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February 1, 2012 | 9:30 AM | By

Gates Fdn’s Tweets reveal passive, insular global health community

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is hosting a number of events today in anticipation of the opening of the philanthropy’s new public visitor center. Social media, and media in general, will play a big role in it.

If they use Twitter or Facebook to tell people about it, chances are the story will look like this:

Marc Smith, Connected Action

A snapshot of the Gates Foundation's Twitterverse

That’s a Twitter Map (here’s a more readable but huge link) made by Marc Smith, a sociologist who studies online communities, founder of the Social Media Research Foundation and former chief of Microsoft Research’s community technologies group.

The map, he says, indicates a fairly insular and uncommunicative bunch of folks.

“It’s mostly just an echoing of the Gates Foundation,” said Smith. “There’s not a lot of response, or engagement. Basically, it looks like people preaching to the choir.”

Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Basics, Science, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Charlie Beckett, Ines Mergel, Marc Smith, social media, Twitter
January 26, 2012 | 8:51 AM | By

Guardian info-graphic: How Africa Tweets

Here is a visual display of How Africa Uses Twitter, courtesy of The Guardian.

Though perhaps it should have been entitled Where Africa Tweets, since it’s not so much a description of how people tweet as where most tweets come from, it’s an interesting look at social media in Africa. South Africa outscores everyone, even Egypt.

I took special note of the fact that 68 percent of those polled said they used Twitter to monitor the news.

The Guardian

FILED UNDER: Basics, Africa, Twitter
September 23, 2011 | 7:47 AM | By

Now following Melinda’s Tweets, but who do Bill and Melinda Gates follow?

photo by Chris Bennion

A Twitter Symphony, from the play The New New News

Like tens of thousands of folks (soon to be millions), I now follow Melinda Gates on Twitter. I also follow her husband’s Tweets.

I couldn’t help wondering if they followed me on Twitter, since I write about them and their philanthropy so often. Nope, not so far. Dang, that could have boosted my numbers ….

Bill Gates also just signed up to follow Melinda’s Tweets. Bill says on Twitter that he follows 72 people and organizations. I suspect he doesn’t really follow some of those on his list, such as American Idol host Ryan Seacrest or Ashley Tisdale (I don’t know who she is but her website describes her as “one of Hollywood’s most sought after young talents.”).

Melinda has already topped Bill by following 121 people. Melinda, like Bill, follows mostly global health, social justice and development organizations. But she does follow a few media organizations, journalists and a smattering of celebrities like Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and those involved in championing causes (Lance Armstrong, Christy Turlington).

What does my analysis of the Twitter-following selections of the world’s richest couple mean?

I don’t know.

FILED UNDER: Basics, Bill Gates, Melinda Gates, Twitter
May 16, 2011 | 9:00 AM | By

Rwanda Twitter fight: Journalist vs President

Ian Birrell

Paul Kagame

Conservative British journalist Ian Birrell, formerly Prime Minister David Cameron’s speechwriter, recently got into a Twtter argument with Rwandan President Paul Kagame.

If you are familiar with reading Twitter (and reading Tweets is something of an acquired skill), you can see the entire exchange at Tom Murphy’s A View from the Cave. It apparently started when Birrell Tweeted about an article on Kagame in the Financial Times.

Here’s a post on KigaliWire that tries to put this Tweet battle in context, noting that Kagame has frequently used social media tools like Twitter to get his views out there. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Politics, Ian Birrell, Paul Kagame, Rwanda, Twitter