Self-hosted microblog
The open source microblogging platform StatusNet has two interesting options for users.
Microblogging, for the uninitiated, is online publishing of status updates within a limited space, normally 140 characters. Think Twitter or the wall on Facebook.
StatusNet offers its software for download, which can be installed on any PHP/My SQL server. This gives the user control over branding, design and access.
I have installed the program at gorey.com.au/miniblog/.
For people who don’t have a domain or access to a server, StatusNet offers a hosted account. (more…)
Twitter down
Twitter seems to be down. I just tried to login for the first time this week. The outage must be causing some angst for people who are addicted to it.
Tweet cloud
Twitter or Facebook?
I currently have accounts with both. Also with identica, Tumblr and Type Pad.
Twitter is the one I use most. The Twitter updates also feed through automatically to my wall on Facebook.
Let’s take a look at the differences between Twitter and Facebook, bearing in mind this is my private view and each person will be different. (more…)
Twitter psychological profile
Social and viral marketing scientist Dan Zarrella has released a web tool to analyse people’s psychological profiles on Twitter.
Zarrella claims that TweetPsyc uses two linguistic analysis algorithms (RID and LIWC) to build a psychological profile of a person based on the content of their tweets.
“The service analyses your last 1000 tweets and works best on users who have posted more than 1000 updates. It also works best on accounts that are operated by a single user and use Twitter in a conversational manner, rather than simply a content distribution platform,” the site says.
According to Read Write Web, where I first heard about this, RID is a text analysis tool composed of more than 3000 words from 43 categories of cognition and emotion. LIWC is a text analysis software program that calculates the degree to which people use different categories of words in emails, speeches, poems, or transcribed daily speech.
“The program considers positive and negative emotion words, self-references, and words that refer to sex, eating, or religion,” the site reports.
I’ve only made 523 Tweets, which is below the recommended number for analysis.
That may be why my descriptors sound fairly introspective, or it could be I just sound shy compared with the online exhibitionists who tell all.
My “primordial, conceptual and emotional content” sounds somewhat contradictory, although it’s nice of the computer to say my writing shows “constructive behaviors”.
I’m interested to read more about the veracity of tools like this. Part of me suspects I’m just boosting the influence of the “viral marketing scientist” who developed it.
On Twitter and Shorts
I’m experimenting with a self-hosted Twitter-style multi-user blog at www.shortsay.com. It uses a modified version of the P2 theme.
Anyone can login using their webmail or Facebook account to post or comment.
The experiment is because I like the short post format, but feel Twitter has some limitations.
I opened my Twitter account on March 23, 2007, but quickly lost interest until recently. As of today, I have made 402 posts. (more…)
Mike Rann tweets
I’m impressed the South Australian Premier, Mike Rann, is an active twitterer. He posts news, personal information and opinions several times a day.
I’m one of his 1552 followers (and counting) and find his posts interesting. He makes most of them by text message.
Here is a recent sample:
“I hope other states will follow our ban on non reusable plastic supermarket bags. Billions pollute OZ environment each year.” (more…)
