From @BrightEyedDyer who DMed me the breaking news and confirmed by both @LibraryCongress and USA Today comes an unexpected bit of news from Washington D.C. The Library of Congress has acquired Twitter archives dating back to 2006!

The Library of Congress go into details on their Facebook page, but USA Today reports the institution’s motivations in a nutshell:

The library notes that Twitter processes more than 50 million tweets a day and says its emphasis will be on the ”scholarly and research implications of the acquisition.”

Just a few examples of important tweets:

• The first-ever tweet from Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey (http://twitter.com/jack/status/20)
• President Obama’s tweet about winning the 2008 election (http://twitter.com/barackobama/status/992176676)
• A set of two tweets from a photojournalist who was arrested in Egypt and then freed because of a series of events set into motion by his use of Twitter (http://twitter.com/jamesbuck/status/786571964) and (http://twitter.com/jamesbuck/status/787167620).

Expect a deeper dive into this topic on the next Bird House Rules; but for now, think of all the goofy things you’ve said and done since you’ve been flying about the birdhouse…and now think “Hey, my tweets are heading for the Library of Congress!”

Don’t you dare change a thing in how you tweet. After all, it’s that unabashed honesty that got you (and the rest of us Twitterakians) into these hallowed halls!

More to come…

With the return of Bird House Rules, I am getting back into my groove on this blog. Que Publishing has been instrumental in bringing me back into this groove after contacting me concerning All a Twitter. As mentioned in the previous BHR,  the book is being featured once again in Barnes & Noble Bookstores everywhere, and asked me “Whatever you can do to get the word out…”  I sent out a query to my Twitter and Facebook networks, letting them know that I was available for interviews.

From Twitter I heard from long-time-friend of the Bird House @Odin1eye who featured me in a particularly fun interview on his blog View From Vahalla. This blog features podcast reviews, commentary and rants on Social Media and the world it impacts, and (now) interviews. Odin1eye and I talk about about how Twitter has changed, where it is headed, and what went into the writing of All a Twitter. Here’s a selection from the interview:

When Mashable.com cites your website, you know you’re doing something right. Andrew Girdwood must be thinking that as a lot of people are following his lead when Mashable’s Stan Schroeder reported early this morning:

Numerous Twitter users are pointing out that Twitter forced them to change their passwords out of the blue. According to blogger Andrew Girdwood, these users have received an e-mail containing the following message: “Due to concern that your account may have been compromised in a phishing attack that took place off-Twitter, your password was reset,” together with a link for resetting the password.

Although the e-mail itself looks like a phishing attack, it’s genuine; it seems that admins at Twitter have discovered something fishy is going on, and they’re trying to prevent further damage before it happens.

I’ve been reading up on this all morning (with postings from TechCrunch and The Washington Post as examples); and while this situation shouldn’t be taken lightly, I am not scrambling to change my passwords on my accounts. Why?

1. I’m finding out about this scam via Twitter.
2. The people on Twitter are finding out via an “official email” from Twitter.com.
3. On Twitter’s Status and News blogs and on Twitter’s own feed, there is no mention of this phishing scam whatsoever.

Due to personal circumstances the Bird House remains closed, but will return in the 2nd week of February.

Hey, everyone!

Just a quick note that as the Christmas holidays reach a fever-pitch and I continue to dig out the Bird house from the #snowpocalypse of 2009, I am going on a break for the next two weeks. Keep an eye out on this feed for a new Bird House Rules on 4 January 2010. Thanks for listening, everyone. Have a wonderful and safe Christmas and New Year’s celebration!

image from www.zastavki.com

If you kept up with me yesterday, you knew that my day from the Bird House was a rough one. I had a knee jerk reaction to the sudden disappearance of Twitter’s new Retweet function (and I openly admit that part of my ire was coming from the possibility that hard work I did for an upcoming print run of Sams Teach Yourself Twitter in Ten Minutes and my Bird House Rules Episode 8a was all for naught…) only to discover that Twitter was having a rough day of their own, far beyond new options pulling a Harry Houdini.

This morning, a lot of things were explained.

From Twitter Status…just moments ago…

(click image to view Full Size)

…and yet, no real reason given as to what happened with the Retweets this morning.

Anyone else thinking this?

It’s all about communication, Twitter. We just want to know what’s happening…

Twitter, as you hear me say in Speak Geek to Me, is being hailed as one of the greatest innovations in modern communications. What does it mean, then, when a tool that revolutionizes how we exchange ideas and share thoughts suddenly decides shut its users out and make a change without notification?

Changing its interface as one would change underwear, Twitter apparently pulled a back-handed “Give the People What They Want” by removing the new Retweet feature. This feature has been in Beta since the Fall of this year and Twitterakians were kept in the loop as early as idea conception. Sure, there was a slight learning curve and not everyone took to it, but third-party clients adopted it into their user interfaces and many like TweetDeck and Twittelator Pro added the functionality with their own flair. I even covered it in the last Bird House with a video addendum.

But this morning I got a tweet from John Merlin (@zard) from the UK:

As promised, here’s a completely off-the-beaten-path episode of Bird House Rules (which will also appear on Imagine That Studio’s In Your Right Mind and the New Zealand podcast Whispers at the Edge. Three times the size of a usual Bird House Rules, this special edition features special guest Philippa Ballantine, and is part-Social Media discussion/part-Arts Review of Cirque Du Soleil. Cirque offered to Blogworld attendees free tickets to any of their shows in exchange for reviews of whatever show they saw.

Pip and I are reviewing three:

• Zumanity
• O
• Ká

Yes, Ká was that good!

We wanted to say “Thank you” and go above and beyond what Cirque asked of us. Enjoy this special edition of Bird House Rules and Whispers at the Edge, and make plans to catch a Cirque du Soleil show in Las Vegas.

Guest introduction by Philippa Ballantine

Featured Links:

• Imagine That! Studios
• The Official Website of Philippa Ballantine
• Erotica ala Carte

Album Artwork by Paul Fischer of Dancing Cat Studios

 

 Special Edition: Cirque du Social Media [36:08m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (463)

Feel free to syndicate this audio, and provide feedback or topics you’d like to hear discussed on Bird House Rules at 703.791.1701, tmorris (at) imaginethatstudios (dot) com, Twitter, or here at the Bird House Rules Blog!

In the same vein as Elliot Ness suggested to “Follow the money…” in order to nab the bad guys, I was following the tweets this morning to find some rather disturbing news for the Bird House. With thanks to @leplan and Globalthoughtz.com, I received news that changing passwords may not be a good security measure for the time being. According to Twitter Status (covered both in All a Twitter and Sams Teach Yourself Twitter in Ten Minutes):

We’re currently researching reports from users who are locked out after trying to reset their passwords or change their email address or user names.  This seems to affect new users as well as long term users; we do not advise changing your user name, email address, or password at this time.  We will update Status with more news as it becomes available.

That was yesterday evening, and still no updates at the time of this posting.

As I will be talking about at Blogworld this week, we all have to be careful concerning Phishing scams, spammers, and password protection. This recent development has me curious as to what is happening back at the Mother Ship but also reinforces exactly how important it is to check and double-check the Twitter Status blog. It remains one of the best ways to keep track of how the Twitterverse is behaving.

I am also breathing a bit easier, knowing Twitter is on top of this serious issue. With their incredible popularity and for offering this service for free (and keeping it so), security is an issue that must be address. It is rarely talked about (until something goes wrong), and this report from Twitter.com assures me as a user that they are not taking this lightly.

Some quick tips until this matter is resolved:

• Do not click on links from people you do not recognize nor follow in your networks
• If you are using TweetDeck, use the URL preview function as a precaution to see where the link leads
• If a link asks for your password, don’t give it. (Common sense, you would think, but…)

We all must think smart and remain safe when tweeting. Sure, it’s only 140 characters; but a lot can happen within a tweet exchange. Hang on to the password for now; and make sure you keep hanging on to it, especially when someone is asking for it.