This presentation offers a descriptive account of Twitter (a micro-blogging service) across four high profile, mass convergence events—two emergency and two national security. We statistically examine how Twitter is being used surrounding these events, and compare and contrast how that behavior is different from more general Twitter use. Our findings suggest that Twitter messages sent during these types of events contain more displays of information broadcasting and brokerage, and we observe that general Twitter use seems to have evolved over time to offer more of an information-sharing purpose. We also provide preliminary evidence that Twitter users who join during and in apparent relation to a mass convergence or emergency event are more likely to become long-term adopters of the technology.

1. Twitter Adoption and Use in Mass Convergence and Emergency Events Amanda Lee Hughes & Leysia Palen ConnectivIT Lab University of Colorado at Boulder

7. Event Timeline

8. Data Collection

10. Convention Daily Twitter Activity

11. Convention Daily Twitter Activity Days of each convention

12. Hurricane Daily Twitter Activity

13. Hurricane Daily Twitter Activity US Landfall US Landfall Cuba Landfall

14. Number of Tweets Per User

16. Reply Tweets

18. URL Tweets

20. Adoption of Twitter