Osama Bin Laden - The Social Networking Story

It's only right that on a day like today, so prestigious to the world, every person attempts to have their say. So it's my turn. Having woken up this morning and had a very quick look through the newspaper apps on my iPhone, I learned that Osama Bin Laden had been killed by US forces. And it was then I realised what was coming next...

Facebook was separated into those accusing Obama of being 'a pompous arsehole, only out for attention', and the majority who are already filling out their voting cards to get him his second term. Twitter was throwing through thousands of Tweets per second, all sharing their views on the actions that have taken place. Websites, like the BBC and the New York Times were awash with reports, views and opinion articles regarding Bin Laden's death. Live streaming of news channels was at a massive high across the globe.

But it goes to show how much our world has changed in such a short space of time. Gone are the days of waiting for the next day's newspapers to gain some decent insight into the events of yesterday. Now we live in a world where news is instant; where we have access to videos, news, pictures, audio, inside views, and those in the know at our fingertips.

As someone who wants to be a journalist, I Tweet, I'm on Facebook and LinkedIn, I have subscriptions for all sorts of newspapers on my phone, I run my own blogs, I correspond with some of the best in the business, and I try and keep on top of what goes on day in, day out. Having met several journalists over the last 12 months, I always ask the same question - 'How useful a tool is social networking?'

The answer is always 'the most valuable available'.

As proven today. The story of Sohaib Athar hit the world's media in the early hours of this morning. Through his Twitter account, @reallyvirtual, he unknowingly gave us an account of the events unfolding in Abbottabad, where Bin Laden was shot and killed. Since, he's been giving interviews into what he saw and heard, and why he chose to Tweet it. Even Reuters wanted to speak to him.

We have, of course, seen Twitter's potential before. The graph below was published on Think-Through, and shows the events of the 2011 SuperBowl, in comparison to Tweets per second. We also saw Twitter crash in 2009 upon the news that Michael Jackson had died - something that was near enough confirmed before we even had it announced.

Egypt's revolution was nicknamed the 'Twitter Revolution', due to the information being sent onto the internet by those people right in the depths of it all. YouTube videos were used around the globe to show the actions, Tweets were used to compile news reports, Facebook updates were used to find photos for newspaper articles. It was something that will define social networking in the future.

But what about the internet as a whole? The BBC's Top 10 most read articles this morning involved nine about Osama. The whole top half of Sky News' website is dedicated to the coverage of Bin Laden's death. The New York Post began their main coverage with 'We finally got the miserable son of a bitch!' Today the internet feels as if justice really has been served.

There are also some great articles and blog posts sprouting up about how today has been covered through the use of social media. The BBC have an article about Athar and his live feed of the events, and there's also a brilliant article from Lauren Young, of Reuters, about how Twitter broke the news of Bin Laden's death. Both definitely worth a read if you have the time.

In a weekend dominated by the Royal Wedding - which in itself created social networking history, we now witness events that will help change society forever. As some are predicting on Twitter, this is not the end of the War on Terror, but merely the start. High alerts are about to appear in every country, whilst the majority are already preparing themselves for some form of retaliation from Al-Qaeda.

Social networking, and the internet as a whole, is showing us how we can use it in the future through days like today. In the future, the likes of Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn will all be used to create a world where there is no longer a complete reliance on news corporations to deliver the events that are unfolding, but on the millions of individuals using these sites - their Tweets, Facebook photos, LinkedIn updates and connections, Flickr photos, blog posts, forum updates, and comments on news articles will all shape how news is portrayed. We're already well on the way to seeing what life will be like when that is the case.

Agree with me? Want to share your views? You can Tweet me - I'm @Adam9309 - or drop me an email by clicking here.

Taken from General Musings of an Idiot: http://www.gmoai.com

The Great Twitter Portrait Project

To clarify, I'm about to use a lot of Twitter users and jargon. Be scared. Be very scared.

Back in the summer of last year, I heard a brilliant story from the lovely @PoppyD about a man who had decided to take pictures of all his Twitter followers, and create a photographic reference for as many of them as he could. His name was @chrisfloyduk, and this was the first I heard about The Great Twitter Portrait Project.

I thought it was a brilliant idea, but honestly didn't think any more of it. It went to the back of my mind, in that big filing cabinet that always reminds me of that scene from Bruce Almighty. Not my head, the filing cabinet.

I had completely forgotten about it, until Poppy Tweeted about it again. The alarm clocks went off in my head, and I remembered - still as enthusiastic as before. So I got in touch with Chris.

Initially, it was to be me, Isobel (@owab), and Ewan, Isobel's Dad (@Ewbz), due to our Twitter story. Having met Isobel, Ewan found I had Twitter, and did the initial father-daughter's-first-boyfriend vetting process, to which I (hopefully) passed. I never really found out...

But, nearly two years on, we both still Tweet. And having introduced Isobel to it too, we were all on Twitter. Our little story was brilliant, and it was a date.

But plans changed, and suddenly just Isobel and I were heading into London, to have our photos taken by a man we had never met before, but had spoken on Twitter. As suspicious and creepy as it sounds, I had faith in Chris. And just crossed my fingers he wasn't gonna bundle us into a van.

So, we finished school, sprinted to the train station, found our train had been cancelled, rushed onto the next one, bombed it down to Kensal Green, and walked the mile it took to get us to a large warehouse, with a buzzer system. Several presses on the button did nothing, until a man appeared with glasses, and we found Chris.

And we met @andras101 too. It was a relaxed, fun shoot, where everything we did seamlessly ended up on a MacBook in the corner that made it look like a weird flick book. And 10 minutes later, we've got everything we needed, and the photos are done.

So it was a trip home, and g'night. Until this morning, when I began to ambush unintentionally Chris with Tweets about getting hold of our pictures. Looking back on it, I looked a bit of a tit, but hey ho. The pictures arrived by email at about half 4 this evening, and were brilliant. I wasn't expecting anything like what we got hold of. Of which they are scattered through this post.

But not only that, it made me realise quite how clever this project is. I found out about Chris through a Tweeter, who liked the idea too. I got in touch via Twitter, and then I sent some emails and discovered even more Tweeters who liked the idea and were getting involved. We kept in touch through replies and messages, and got hold of the pictures on Twitter, to which we showed everyone we followed. Funnily enough, via Twitter.

I'm just glad I was involved in something like this. I'm very proud of what is going on, and my name's alongside it.

Well, if you knew who I was on Twitter, anyway. Cos I clearly don't bang on enough about it.

@Adam9309.

You have a couple days to get involved in Chris' baby. Tweet him, DM him, do whatever, but have a nose at his official website too. Promise, I didn't pick the homepage picture.

Taken from General Musings of an Idiot: http://gmoai.posterous.com

The Great Twitter Portrait Project

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To clarify, I'm about to use a lot of Twitter users and jargon. Be scared. Be very scared.

Back in the summer of last year, I heard a brilliant story from the lovely @PoppyD about a man who had decided to take pictures of all his Twitter followers, and create a photographic reference for as many of them as he could. His name was @chrisfloyduk, and this was the first I heard about The Great Twitter Portrait Project.

I thought it was a brilliant idea, but honestly didn't think any more of it. It went to the back of my mind, in that big filing cabinet that always reminds me of that scene from Bruce Almighty. Not my head, the filing cabinet.

I had completely forgotten about it, until Poppy Tweeted about it again. The alarm clocks went off in my head, and I remembered - still as enthusiastic as before. So I got in touch with Chris.

Initially, it was to be me, Isobel (@owab), and Ewan, Isobel's Dad (@Ewbz), due to our Twitter story. Having met Isobel, Ewan found I had Twitter, and did the initial father-daughter's-first-boyfriend vetting process, to which I (hopefully) passed. I never really found out...

But, nearly two years on, we both still Tweet. And having introduced Isobel to it too, we were all on Twitter. Our little story was brilliant, and it was a date.

But plans changed, and suddenly just Isobel and I were heading into London, to have our photos taken by a man we had never met before, but had spoken on Twitter. As suspicious and creepy as it sounds, I had faith in Chris. And just crossed my fingers he wasn't gonna bundle us into a van.

So, we finished school, sprinted to the train station, found our train had been cancelled, rushed onto the next one, bombed it down to Kensal Green, and walked the mile it took to get us to a large warehouse, with a buzzer system. Several presses on the button did nothing, until a man appeared with glasses, and we found Chris.

And we met @andras101 too. It was a relaxed, fun shoot, where everything we did seamlessly ended up on a MacBook in the corner that made it look like a weird flick book. And 10 minutes later, we've got everything we needed, and the photos are done.

So it was a trip home, and g'night. Until this morning, when I began to ambush unintentionally Chris with Tweets about getting hold of our pictures. Looking back on it, I looked a bit of a tit, but hey ho. The pictures arrived by email at about half 4 this evening, and were brilliant. I wasn't expecting anything like what we got hold of. Of which they are scattered through this post.

But not only that, it made me realise quite how clever this project is. I found out about Chris through a Tweeter, who liked the idea too. I got in touch via Twitter, and then I sent some emails and discovered even more Tweeters who liked the idea and were getting involved. We kept in touch through replies and messages, and got hold of the pictures on Twitter, to which we showed everyone we followed. Funnily enough, via Twitter.

I'm just glad I was involved in something like this. I'm very proud of what is going on, and my name's alongside it.

Well, if you knew who I was on Twitter, anyway.

You have a couple days to get involved in Chris' baby. Tweet him, DM him, do whatever, but have a nose at his official website too. Promise, I didn't pick the homepage picture.

Taken from General Musings of an Idiot: http://gmoai.posterous.com

Twitter's Trending Topic Treasure Hunt

So, after a brief break whilst I gather my breath back from my 7-hour blogging on Monday, we're back. And as ever, I've had a trawl to see what I can find to blog about.

Like most fools, and seeing as this blog does have the word 'idiot' in the title, I had my usual glance around the internet to see what could be found today. And, like normal, I've ended up looking at Twitter's Trending Topic list to see what I can actually write about.

I highly doubt you want to read about Waterloo Road, which is on at the minute. Or find my views on Gary Neville's retirement interesting at all. How about a review of the last ever Midsomer Murders? Not really... The break-up of the White Stripes isn't really that great either. Nor is George Sampson, who apparently appears in Waterloo Road now... Not a clue. And I would write about the problems in Egypt, but that'll need a full day. And I'm hoping something big will happen by Friday, like Vanessa Feltz interviewing Mubarak. Now that would be worth a blog.

No, instead, I'd like to draw your attention to something a little closer to home. Something that we'll all be seeing a lot of in the next 18 months.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

This rather stunning building is the new Velodrome, to be used, and built specifically for London 2012. It is just beautiful. Built on time, on budget, and to precise specification, with no issues whatsoever. £90m worth of cash was plunged into this part of the Olympic Park, and we get a rather incredible venue in return.

But with so much angst and anguish over the issues with the Olympic Stadium, the fact the Aquatics Stadium is way over budget, and the whole 'legacy' aspect to it all, we've actually got something to smile about. There aren't many other countries who can claim that they've redeveloped an area to include several world-class sporting venues. We can come next summer, and the Velodrome will certainly be part of that. I for one cannot wait to try and get my place amongst the 16,000 seats.

Big thanks to The Guardian for the pictures. Please take a look at Richard Williams' piece for the website - well worth a read. Alongside that, here's a little more info about the Velodrome.

Taken from General Musings of an Idiot: http://gmoai.posterous.com