Tummeling & the Twitter Chat: A Network Map of #IDEACHAT by ORGNET.COM
Valdis Krebs, chief scientist and founder of ORGNET.COM, and a participant in #ideachat created the first network map of a Twitter Chat:
This is a network map of the almost 1000 tweets during the #ideachat 1 hour session in November 2010. Individual participants in the chat are shown as purple nodes and the "whole group" is shown as the large green circular node. If someone tweeted to everyone in the group, at least twice in the session, an arrow would be drawn from their node to the big green node. People who tweeted to each other [@ messages or RTs], at least twice in the 1 hour session, will have arrows drawn from the tweeter node to the subject node. @blogbrevity <--> @cocreatr indicates that they both sent 2 or more tweets to each other during the session. [We do not show the hundreds of single tweets in the session -- we are looking for key participants.]
Node size on the network map reflects a new network metric we are experimenting with called "attention" which tries to determine both quantity and quality of links pointing at someone. It's not just the number of tweets pointed at you, but who they come from that matters. We will also post an interactive version of this map that will allow you to filter on the type of tweets and their timing during the 1 hour session.
Node size on the network map reflects a new network metric we are experimenting with called "attention" which tries to determine both quantity and quality of links pointing at someone. It's not just the number of tweets pointed at you, but who they come from that matters. We will also post an interactive version of this map that will allow you to filter on the type of tweets and their timing during the 1 hour session.
TUMMELING VISUALIZED
The function of a Twitter Chat moderator, and mine as moderator of #ideachat, is to facilitate the conversation between all the participants and spread "attention." You can see this interaction on the map and my node, blogbrevity. Successfully moderating a Twitter Chat means not pushing your own agenda, but asking questions and bringing attention to many points of view. It requires the art of nuance. A successful moderator needs to "tummel."
What is tummeling? According to Deb Schultz of the Altimeter Group, "tummel" is a Yiddish word that she and her cohorts use in a new context to describe the art of social engagement, "If access to data is no longer a barrier, and we live in a hub and spoke world, the individuals who can curate, connect, and catalyze others to action are the champions of the future, and we call them tummelers." These are individuals who live to connect the dots and see interesting patterns.
Have fun finding the tummelers in Valdis's map!
Look for more in my upcoming post on "Design Thinking and Architecting Conversations."
Deb Schultz, Heather Gold and Kevin Marks, tummel every Thursday as they host tummelvision.tv, a weekly salon-style podcast on Thursdays about the art and science of engaging in a networked world.
#Ideachat, the Salon for Twitter Thinkers, takes place every Second Saturday of the month on Twitter at 9 am EST and attracts people from 6 continents in many diverse fields to share about "ideas." Join us!
