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August 01, 2008
twittersport: Thinking about a weekend of 10,000 Conversations, Maybe More.
Growing up as a Ham Radio operator, one of the activities I enjoyed taking part in is something known as “Radiosport.”
(per Wikipedia: “the most common use of the term radiosport is as a synonym for Amateur Radio Contesting. Contesting is an activity where amateur radio stations attempt to make as many two-way contacts with other stations as possible, following certain defined parameters of the competition, to maximize a score.” )
As twitter has become my default communication channel these days, I was thinking about introducing my old passion for contesting to anyone who also uses twitter as a communications platform. twitter is the platform where news breaks. twittersport would be a great way to test twitter as a backup platform for emergency preparedness. And I wonder how many conversations we would be responsible for creating.
The concept is a simple one. To make as many unique conversations as possible with as many people in as many different states, providences and countries as possible during a 24 to 48 hour period.
Information to be exchanged would include: first name, US State/ Canadian Province/ or Country and conversation number. Logs would need to be kept which include the time of the conversation, your conversation number, twitter name, their first name, US State/Canadian Province/Country, Conversation number received. Only one conversation allowed per unique person regardless of their number of twitter aliases.
All conversations should take place on the public twitter timeline so that logs can be verified.
Multipliers: Unique US States + Unique Canadian Providences + Unique Countries. (People who are associated with twitterHQ might count for special bonus points.)
Scoring: two points for each contact x total multipliers. Winners will be awarded on a per States / Providence / Country basis.
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I am wondering wondering how many people would be interested in participating in such an activity. (For those of you who don’t get this, I can appreciate how silly/crazy this may sound like. Growing up, my sisters never understood why I spent my weekends taking part in Ham Radio contests.)
Whether you are a casual twitter user or someone who lives on twitter 24/7, you might enjoy participating in this activity. twittersport would be a great way to get to know some of the people you are already connected with on twitter and a chance to get to know many more people all over the world.
Questions/comments please leave a comment below, contact me on twitter, or send me an email.
Tags: twitter, radiosport, Social Media, Jeff Pulver
Posted by jeff on August 1, 2008 04:40 PM | Permalink
Additional resources: #140conf events | Watch the Jeff Pulver Show | Jeff's Qik Videos
Comments
Sounds very interesting. Would it be a weekday or weekend event? Is the point to have conversations w/ tweeps you already follow or new ones or both? Are twittersport contestants given unique #s to track the convos?
So many questions!
Posted by: @myogis at March 7, 2009 08:23 AM
Hi Jeff,
I like this meme, it was one of the reasons we built Phweet. I saw the opportunity for emergency preparedness and the need to connect rapidly without the need for directories.
The PhweetURL will already enable you to track the conversations and using TwitterSearch you could easily declare a winner for the period. Here's an example of the Phweet timeline. http://tinyurl.com/5gfxbb addin names and you could quickly see who got the most in a 24hour period.
Look for the :) before the URL to see a confirmation that the call has been accepted.
Cheers
Stuart
Posted by: Stuart Henshall at August 16, 2008 11:48 AM
Could be fun (and could break Twitter heh). Keep us posted on dates :)
Posted by: Leslie Poston at August 12, 2008 11:52 AM
@Robyn - just look in the Replies tab on twitter. You can see the people who reply to you, regardless of whether or not you are friends.
Posted by: Jeff Pulver at August 2, 2008 04:36 PM
I like the idea, but how would it work? I thought you could only tweet to people who follow you. How would we find each other?
Posted by: Robyn at August 2, 2008 04:13 PM
Sounds like a great idea. A nice way to get into contact with a lot of people. I'm also very interested in this kind of communication for my research: http://www.methemedia.com.
So count me in!
Posted by: Sander Duivestein at August 2, 2008 10:34 AM
This sounds like fun. So how would a conversation go? Would it be like this:
@jeffpulver John NY 1
My first question is could Twitter handle so many contacts (in ham radio we call them QSOs)?
Because this is social networking and we would still have a few characters left of the 140 limit it might be fun to add 1 small piece of personal info:
@jeffpulver John NY 1 my daughter is Maisie
or more interesting
@jeffpulver John NY 1 my ex-wife left me for a better woman
I like your idea. I am a Ham but never part in a contest but as a shortwave listener I listened to dozens of them and followed peoples progress in the Ham magazines. People really enjoy contesting.
Also would the conversation require a confirmation as in would I need from you
@johnbaloney NY NY 5547 I have 2 sons Contact
(in ham radio we just say QSL to verify a contact)
Thanks Jeff
Posted by: John Baronian (johnbaloney) at August 2, 2008 09:30 AM
I would love o try this out. love to connect with people and i love the power of twitter. Would this be for news of any kind?
Thank you - Keith Burtis
How would the new connections know to tag their posts?
Posted by: Keith Burtis at August 2, 2008 09:16 AM