I am often starting online-tipp-games under my friends due to several events (f.e. www.sugarmelon.com/euro08/), if there are elections or there are sport-events. Usually I am having special created “HTML-pages” with input-fields, checking, and this whole HTML-Request-Resonse-Registration-Thing. I created Awareness usually with E-Mail, Skype or other messaging-systems. I wanted to find other possibilities.

I created www.sugarmelon.com/twittipp

Avoiding media-breaks and staying in one medium.
I asked myself “Why having a ‘media-break‘?” and “Why jumping from an e-mail or a messaging-tool to a webpage?” I was searching for the shortest way in delivering and getting information within the same “medium”.

The solution was twitter: Request and Response in one medium.
I implemented a small application, based on twitter. I sent out a twitter-message, that user should send their result to “Germany-Spain” and tag it with #euro08, #twittipp or directly to @twittipp. This test was fullfilled within a small target-group in Vienna.

Implementation and some special cases: Avoiding double and impossible votes.
I used PHP, twitter-functions and summize, for filtering the responses. I tried to catch special cases like

• avoiding double-votes,
• impossible votes, which are >10 goals on each side and
• giving an overview about the average results/tipps.
• filtering tipps and automatically recognition of winning-team (f.e. 4-2 for spain will be transformed into GER-ESP 2:4).

One of my targets was also getting in dialog and touch with the user and send him a twitter-message back.

Twitter overtook the registration-process, I had access to username, etc. Twitter also managed datahandling and datamining. Twitter is working as a powerful multi-dimensional entry-field.

Resume: The test worked wonderful.
The test worked perfectly, although, not a lot of people attended this game (10). The filter via summize worked, although there was a breakdown for more than three hours sunday morning.

Twitter-User josue from Spain was amazed, that his tipp was filtered to sugarmelon.com/twittipp by fortune and noticed this on his twitter-feed:

There have been some questions, why I do not have implemented such a thing before and only at the last game. The answer is clear: I was afraid about spending too much time with twittipp during the Euro. I know myself… I would have spent day and night with this application…

Next time again. Thanks for testing and participating!

English text above

Meine Großtante fragte mich, wie man ihren Videorecorder programmiert. Ich kann mich noch gut an die Zettel mit dem Programmier-Workflow und den gelb und rot angemalenen Knöpfen an der Fernbedienung erinnern.

Meine Großmutter bittet mich, die TV-Kanäle am Fernseher einzustellen. Sie bittet mich auch, ihre Telefonrechnungen durchzulesen, ob alles in Ordnung ist. Ich bin mir nicht ganz sicher ob sie das aktuelle Wetter im Teletext finden kann. Sie zeigt sich auf alle Fälle immer wieder begeistert, wenn ich es ihr zeige.

Meine Eltern fragen mich, wie man SMS am Handy liest. Sie fragen nicht, wie man die SMS am Handy schreibt. Sie haben allerdings ein Handy, Computer und Internet und ein eigenes Netzwerk zu Hause. Was ich gehört habe, bin ich nicht der einzige, der die neue Telefonnummer ins Handy der Eltern speichert.

Viele meiner Freunde und Bekannten nutzen das Internet. Zur Recherche. Zum E-Mail-Schreiben. Zum Bestellen bei Amazon. Zum Arbeiten mit Word, Excel, Powerpoint - Stopp. Das war’s dann auch schon. “Skype brauche ich nicht“, “Kreditkartennummer gebe ich sowieso nicht übers Internet ein“, “meine Informationen gebe ich nicht ins Internet ein“, “neue Leute über das Internet kennenlernen? Das ist doch…”.

ArbeitskollegInnen mit den Thema Social Media (”facebook” oder “twitter“) zu konfrontieren ist immer wieder erfrischend. Als ich über Google Maps, den Visionen und den Zielen vor drei Jahren gesprochen habe, bin ich auf Widerstand gestoßen: “Das wird sich ja nicht durchsetzen!”, “Google braucht das ja nur, weil der Aktienkurs steigt“. Auch gestern, als es ums Thema “Twitter” ging: “So ein kleines Ding…”

Was ich damit sagen möchte…

Videorekorder Programmierung : Großmutter = Computer : Eltern = Social Media : jetzige Generation

War es der Videorekorder vor einigen Jahrzehnten, der Computer vor einigen Jahren sind es nun die vernetzen Anwendungen, die “Social Media” vor denen viele Leute kapitulieren: “Das tue ich mir nicht mehr an“, “das brauche ich nicht“. Lernstillstand. Die Kapitulation vor dem Neuen, vor der Entwicklung - auch vor der sozialen Weiterentwicklung und vor der Schnelligkeit. Man wird zwar nicht gleich überrollt aber man isoliert sich und ist einige Schritt hinterher - vorallem was das digitalen und vernetzte Denken betrifft. Das Denken, mit dem die neue Generation aufwächst, sich mitentwickelt und das Verständnis, das man ihnen entgegen bringt.

The capitulation beyond digital developement.

My grandaunt asked me how to programme her video-recorder. I can still remember very well the sheets of paper with the programming-workflow and the yellow and red painted buttons on the remote-control.

My grandmother asked me to tune and set the TV-channels on her TV-set. She is also asking me to check her telephone-bills, if everything is allright. I am not sure, if she is able to find the weather in the teletext. She is of course always very happy, when I show this possibility to her.

My parents asking me, how to read SMS on the mobile. They do not ask how to write SMS. But they have mobile phone, computer and a big network at home. I have heared, that I am not the only one, who is saving the phonenumbers for his parents on their mobile.

A lot of my friends are using the internet. For researching. For writing e-mails. To order sth. at Amazon. To work with Word, Excel, Powerpoint - Stopp. And that’s it. “I do not need Skype“, “I am not typing in my creditcard number in the internet“, “those are my private data, I do not share“, “get to know new people via Internet? No, thats…”

I am very often confrontating colleagues at work with “Social Media” (”facebook” or “twitter” f.e.). It is always exciting. When I was talking about Google Maps, their visions and targets three years ago, there was not so good feedback - “Google needs this for its shareholders“, “This won’t work…“. Also yesterday, when I was talking about “Twitter”, I heard: “Such a small thing…“.

What I want to say…

Programming a Videorecorder : Grandmother = Computer : Parents = Social Media : Generation now.

It was the videorecorder some decades ago, the computer a couple of years and now it is all on linked-application within a network. It is “Social Media” where many people stopp and capitulate. “I don’t do this…”, “I don’t need this.”, “This is for children”. Stopp in learning. The capitulation beyond the new, beyond developement. Beyond the social developement and speed. It is not a problem, going some steps behind the developement, but I think you can get isolated, when not starting the digital and cross-linked thinking. Our new generation is already growing up with this thinking and philosophy. Let’s go with them, learn and change.