Category: twitter

12seconds: Twitter for TV

For people too rushed to read a Twitter tweet: introducing 12second.tv. The site allows users to offer micro-commentary in 12-second nibbles.

This site (still in private beta) was mentioned in Poynter’s piece on 10 emerging technologies for online news (h/t @steverubel). As an example of how journalists could use 12seconds.tv, Poynter also points (heh) to a clip of an “interactive anchor” at a real TV news station preparing to log on.

Ron Bronson has also discovered 12seconds and he, like me, isn’t quite ready to join the revolution.

But imagine the possibilities for higher ed:

  • a 12-second recruitment video
  • a 12-second newscast
  • a 12-second video annual report
  • a 12-second campaign video

    • What do you think? You have more than 12 seconds to leave a comment of more than 140 characters.

    Friday Five: higher ed odds and sods

    Important stuff about Twitter, LinkedIn, Unigo, rankings and geeks

    While I slack, other higher ed bloggers and news outlets have been cranking out some good stuff. Here are five recent posts you should check out:

    1. 10 reasons to monitor Twitter. Fellow Twitter junkie Brad J. Ward‘s list is solid. And he offers examples, straight from the tweeters.
    2. A case study on setting up a LinkedIn alumni group. Last spring I posted about Caltech’s use of LinkedIn to connect with alumni. Kyle James picked up and ran with the idea. Here, he details how Wofford College set up their own LinkedIn group.
    3. Creating the college anti-rankings. Inside Higher Ed reports on the Education Conservancy‘s creation of College Speaks, “an explicitly anti-rankings system for the college search.” A prototype was presented Thursday at the National Association for College Admissions Counseling Conference in Seattle. (The Education Conservancy is best known for campaigning against the “reputational” surveys used by U.S. News & World Report for its rankings.)
    4. Sam Jackson extols the virtues of Unigo. Unigo is the latest player in the college search game but it leverages the power of social networking by involving students. It launched last week with 225 colleges and universities and 30,000-plus reviews. Jackson was involved in its creation so he has an insider’s perspective.
    5. MIT: We’re not all geeks. Really. This MIThBusters video protesting the MIT nerd stereotype may have had the opposite effect. According to the Chronicle’s Wired Campus blog, “the video frustrated one of MIT’s most-famous geeks, Henry Jenkins, a co-director of MIT’s Comparative Media Studies Program.” He ranted on his blog: “Most of the folks they depict still come across looking like geeks, not that there’s anything wrong with that!”