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This article answers some questions about Twitter. What is a Twitter profile, it's value, and how will you use it??

I posted an article last week about opposition to whether or not social media makes an impact in countries that find themselves in situations like Egypt's. This article, however, tends to thing Twitter can actually have an effect.

This article talks about how technology is improving our ability to respond to disasters around the world. Specifically it talks about how technology like SMS and twitter allowed rescue efforts to happen quicker and more efficiently. I think it's cool how with all this new technology we have the ability to save more lives and do more in times of disaster. Families were able to communicate with those in Haiti more than they would have been able to before this technology was available. Also, that with tools like SMS, donations were able to be set up for non-profits to assist in recovery efforts. People are probably more likely to donate if they can do it with something as simple as sending a text message, and organizations will be able to receive the money quicker. Cool article.

Actually, this may be the best explanation I've seen on how to use Twitter, anywhere. Certainly applicable to the average user, as well as any NPO.

The Apple iPad, one of apple's hottest sellers, is seeing frequent use by those in the government sector. With the seemingly endless amount of apps available for use with the iPad, many help government workers to become more efficient. The apps that are seeing the most use include twitter, quick office, evernote and flipboard. Twitter is helpful to disperse quick messages to others in the work place, and obviously has social networking benefits as well. Quick Office is seeing a lot of use as a microsoft office productivity tool. Evernote allows the user to take notes, record sound bytes, add pictures and video, and other helpful pieces of information into one "note" that is easily dispersed to others in one piece, together. Flipboard is presented almost as a "personal magazine", where feeds from social networking sites and other sites the user selects appear directly on the iPad's interface.

Despite the outstanding growth of places like Facebook and Twitter, the majority of information on the internet is still shared via e-mail. Crafting a newsletter for your organization remains to be the easiest way to get in touch with contributors and other interested parties. The age discrepancy has to be something to overcome, and in that sense, e-mail still covers the largest percentage of users worldwide. As a young person, it may be hard to remove yourself from the Twitter and Facebook dominated world, but more times than not the old ways still work the best.

Twitter can have an impact and this article outlines the ways

The tight controls over the internet in Egypt, and especially the internet blackouts, have caused rebellion thoughout the country and outrage throughout the world. Despite the government's attempts at complete internet control some Egyptians are getting messages out via social media networks in particular twitter.

"Biz Stone, Twitter co-founder, announcing tonight that he is joining forces with a nonprofit technology group to start ConvergeUS, a charity that sees to combat social problems with new technology."

Is there an art to getting ReTweeted on Twitter? Dan Zarrella says yes and has been studying the "Science of ReTweeting" for the past nine months. Zarrella analyzed five million tweets and 40 million retweets and compared the two, noting the time of day they were tweeted and ReTweeted, which words and url shorteners were used most often, and more. Check out the results of Zarrella's study below.

Uganda, at the insistence of its national police commissioner, has sent its three largest ISPs a memo requesting they begin blocking what they called "Tweeter" (presumably Twitter) and Facebook, in order to "eliminate the connection and sharing of information that incites the public."

Before an organization gets to Twitter and other social media they will have to have settled on a logo. This article critiques 25 powerful and unique logos and how they send their message

Social media tools, such as twitter and facebook, played a significant part of the overthrowing of Mubarak. With two-thirds of Egypt's population under the age of 30, it's no surprise that internet-savvy, educated, young Egyptians used such tools to break barriers in a country that has been ruled under unjust dictatorship throughout their lives. These tools helped organize and gather the millions of protestors that have sparked revolution in Egypt. Social media and sharing information online has played an almost unimaginable role in this process and certainly poses a threat to governments around the world with dictatorships and a significant proportion of the population who is educated and able to use these tools.

This article is about a new nonprofit being started by two very well known figures Biz Stone of Twitter and Rey Ramsey of TechNet. "ConvergeUS is dedicated to bringing together the technology, nonprofit, governmental and academic sectors to facilitate and accelerate technology-based social innovation - new strategies, concepts, ideas and coalitions - to meet social needs ranging from early childhood education to disaster response and assisting military families, among other issues," said a TechNet spokesman.

This could set precedent for privacy in technology in the future.