What if we made
weather
more social?
Fred Stutzman
School of Information and Library Science

IANAL
I am not a linguist

Adoption
Use
Privacy
Identity

Beautiful

Cool

Cool
Beautiful

Adoption
Use
Privacy
Identity

Pictures
Interests
Favorites

Symbols, Signals

Language
Symbols
Meaning
http://bit.ly/3ALDU6

http://bit.ly/2O4wws http://bit.ly/1SOCR7
Symbolic Interactionism

Symbolic Interactionism
People act in accordance with their
subjective understandings of the situations
in which they find themselves
People understand their experience through
the meanings found in symbols
G. Ritzer, B. Ballis Lal, H. Blumer

37o F Cold
.05” Accum. Snowy
Ptly. Cloudy Beautiful
Attributes Qualities
Symbols

http://bit.ly/2Hn9tC

Attributes
http://bit.ly/2Hn9tC
Constant
Dismal
No no no. Tea... yum

http://bit.ly/jkHN0 http://bit.ly/dvYkR

Oak Forest, IL
No rain, light wind

Springfield, MA
Clear, Sunny, Low Humidity

Los Angeles, CA
Clear, Sunny, Low Humidity

What does “beautiful out today” mean?
Tweeter Temp/Dew Conditions
Dailylama, IL 56.8/51.7 No rain
Timclarkk, MA 57.7/22.2 Sunny, no rain
JaymeeOG, CA 67.3/23.4 Sunny, no rain

+

Massive
Mobile
Networked

Do you need Twitter
to know which way the wind
blows?
Fred Stutzman:
fred.stutzman@unc.edu
http://twitter.com/fstutzman
http://fredstutzman.com