avatar - ReadWriteWeb http://www.readwriteweb.com/feeds/tag/avatar en Copyright 2012 Richard MacManus readwriteweb@gmail.com Mon, 13 Feb 2012 19:17:22 -0800 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/?v=4.35-en http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss What Twitter Talked About Before the iPad: Haiti, Obama, Lady Gaga and Avatar sysomos_logo_oct09.pngThe iPad clearly dominated the discussion on Twitter over the last few days, but in the early days of January, the devastating earthquake in Haiti, Barack Obama, Tiger Woods, Lady Gaga, Avatar and the Cincinnati Bengals were among the most hotly discussed people and topics on the popular microblogging service.

Social Media monitoring and analytics service Sysomos analyzed over 100 million tweets from January 1 to 15. Overall, the company looked at topics in six different categories: people, locations, film, business, sports and miscellaneous entities.

]]> Even though it didn't take the top billing in all categories, the news from Haiti had the unfortunate honor of being represented in almost all of the topics that Sysomos looked at. Given that the disaster only happened on January 12 - just before the cutoff date for this report - chances are that this topic will trend even higher once we get the data for the full month.

sysomos_early_jan_twitter data.jpg

Haiti, Obama and Avatar

In the early days of January, President Barack Obama was the most often mentioned person on Twitter, followed by Lady Gaga and Michael Jackson. Thanks to his inane comments about the disaster in Haiti, Pat Robertson came in at number four.

Unsurprisingly, the most talked about location on Twitter in early January was Haiti, followed by the United States, China, Texas and Canada.

YouTube, Facebook and Google were the most often discussed businesses on Twitter, followed by Microsoft and Yahoo. This list is clearly dominated by the usual suspects, including like AT&T, Netflix and Starbucks, though it also features Etsy and the Fox News Channel.

Avatar was the most talked about movie on Twitter in early January, followed by Sherlock Holmes and Start Wars. The Cincinnati Bengals were the most often discussed sports franchise.

2.4 Million Tweets About the iPad

Of course, we couldn't help but ask Sysomos about the iPad. According to the company's data, the iPad would be the number three item in the miscellaneous entities section - following iTunes and Microsoft's Xbox. Overall, Sysomos registered 2.4 million tweets that referenced Apple's latest creation.

]]> Discuss]]> http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/what_twitter_talked_about_before_the_ipad_haiti_obama_avatar.php http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/what_twitter_talked_about_before_the_ipad_haiti_obama_avatar.php News Mon, 01 Feb 2010 09:49:42 -0800 Frederic Lardinois Cartoon: Tweet Liberty The aftermath of Iran's election last week was startling. From the eyebrow-raising lopsided vote tally, to the surge of protesters into the streets, to the pivotal role of tools like mobile phones, Twitter, and YouTube in getting the story out, it's hard to say what's been the most remarkable.

]]> Those of us outside of Iran who would like to see a freer, more open regime in Tehran have found our urge to do something in support of the protesters to be a powerful one. And for a lot of Twitizens who want to do something but have no idea just what would help, that something has been to make their avatars green. (You may recall the Orange Revolution in Ukraine back in 2004, when many sympathetic bloggers turned their sites orange.) For others, more concrete action has been the order of the day: for example, setting up proxy servers to help Iranians tell their stories free of censorship and intimidation, or more shadowy activity like denial-of-service attacks.

Is it doing any good? Do our efforts, symbolic or concrete, have any impact? We don't really know. Critics will point out that, for the most part, people are jumping on a bandwagon. Very few of us have any real grasp of Iran's political or social complexities; we have no idea who the leading opposition candidate is or what kind of record he has (and most of us would recoil if we found out). All true.

What we do have, though, is a shared belief in human dignity, and a shared recognition that this is a chance for that cause to take a big step forward. Green avatars are, in a sense, a way of signaling as much to each other: "Yeah, I care about this, too." Perhaps we do this to show solidarity as much with each other as with the people of Iran.

More Noise to Signal.

]]> Discuss]]> http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/cartoon_tweet_liberty.php http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/cartoon_tweet_liberty.php Cartoons Mon, 22 Jun 2009 09:28:12 -0800 Rob Cottingham