Comments on: On retweeting: How broadcasting someone else’s 140 characters helps make a new medium social

By: LarryGreenberg

LarryGreenberg — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 14:33:33 +0000

As a communications professional, I have found Twitter to be an excellent information filter. I follow those who in their Tweet stream provide interesting insights and links to industry-related articles and posts, as well as useful online tools. In turn, I try to provide a stream that people who share similar interests will find valuable.

In a sense, I — and others like me — are using Twitter as a broadcasting platform that allows for occasional interactivity. When I RT, I sometimes “adapt” the message because of the 140-character limitation. But as journalists do, by providing attribution to the person I’m retweeting, I’m enabling followers to reference the source, where they can read the original post in its entirety.

To your last point about re-tweeting unsubstantiated rumors, it pays to pause before re-posting any item. Like email, Twitter makes impulse communications so simple that it’s easy to forget the importance of a little discretion and due diligence.

By: An embarassment of potential riches: how should Twitter make money? | Twimmer.com

Sat, 01 Aug 2009 07:03:47 +0000

[...] love that), but also to see how peoples’ thoughts have developed. Academics are using it for research to see how ideas get bounced through the medium, and what sort of information people like to pass on. (Turns out it’s almost always links to [...]

By: EP

EP — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 20:11:46 +0000

I’ve been retweeting this article.

By: Sergio Abranches

Sergio Abranches — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 19:14:23 +0000

The paper is indeed a very interesting one and an important contribution to understand the information dynamics taking shape through Twitter. I agree with Carl Meyers comments it does resemble the diffusion of innovations model. The relationship preservers vs adapters does fit the model. I also think that the behavior of adapters is also constrained by the 140 characters rule. It would be a twofold adaptation to the rule as well as of the original message to fit one’s purpose.

By: Carl Meyer

Carl Meyer — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 18:51:33 +0000

I find RT’ing resembles the Diffusion of Innovations model by Everett Rogers. Innovators break news, Early Adopters are the first retweeters, Early Majority retweet the retweets, and so on. This concept of preservers vs. adapters is interesting as it seems to fit that model. At a certain point between Early Adopters and Early Majority the character limit is reached and people are faced with a choice of becoming either preservers or adapters. I expand on the Rogers comparison here: http://carlmeyer.blogspot.com/2009/06/twitter-and-diffusion-of-innovations.html.