Jennifr

Pondering about Twitter…

(Taking over from Alan, who has banned himself from blogging about it… spreading enthusiasm…)

Whilst in the jacuzzi (Oh the wonders of being a grad student…) with my friend/housemate/occasional dissertation buddy, Stuart, I was explaining the excitement I had for Twitter and how some of the best discussion was occurring upon (or within?) it (or my personal network?) - Stuart has been known in the past to update his FB status frequently, and I suggested that he should get twitter on the go (mainly because it meant I could “@” him - which I almost go to do when I check my FB)

He was asking me what different things were defined as and what they all meant. I explained that the software is called twitter, the messages are called tweets and that you connect by following or you can be followed without mutual connection -there is no verification system like FB or myspace. What seemed to interest him was the relationship between the inner network (the people you follow and the people that follow you back) and the outer network (the people you follow but they don’t follow you back and visa versa) - which, incidentally, he wanted to define the inner users as “twits” and the outer users as “tw*ts” - I’d love for him to expand on that theory, so I’ll leave that for another time.

I’m worrying about my ESRC funding proposal. As much as I’ve completed and submitted my proposal for the university scholarship, I still need to reduce it from 7,567 characters to 4,000 characters and after some advice before Easter, I need to decide who I want find out about and what would be attractive for the ESRC people, without coming across as a “FB junkie who wants to spy on her friends” (not my words… and is not what I am all about…)

All this twitter pitter patter is making me wonder if I could potential apply for the funding on the basis that I was going to look at something like Twitter in a particular environment e.g. education. Interestingly enough, my inner network (the twits) is build from, firstly, academics who are interested in web 2.0 in a learning environments, then I have some people who are more on the developing side of things and then last off I have some friends who live a similar “web 2.0″ lifestyle that I do. It’s all very interesting and is incredibly helpful when it comes to jacuzzi pondering, however, as the deadline approaches, I’m starting to panic a bit. I need to get a move on and start honing down on what would be considered “sexy” in terms of ESRC applications. (Stab in the dark, stab in the dark, stab in the dark…)

My undergraduate dissertation was on the perceived value of social software for career development within the media. My masters dissertation is currently proposed at being about Social Networking and Identity and how social software affects online and offline relationships of University of Leicester students. And the title of my Ph.D. is “Social Networking and identity: The relationship between software and sociality” - which leave it open to decide on who and what I will be looking at (which is what I am thinking about now…) That is my research background. That is it. And that is where I want to be coming from…

Back to Twitter.

It is, without a doubt, the best application I’ve had the pleasure of using recently. It is a hot topic at the moment (well, in my network anyway) - and I’m wondering how viable it would be if I was to suggest it as part of my research proposal?

Again, I have no idea what to expect. This is my first time applying for funding. This is my first time applying for a Ph. D. - I just don’t know the rules and I reckon the rules are different for what I’m interested in because it kinda challenges a lot what this academic thing is about.

Puir fries ma nut.

- Jay Jay