As a web developer, my particular interest in this course has to do with the technologies behind social media and their application to crisis and disaster scenarios. Inspired by the graph of tweets vs. time in our VT Shootings reading; my project will explore the visualization of social media artifacts over time – in particular the Twitter timeline. I plan to make a Flash visualization which will parse the timeline for relevant crisis data and then display the data visually with an interface to see the actual post. For experimentation purposes, I will probably limit this application to a few larger events such as 911, Katrina and the BP oil spill. This visualization will serve as a prototype for visually depicting trends on Twitter during times of crisis. It is my hopes that through elegant design and development, the visual depiction of the data will reveal information and pattens not obviously apparent.
From : Creative Twitter Visualization Tools
I'm excited to see what you come up with your project-- there is no way I could do any of this. I'm glad we'll be able to have a little technology-based information with quantitative results. I think that this could be a very useful tool. Maybe if you perfect it, it'll be what Congress uses to keep track of twitter! >>Insert fame here<<
ReplyDeleteLike Katie said, I am really excited to see your project. You have a completely different approach then any of us and I am excited yo see how you incorporate your skills into this project. Listening to you present was eye opening and fascinating. It is great to get a perspective from the developer side.
ReplyDeleteI think your design could have several positive applications. I’m glad, too, that there are developers like you because code is not my thing.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds to me like the kind of thing that, once created and used, will influence even more users of twitter and encourage them to be informative with their tweets - at least more informative than a good TV show they saw last night. I believe that many people are like me in that if they see twitter being more constructive and functional they will be much more inclined to use it. I believe if this collection of tweets is applied well that it will definitely achieve this.
This project is also interesting because we’ll have no idea of what kind of results can be found until you put this platform together. We can guess at when there are spikes and lulls in twittering but with what kind of information and by how many? Out of curiosity, do you have any hypothesis or interest in results now? Or are you more interested in just creating it and seeing where it goes?
Anthony, this is a great project that you have chosen and can definitely be a practical tool for researchers, emergency response stakeholders, and members of the public. I look forward to seeing the evolution of this work. Also, I am interested in how you will display four dimensions and how the design of the visualization can facilitate more engagement on the part of the viewers. As you develop this tool, I would like you to think critically about how you can design your visualization tool in a way that can create engagement and action. Think of types of people and scenarios of how your tool can be used. You don't have to implement it all but just think of ways in which your tool can be used and maybe show examples using actual tweets. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns as you proceed.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Dr. Sophia B. Liu