Microblogging is a phenomenon that has a great deal of power and allure for a community conversation.
And the conversation is instant. Quicker than mass e-mails or phone calls, tweets can be sent to and from cell phones or BlackBerrys, too.
That is one reason Twitter would be a good way to alert students of an emergency on a college campus, such as a shooting or major incident, said Jeffrey Beeson, an MU spokesman.
“It’s the fastest way to notify people that we have,” Beeson said. “Hopefully we don’t have to use it for that.”
When Milwaukee police recently wanted to inform the public of a shooting, they turned to a tweet of less than 115 characters.
“Latest homicide in the city is NOT a random act. Male, 33, shot in 1500 block N. 39. More details as we have them.”
Earlier this month, the Johnson County sheriff’s office told its followers on Twitter about a crime — “JOCO Sheriff looking for two burglary suspects who stole over $8000 from ATM’s.”
Some tweets can be more intriguing, like the ones Robert Hendrick of Tennessee posted last fall when he had outpatient varicose vein surgery. He was awake for the surgery and kept his followers — including his wife — updated on what was going on.
“Got some great paper shorts. Then they french cut them up the side. Gr8!,” he tweeted early on.
Hendrick is a co-founder of Change:Healthcare, a business that helps clients save money on health care. Hendrick said that twittering his surgery was a way to show people the process and educate them.
“2 veins down. 2 to go. 1 lower left leg. 1 lower right leg. Top left leg done,” he tweeted from what he described to his followers as a cold operating room.
Twittering, Hendrick said, “gave me a sense of connection to people during the surgery.”
At one point, he typed: “Dr. Bonau rocks! Gr8 sense of humor about all of this. He’s not sure what twitter is but he’s indulging me.”
Doctors now are getting involved with tweets during surgeries, and experts say that probably will only increase as more people are drawn to the microblogging service. Aurora Health Care in Wisconsin plans to regularly use Twitter during surgeries.
On Thursday, during a live “Twittercast,” the hospital saw its number of followers rise to 2,240. That was up from just 930 the previous week. During the surgery, medical staff posted 250 tweets and received 180 replies with questions or comments. The idea is to educate people.
“Twittering is a very personalized way to learn, to grow and understand what’s going on out there,” said Reeves, the MU professor. “It may not be the end-all, be-all, but the way it functions, the way people communicate, I think it’s going to stay around.”
Source Kansascity.com