I’d love it if FlightAware would create an official presence on Twitter.
Dbaker, are you listening?
Toby
someone please tell me the point of twitter?
You can use our company news RSS feed to keep up with what we’re doing/announcing and the new periodic (daily/weekly/monthly) Aviation Newsletter to keep up with the industry and FlightAware photos.
jimcander: The impetus to my posting was an NPR program I heard on ‘Weekend Edition’ this morning, “Welcome to the Twitterverse”. A transcript has been posted on the internet, as well as a podcast if you prefer it in audio. This program explains Twitter better than I could ever do in the small space I have here. This is the link:
npr.org/templates/story/stor … =101265831
mduell: I wasn’t thinking so much about getting announcements from FlightAware, for which, as you point out, there are very adequate sources. I was thinking more in terms of informal dialogue between FA and its members where (unlike IMs) a single update will reach all the folks who choose to ‘follow’ you. Sure, you do have the discussion forums, but Twitter is more concise and certainly more spontaneous.
JetBlue and Southwest are among the airlines that maintain a Twitter presence, as well as media sources such as USA Today’s “Today in the Sky” blog and airports such as KDFW. I’ve never tried to compile any comprehensive aviation industry Twitter list, but I suspect the few I know of are but the tip of an iceberg.
Just by doing a twitter search on ‘NTSB’ right now, I find other presences including: Flightglobal, AeroNews, AviationSafety, Sky_Talk, airmedtoday, ntsb [wow, I’ve just added that to my ‘follow’ list], and AircrewBuzz [just added that, too].
Check it out, Mark. I think bringing an FA presence to Twitter would add an additional dimension to communicating with your online community. The big plus that you don’t already have is instant Timeliness with two-way communication!
Toby
Sorry… still don’t see why there needs to be one place for all information. Twitterverse? I call is soundbite-verse and the big picture with alot of things these days. Everything is sound bites and there’s no context to anything. Guess it’s an age thing.
Sounds like the forum here is a good place to get data about FlightAware. Why go to an outside source that will mine your data for other reasons?
I have to agree with Jim. I tried the above twitter link, and I found it completely frustrating. All I wanted to do with each new entry was click on the link and get the whole story behind that headline — but there wasn’t one. (“bus driver too hurt to talk”? WHAT bus driver?)
It probably is age-related — how old are the tools that you’ve settled on and find comfortable. I’m only 48, and technically fully capable, but can’t be bothered. I know people older than me who text and twitter like teenagers. Whereas I use email and a few blogs, and asked the cell phone company to turn off my data plan, because I can get along just fine without web access through my 3"x3" phone screen. Twitter is probably for people who can’t.
http://geoffcrouch.com/images/db_old-man1.jpg
Here’s that story: “Bus Driver Too Hurt To Talk, NTSB Says”
If Twitter brings you something of interest you’d hadn’t seen elsewhere, so what if the link isn’t posted. Some posters just don’t add them (and others do). You can always do a web search. It’s only a little bit of extra effort.
You made my point. It’s a sound bite. Give me context and I’ll use it. In the mean time, it’s yet another internet fad that I can only hope goes away soon so it stops wasting bandwidth.
[quote=“jimcander”]
You’re right. Context is everything.
In your context, it’s a sound bite.
In my context, it’s the tip of an iceberg.
yup. you’re right. but why do we need an entire website devoted to sound bites?
Well, Jim, the great thing about the internet is there’s room enough for each of us to pick our own poison.
I’m on Twitter (with a different ID), but I have no interest whatsoever for in-depth coverage of Brittney Spear’s life on MySpace. MySpace and FaceBook are a waste of internet server capacity imho, but many will disagree. So be it! We still have freedom of choice.
My initial posting here was just an observation (in my opinion only) that Flightaware could benefit by a presence on Twitter. Mduell’s response shows me that my message was received. Whether FA does anything with it or not is up to them. Either way, I’m satisfied by their acknowledgment. I’m happy.
If you prefer to avoid sound bites, I’m happy with that too. Keep posting your opinions to the FA discussion forums. It was good to have this conversation, Jim.
Toby
Thanks so much, Daniel, for the new twitter.com/FlightAwareSqwk
Makes perfect business sense to expand the exposure of Flight Aware to social networking websites such as twitter.
After all, CNN made their presence known in Facebook or Myspace (not sure of which one) why shouldn’t Flight Aware do the same? I myself don’t do the social networking fad but just because I don’t, doesn’t mean others would not benefit big time for Flight Aware to think out of the box.
Probably wouldn’t be a bad idea to get further exposure with You Tube or other video hosting website with instructional videos on how to use the Flight Aware website more efficiently then what we can provide in the discussion forums.
After all, pictures do speak a thousand words.
Well dang… I sure missed this announcment posted yesterday…
We may go with a more company-centric twitter account in the future, but the squawk account for relaying photos/news/etc is working well for us at this point.
Additionally, you can add us on Facebook if you’re on there.