The Problem with Retweets
As most probably know, Twitter is in the process of launching a version of the widely used retweet on its own platform. The move has caused some controversy, as the way retweets has been implemented by Twitter is much different from the unofficial protocols that Twitter users developed organically on their own. Twitter founder Evan Williams explains Twitter’s reasoning here.
I’ve been testing out the new retweet functionality for a few days, and I must say I am not a fan at all. Sean Bonner has written a great blog post dissecting what he dislikes about Twitter retweets. In his post, he hits on my two biggest issues.
- When a retweet appears in your Twitter stream, it shows the avatar of the person who wrote the original tweet instead of the retweeter. So you have random people’s avatars showing up in your stream.
- Users can no longer add their own comments to the retweets.
The result of these two protocol changes is a complete lack of context for the retweets. Bonner summarizes the lost context problem quite well in this paragraph of his post, which focuses on the avatar issue:
Seeing icons and usernames in my stream of people I don’t follow, even with the addition of a little “retweet” icon does not create a richer, fuller experience for me. It instantly makes me assume Twitter is broken and somehow people I don’t follow are showing up in my stream. It’s jarring and uncomfortable. Ev suggests there is no value in having the icon of the person you follow in a retweet but I completely disagree. Seeing the icon of someone I follow, someone I’m familiar with, instantly puts the retweet in context. Is the person regularly sarcastic which might imply the retweet is a joke, is the retweet a link to an article covering a topic this person usually tweets about which would give me an idea of the slant of the article, is the retweet from someone I follow because I respect and trust their opinion or is it a retweet from someone I’m friends with but don’t always agree with or from someone I follow because they constantly opposing my viewpoints and I want to hear their side of the story as well. Seeing the icon of the person I follow tells me a lot about the tweet and why they likely felt the need to retweet it before I ever read it. Seeing the icon of someone I don’t follow, don’t know, and have no context for confuses me.
Not being able to add your own note to the retweet further destroys the context.
Anyway, not a fan so far. What do you think?
Update: Techcrunch has a very thorough and thoughtful article on this issue.
Celebrating Veterans Day with IAVA
Our client, the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), is the nation’s first and largest group dedicated to helping the Troops and Veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. With today being Veterans Day, you won’t be surprised to know that today they have a great deal up their sleeve. They debuted a great new Public Service Announcement (PSA), “We’ve Got Your Back”, on their Facebook page.
In addition, we helped them launch a redesigned version of their custom Ning social network, Community of Veterans. Community of Veterans is a members only social network that can be accessed only by confirmed veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The network provides veterans with a place to interact with other vets, and includes a robust set of social networking tools including event planning, profile pages, regional groups, etc. Below is a screenshot of the network’s homepage.
We’re really excited to be working with IAVA. In honor of Veterans Day, please follow IAVA on Twitter and become their fan on Facebook.
New Advocacy Site Maps and Tracks Journalists in Peril
New media journalists around the globe face technological barriers and increasing dangers when reporting from within the boundaries of protective governments. A new site by Global Voices Advocacy maps and tracks journalists who have been threatened or arrested and aggregates the information into a robust map database with real-time statistics and details of each case.
The site, Threatened Voices, aims to raise awareness to the growing number of bloggers and other online journalists being persecuted across the world. While both traditional and new media reporters have faced recent danger, the site acknowledges the growing importance and number of online journalists in the global media.
“Online journalists and bloggers now represent 45% of all media workers in prison worldwide,” Global Voices says in a press release.
The captures of high profile journalists abducted in Iraq and North Korea have called attention to the dangers of the profession, while “the harshest consequence for many has been the politically motivated arrest of bloggers and online writers for their online and/or offline activities, in some tragic cases even leading to death,” Global Voices reports.
The site allows users to enter their own location and anecdotal details, drawing from the international community of journalists to fill the site’s map content.
Outside of the central map, other features of the site include statistics and analysis organized in a timeline or by country. The site lists China, Egypt and Iran as the top three countries, respectively, with the highest number of recorded cases of threatened or arrested bloggers.
Each case is tracked to record whether the blogger was threatened or arrested and if arrested, when and if they were released. Another aim of the site is to allow the online community to call attention to campaigns to free particular journalists.
The Committee to Protect Journalists, one of the partners of the Threatened Voices project released a report in April on the 10 Worst Countries to be a Blogger.
Along with a thorough description of each country (at the time, Burma was listed at the top), the article quotes CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon, who emphasizes, “Freedom of expression groups, concerned governments, the online community, and technology companies need to come together to defend the rights of bloggers around the world.”
The site was also built in collaboration with the BBC, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, among others.