real time." I have built up a community, a tribe, if you will, on Twitter (and Plurk, though a very different method of engagement entirely), and have had the honor and pleasure of interaction in real-world settings with quite a few of these chosen family members. I hope to meet many more of you in future.
These exchanges, moments of connection, chunks of 140 characters, while seemingly insignificant, or only of relative significance to the lives of the recipient(s), senders, and mutual followers (who can also view the tweets), have proven already with recent events of national and global impact to have caused quite a few ripples. Most of my Twitter tribe knew, for instance, well before the "official" news sources (blurring, all the time, what counts as "official" these days), even well before other social networkers, that Obama had chosen Biden. During earthquakes, floods, and yes, fires, Twitter acts as a lifeline for many, with an immediacy worldwide, both of time and content, that conventional news sources could never provide. And who could forget this: http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/04/16/twitter-saves-man-from-egyptian-justice/ The micro becomes the macro becomes the micro indeed.
An excellent list of FAQs and Twitter tools for all user levels by @butwait on Twitter (http://twitter.com/butwait): http://butwait.pbwiki.com/Twitter-Newbies-FAQ
-Alexander
http://www.alexanderyoo.com
I love the metaphor - twitter = paul bunyon of the digital age! Great post! I felt like I was there witnessing the chaos.