Using Twitter in the Enterprise
Edward Yourdon
email: ed@yourdon.com
blog: www.yourdonreport.com
Version 02
February 25, 2009

Agenda
1. Introduction
2. Basic themes, tool, strategies of Web 2.0
3. Introduction to Twitter
4. Other micro-blogging tools
5. Example: using Twitter for soft ware
development
6. Conclusion
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Introduction
 Twitter has begun getting a lot of attention in recent
months...
 So people are beginning to ask: “What is it? Why should I
care?”
 Sometimes they listen to a brief over view, and ask, “What’s
the big deal?”
 Many people assume that Twitter is a tool for personal
interactions, but it’s beginning to be used for “serious”
business/enterprise purposes
 Need to realize that
Twitter is just one of several emerging “micro-blogging” tools
Twitter is an example of the larger “meme” of Web 2.0
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Basic themes of Web 2.0
 Web 2.0 is the combination of:
Tools and technologies
Business strategies (e.g., customer participation)
And social/cultural trends
 ... which drive the individual creation and sharing of content on the Internet (see
also YouTube video, based on Wikpedia article re Web 2.0)
 While this is usually focused on “general” business/customer issues, it can also be
focused on the “business” of developing soft ware and systems in an IT
organization.
 IT organizations obviously use tools, technologies – but remember also:
They are a “community” with a social structure
They have their own cultural trends
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Key tools, technologies, business strategies,
cultural trends
 “Technical” tools, technologies
 API’s
 “Mainstream” tools
 Twitter & micro-blogging tools
 Business strategies, policies
 Cultural/social trends
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“Technical” tools
 AJAX
 Programming languages aimed at rapid
development – e.g., Ruby on Rails
 New IDE’s for supporting development of Web
2.0 apps
 While these are important for IT organizations
to be aware of, they’re not as important as the
other items on the list
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API’s
 Primarily for creating interfaces with an organization’s
existing tools, data
 New tools emerging from vendors like Yahoo, Microsoft
 Good examples: Yahoo Pipes, Microsoft PopFly
 Most obvious application: creation of mashups
 New application: connections to micro-blogging tools (including
Twitter)
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“Mainstream” Web 2.0 tools tools
 Wikis
Can be “internal” or “external”
Usually developed with existing tools
 Blogs ... and micro-blogs
IBM has approx 3,500 blogs (see “Business Week” article on IBM’s use of social
net working and this article on IBM’s Web 2.0 tools and plans)
Microsoft has approx 3,000 blogs
Can be “internal” or “external”
Also, consider using “micro-blogs”, e.g., Twitter
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Introduction to Twitter
 Twi t te r simply ask s, “ What are you doing now?”and allows 140-char re sponse s
 Starte d in 2007 by Evan Williams, who no t ice d 200 pe ople emerging f rom a le ct ure at
Stanford, all picking up the ir ce ll phone s to ask the ir f r ie nds, “ What are you doing
no w?”
 Basic ide a: re al-t ime interact ions wi th a se lf-se le cte d ne t work of “like-minde d”
indi v iduals wi th whom you share ide as, que s t ions, s tat us update s, obser vat ions abou t
things in your world, e tc.
 Also allo ws you to subscr ibe to any me ssage containing spe cif ie d key words, or “hash-
tags”
 A Twi t te r use r s ays: “IM is re al-t ime, person-to-person communicat ion, while Twi t ter is
‘baby email’ wi th e ver yone where you ge t to pick whose me ssage s to re ad.”
 Ope rate s on a var ie t y of plat forms: Web, s tand-alone clie nt programs (Twhirl, e tc.),
Blackber r y, iPhone, e tc.
 Vocabular y: me ss age s = “t wee ts”. Communicat ing = “t wi t ter ing”. Re dis t r ibu t ing an
inte re s t ing me ss age to your own ne t work = “re t wee t ing”, or “RT”
 See “Twi t te r in Plain English” for YouTube e xplanat ion of how i t work s.
 See “From He re to Twee terni t y: A Pract ical G uide to Ge t t ing Starte d on Twi t ter ” for
good t ips
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Twitter’s Web platform
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One example of Twitter client-based program: Twhirl
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Another example of Twitter client-based program: Tweetdeck
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One of the mobile platforms for Twitter: Tweetie
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An example of using Twitter’s API: TweetStats
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TweetWheel: an intriguing use of Twitter’s API
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More intro to Twitter
 Slide show on the difference bet ween IM, email, blogging, and Twitter.
 See David Weinberger’s characterization as “continuous partial friendship”
 See characterization as “ambient intimacy” in Nov 4, 2007 New York Times
article entitled “The Global Sympathetic Audience.”
 See “Now, Brevity Is the Soul of Office Interaction,” in Nov 23, 2008 NY
Times article.
 Case study of a small business using Twitter.
 Another case study: San Diego Fire Department started a Twitter feed during
Oct 2007 California wildfires; still active in Dec 2007 for other citizen-
reported events.
 St. Louis newspaper encourages subscribers to Twitter about real-time traffic
impact of a repair-shutdown of one of its busy highways.
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More intro to Twitter
 See Guy Kawasaki’s “How Twitter Made My Website Better”
 See BT Group CIO JP Rangaswami’s blogs here and here and here about use of Twitter in the
enterprise. And see Jan 8, 2009 Net work World article, “12 CIOs who Twitter”.
 See also Luis Suarez’s blog on “The Twitter verse Debates” re business justification for using
Twitter in the enterprise.
 Useful blog posting on “What is Twitter For? The Message is the Medium” Also, see “What
is Twitter For?” from the same author.
 Interesting Dan Farber blog on statistics about Twitter followers
 See also “Twitter Tools, Tweaks, and Theories” for more discussion of practical applications
of Twitter.
 See “GroupTweet” for interesting tool to support t wittering among a specific group of
users.
 Twitter t-shirts now available from eatsleept weet.com
 TwitDir says: 2,981,651 Twitterers as of Sep 16, 2008 (see also this chart showing recent
exponential Twitter growth). [Estimated 6 million Twitterers in Feb 2009]
 Obama and Clinton each had approx 30,000 Twitter followers, but Obama used it more
effectively; see this “Business Week” article.
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More about Twitter: Zappos
 Zappos is a shoe-selling company (just outside Las Vegas) that has grown from $US70 million/
year to $US one billion/year during the past 5 years.
 Feb 22, 2009 Tweet by Jim Storer noted that Zappos ranked #7 in customer service for U.S.
companies in Feb 2009 Business Week survey (Amazon was #1)
 Zappos Twitter page of 400+ employees is here.
 Har vard Business Publishing article on “Why Zappos Pays New Employees to Quit -- And You
Should Too”
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Even more about Twitter
 See Jason Meserve’s Feb 16, 2009 PC World
article “Twitter is Now a Must in the
Enterprise”
 Listen to “The Twitter Song” (silly, but amusing)
 See Dan Farber’s April 28, 2008 blog posting,
“What Twitter Brings to the Party”.
 See TweetCube, which allows file-sharing via
Twitter, for files up to 10 megabytes (including
PDF and MP3 files).
 Tweetjects and blog jects: objects that Tweet
and blog. Examples: a t wittering house (see also
this Wired article), and the t wittering London
Tower Bridge.
 Tweetclouds -- so you can see which words you
use most often when t wittering.
 Twitterphone - sending messages to Twitter
via phone
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Practical Twitter Applications
from “Twitter Tools, Tweaks, and Theories”
TwitterStalking: figuring out when you can call/email a colleague without
1.
interrupting their day
Microblogging: short updates, expressed succinctly -- rather than long
2.
rambling blog posts that no one has time to read
Note to self: keeping track of one’s own stray thoughts.
3.
Breaking news: Twitter “communities” can form instantly, as new (unexpected)
4.
events occur
Communication - as an alternative to IM/SMS, and especially as an
5.
alternative to phone/email
Link Sharing - instead of del.icio.us or ma.gnolia, which can be pretty
6.
cumbersome
GTD (Getting Things Done): organizing your work flow, to-do lists
7.
Advice, Support, Polling, Questions: extremely quick feedback to questions,
8.
often within minutes.
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Another microblogging example: Dopplr
 Deals with the “ships passing in the night” phenomenon
 Answers the simple question: “Where are you going? When will you be
back?”
 Widely adopted by employees in several large multi-national companies,
so their employees can coordinate their business trips
 See Brady Forest’s comment on Dopplr’s “Coincidence Feed” -- and the
virtue of providing LESS information in a news feed.
 See Stowe Boyd’s Dopplr case study, presented at Web 2.0 Expo in Berlin,
Nov 2007
 Dopplr is integrated with Twitter, LinkedIn, Gmail, and Flickr in order to
help create a larger net work of “fellow travelers”
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Dopplr page, top view
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Dopplr page, trip detail
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Dopplr page, trip details
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Business strategies, policies
 Using Twitter & microblogging to encourage collaboration,
feedback, participation from outsiders
This could mean people outside your department or group, but still
inside the firewall. (See this blog for info on Intranet-based Twitter-
like enterprise tools.)
Or people “outside the firewall” – beyond the boundary of the
enterprise
 Using Twitter & microblogging to encourage feedback and
participation in a grass-roots, bottom-up fashion
Many organizations still operate in a predominately top-down,
hierarchical, “control”-oriented fashion
Often ineffective in an environment of rapid, disruptive change …
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Use of Web 2.0 & micro-blogging for SW
development
 Use Ajax and modern tools to develop more use-friendly Web 2.0 apps more
quickly
 Use wikis for collaboration, problem-solving
 Use Twitter & microblogging to tell others – both inside and outside the
organization – how exciting the project is, and how great the new system will
be.
 Consider letting “outsiders” contribute code, perform testing, help trouble-
shoot, provide tech support, invent new product features
Former employees
Retired employees
Business partners
Random citizens
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Use of Web 2.0 & micro-blogging tools for project management
 Use Web 2.0 project management tools that facilitate quick, fast
“grass-roots” data-entry for status, progress
 Examples: eProject, Basecamp — look for API’s with Twitter &
other microblogging tools...
 Caveat: these are usually light-weight tools, may not be adequate
for big “mission-critical” projects
 Basic “cultural” issue: quick, informal communication, sharing and
democratization of project-management data
 Also, use wikis & micro-blogging to collaborate and share things
like risk-management, issue-management
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Use of Web 2.0 & micro-blogging for process improvement
 Use wikis blogs, Twitter/micro-blogs to collaborate and share:
“lessons learned”
Tips and techniques
Best practices
Worst practices
 Cultural issue: use micro-blogs and wikis to encourage quick, fast,
bottom-up “grass roots” process improvement, rather than (or in
addition to) top-down initiatives
 Use external blogs and wikis to get more rapid, more “unfiltered”
feedback from users about the good, the bad, and the ugly aspects of
the system/product
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Conclusion
 Technologies like Ajax important, but not key aspect of Web 2.0
 Most important aspects are business policies and cultural
issues
 Use Twitter and other micro-blogging toolsto encourage
outsiders to participate, collaborate in business activities
 Use Twitter & micro-blogging to encourage grass-roots, peer-
level, bottom-up project management and process improvement
 Recognize that culture-change is likely to be difficult, especially
in “traditional” companies
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Bottom line
 You can ignore, resist, or forbid the use of Twitter & other
Web 2.0 technologies in your IT organization…
 … but by doing so, you’re likely to have a more and more
difficult time attracting talented young developers to work
for you.
 … and you make it easier and easier for Web 2.0-sav vy
startups and small companies (e.g., Zappos) to compete
against you.
 Remember what Dar win told us: survival of the species is
not mandatory, if you prefer not to evolve
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Using Twitter in the Enterprise
Edward Yourdon
email: ed@yourdon.com
blog: www.yourdonreport.com
Version 02
February 25, 2009