Why the Queen an avid user of the web just doesn't click

Reading that the Queen "surfs the web" reminded me of a brief conversation I had with HM. A couple of years I was invited to attend the new royal website launch at Buckingham Palace where after a speech by Sir Tim Berners-Lee the Queen pressed a button and shook a few hands.

At a function a week later I had the opportunity to talk directly with the Queen about her use of the internet. I asked her about her website - cue quizzical look - and then asked her about her youtube channel, same look, and then her twitter account - very quizzical look.

What was apparent is despite what her PR people say the Queen is no avid user of the internet - no surprises there. That's certainly no crime for a lady in her 80's but the next time you read about the Queen tweeting, surfing the web, facebooking, or watching youtube realise there is about as much chance of this as her traveling on a bus. Not impossible but very unlikely.

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Making twitter work for you

Probably the best description I've heard about Twitter is that its the real time search engine that you didn’t realise that you needed.

It’s a great way to discover new content and stay informed of developments in your field, connect with new people and even if they don’t follow you still learn from their tweets.

To make tweeting work for you try following these simple tips:

Add value where you can

Join a conversation if you have some information or an opinion that will expand an argument.

Tweet links to great articles you’ve discovered

I find the links tweeted by the people I follow one of the biggest pluses with Twitter as I discover articles and facts that I would never have found myself. Aim to share the material you find that will be of some value to your followers.

Tweet profound things

Hey don’t be scared by this you don’t need to turn into Socrates overnight. But tweeting an original comment, observation or fact might get republished by your followers (retweeted), and this helps to build your influence and hopefully number of followers.

Give a little of yourself

You don’t need to tell the world what you had for breakfast but it's social media and that means people like to get to know a bit about you. Saying your going to a concert, pub or taking a holiday helps your followers form an opinion about who you are. Some moderation on personal stuff is the best policy unless you think you are a celeb and feel the world needs to know your every thought and movement.

Think about the time you tweet

If most of your audience is in bed then they are not going to read your tweets. I find the best time to tweet is in the morning when people are on their way to work, or the evening when they are at home. It’s not a good idea to send out a batch of tweets in a short period of time. Try to stagger your tweeting so you are not spamming people.

Remember the golden rule - as with all efforts in social media - is to try to add value. If you succeed in doing this then your influence and reach can only grow.

And don't forget you can follow me on twitter here.

Happy tweeting.

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A quiet revolution is underway in Africa

Many of us take the Internet for granted, but what about locations that are too remote or economically impoverished to enjoy the hi-tech benefits of the developed world?

The Shadow Chancellor in the UK, George Osborne, illustrated in a recent speech that people in the developing world - even in the poorest of circumstances - do care about having access to technology.

In a visit to a remote village in Rwanda in 2007 he and 40 other Conservative Party volunteers were working on transforming a once derelict orphanage into a school.

When it was announced that they were going to fix up the buildings and improve the water supply there were cheers from the villagers, but the loudest shouts were received when it was announced that the school was to be equipped with a computer.

Osborne was at first surprised with the reaction - access to a computer is not a fundamental of life. But even villagers in the remotest part of Rwanda knew about computers and the Internet and didn’t want their children to be excluded - as they had been - from something that could help lift them out of poverty.

While computer penetration is still low, Africans are buying mobile phones at a world record rate with take-up soaring 550% in five years. Now one third of the population in Africa owns a mobile phone.

These devices are being used in Africa to do all sorts of things never dreamt about by their creators. Transferring money via SMS between people who don’t have a bank account is now a huge business.

They are also acting as a link to get information out from rural areas and onto the Internet.

In Kenya, soon after violence erupted in 2007/8 elections, Mashada- a prominent online forum - launched an SMS hotline to help share information. Several prominent Kenyan blogs also accepted comments via SMS. Perhaps most prominently, BBC Africa’s ‘Have Your Say’ received over 3800 and published over 1300 comments after requesting updates from Kenyans.

While these innovative SMS tools are allowing more people to contribute opinions and information, none of them can yet directly reach the majority of the population, who need Internet access to see the posted messages.

Twitter is perhaps the most promising tool because of its ability to deliver messages to mobile phones. In the Kenyan elections twitter was used by journalists in trouble spots to warn people in real time to avoid these locations as well as to inform the world of what was happening.

Now, finally, Africa is getting the new high-speed Internet connections developed countries have had for years. In September 2009, a new cable linked up East Africa and this, combined with widespread mobile access, is promising to revolutionise business and communications, acting as a check on corrupt regimes by exposing malpractice and lifting areas of the continent out of poverty.

The Internet won't create success for Africa but perhaps the freedoms it brings will.

Journalism in 140 Characters

How useful can communication limited to 140 characters be for serious journalism? If it is about breaking news, immediacy and the linking to source material to establish fact then 140 characters does pretty well.

Twitter is a free social messaging service for staying connected in real-time that enables its users to send and read other users' updates known as tweets which are limited to 140 characters from either a mobile phone or a computer. Sounds easy - well it is - insanely so and although the idea of broadcasting messages of your every movement to the world does at first seem mad it's an incredibly useful tool.

For a reporter that regularly covers a beat twitter is fabously good for networking. Journalists need people to tell them stuff and twitter allows reporters to connect with their community. Journalist Pat Kane describes it as a "folksonomy of knowledge on the move" and a tool that acts as an “expertise archive that enriches and adds to the toolbox of the traditional journalist”. A few years ago we called this desk research.

Being real time and mobile twitter acts as an early warning system for breaking news stories. In the chaos of Mumbai during the terrorist attack twitter gave a sense of what was happening on the ground with more analytical coverage through blogs and traditional news media following later. Journalists monitoring twitter at the time of the Hudson plane crash were viewing the picture of the downed plane before the wire agencies had uploaded a shot. Photographs, audio and live video from the scene and linked through twitter gave these stories a speed and intimacy not possible before.

In Kenya, a country with poor broadband penetration, twitter was used by journalists to share information during the elections. With one text they could send a message to their twitter network, facebook profile and an update to their blog, offering an effective way to share information in real time to a large group of people.

Jon Gripton, Online Editor for Sky News calls twitter a “peoples wire agency” that is of growing importance in news gathering. Perhaps the reason why Sky News has appointed Ruth Barnett as its first twitter correspondent. It allows journalism to break away from the “churnalism” that consumes much of the media today and offers an alternate way for a news organisations to source original content.

Twitter is popular not just because it allows journalists to crowdsource with thousands of people or because it's a fun way of amassing followers and inflating egos. It also gives reporters a chance to create a new system of reporting. In the past, journalists were confined to their words and research methods, all dictated by traditional routines. Now they can create new strategies, use different tools, brand themselves differently, and propose new ideas. Twitter has given them hope and direction to do this because it has given them a public forum in which to loudly speak their ideas.

With tools that allow content to be reported and shared so easily news isn't dying, it's thriving. Google makes news ubiquitous and journalists need to use tools like twitter to help source stories and drive people to what is more scarce - authority.

Follow me on Twitter: @nelliesk