https://twitter.com/#!/Greens_Win

If Not, Why Not?


Twitter throws a lifeline to those at home alone and lonely during the festive season

IT STARTED with a tweet. A woman who had struggled to conceive for years tweeted on Thursday night she found Christmas painful, with its focus on children and families. More and more people jumped in, tweeting about how lonely Christmas could be.

''It was surprising how many young people were spending Christmas by themselves - I guess you think most people who are alone at Christmas are elderly,'' said Monash University sociologist and prolific tweeter Samantha Thomas.

The Twitter discussion between Dr Thomas, Melbourne communications consultant Stephanie Philbrick and Sydney teacher Mark O'Sullivan led to the idea of linking people who were doing it tough on Christmas day using the hashtag #xmasathome.

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Mr O'Sullivan said the idea was to create an online community where people could share bad jokes, memories, music clips on YouTube and commentary.

He had created the hashtag #nyeathome the previous year, after finding himself in Melbourne on New Year's Eve without a party invitation, only to see it become the second most popular topic on Twitter that day.

''I remembered vividly the acute pain of being alone at NYE as a young, socially awkward adult who hadn't been invited to any parties and watching a Pee-Wee Herman movie,'' Mr O'Sullivan wrote on his blog. ''So, I had an idea and an iPad and thought of tweeting what we were up to, what we were drinking, what we were watching … Basically it turned into a giant NYE party without the troubles inherent with getting places and getting home whilst drunk.''

Within hours of Thursday night's brainstorm, #xmasathome was a spreading topic on Twitter in Australia and Britain. Tweets posted on #xmasathome yesterday included everything from links to a homesick Kermit singing A Christmas Wish with John Denver, bad jokes (Which hand should you use to stir your tea? Neither: use a spoon you dirty girl) and a Bob Dylan tip for those experiencing holiday blues.

Dr Thomas said there had been invitations from people saying they had a spare seat at their table.

''Organisations spend millions of dollars on campaigns trying to connect people, but something as simple as a hashtag on Twitter and people caring about each other can trend worldwide,'' Dr Thomas said.

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/twitter-throws-a-lifeline-to-those-at-home-alone-and-lonely-during-the-festive-season-20111225-1p9lf.html

Bob Brown
https://twitter.com/#!/SenatorBobBrown

Christine Milne
https://twitter.com/#!/senatormilne

Rachel Siewert
https://twitter.com/#!/SenatorSiewert

Scott Ludlam
https://twitter.com/#!/SenatorLudlam

Lee Rhiannon
https://twitter.com/#!/Greens_Win/following

Adam Bandt
https://twitter.com/#!/AdamBandt

Richard Di Natale
https://twitter.com/#!/RichardDiNatale

Sarah Hanson-Young
https://twitter.com/#!/sarahinthesen8

Larissa Waters
https://twitter.com/#!/larissawaters

Senator Penny Wright
https://twitter.com/#!/PennyWrites

Greens
https://twitter.com/#!/greens

Nick McKim
https://twitter.com/#!/NickMcKim

Greens NSW
https://twitter.com/#!/GreensNSW

Queensland Greens
https://twitter.com/#!/qldgreens

The Greens WA
https://twitter.com/#!/GreensWA

Tasmanian Greens
https://twitter.com/#!/TasmanianGreens

Victoria Greens
https://twitter.com/#!/VictorianGreens

Melbourne Greens
https://twitter.com/#!/melbgreens

Young Greens UWS
https://twitter.com/#!/YoungGreens_UWS

Umm NO, cause I think Twitter is for morons...

gizmo_2655 wrote on Dec 27^th, 2011 at 3:48pm:

Umm NO, cause I think Twitter is for morons...

Tony Abbott uses Twitter  :-)

Made a minor error when listing twitter links


Lee Rhiannon
https://twitter.com/#!/leerhiannon

____ wrote on Dec 27^th, 2011 at 5:22pm:

gizmo_2655 wrote on Dec 27th, 2011 at 3:48pm: Umm NO, cause I think Twitter is for morons... Tony Abbott uses Twitter  :-)

And your point is???

So is Rudd.


With Twitter and Facebook you can have as many imaginary friends as you want.

gizmo_2655 wrote on Dec 27^th, 2011 at 7:33pm:

____ wrote on Dec 27th, 2011 at 5:22pm: gizmo_2655 wrote on Dec 27th, 2011 at 3:48pm: Umm NO, cause I think Twitter is for morons... Tony Abbott uses Twitter  :-) And your point is???

Obvious !


_/_/_/

South Australia Greens
Mark Parnell
https://twitter.com/#!/markparnellmlc

Greenpeace
https://twitter.com/#!/greenpeace
Sea Shepherd
https://twitter.com/#!/seashepherd

blackadder wrote on Dec 27^th, 2011 at 8:31pm:

So is Rudd. With Twitter and Facebook you can have as many imaginary friends as you want.

Twitter is currently the best way of getting and sharing information fast.

Watch out greens_win, you might be on file  :-X

CIA’s daily menu: 5 mln foreign tweets!

It has been a while since the US Central Intelligence Agency admitted it keeps an eye on everything that appears on Facebook and Twitter. A new report now says the CIA “vengeful librarians” have to follow up to 5,000,000 foreign tweets a day.

­In November, the CIA acknowledged a full monitoring of social networks. Almost two-thirds of intelligence reports made by the CIA for Washington now come from analysts monitoring millions of individual messages sent worldwide, says the Associated Press.

The CIA’s “vengeful librarians,” as the CIA Open Source Center (OSC) director Doug Naquin named them, monitor everything available regardless of its significance and language. This also includes TV news channels, internet chat rooms, local radio stations, and newspapers. Social media became the focus of the group’s activities during the unrest in the Islamic Republic of Iran, following its 2009 presidential election.

The goal is to map “the mood of a region” where the US pursues interest. Such a process let Washington in on the global public reaction after the death of Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan back in May.

Before that, the analysts saw the popular uprising coming to Egypt, but could not predict its exact timelines, said the center’s director, Doug Naquin.

Fast-paced riots, as the ones which took place during the Arab Spring, put social networks such as Facebook and Twitter on to the top among crucial intelligence tools. The two also offer a growing coverage, with Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook network boasting over 800 million active users, while June statistics showed

http://rt.com/news/twitter-facebook-cia-watches-743/print/

Cool, now thats a challenge ... to get the CIA to follow little me. :-)

____ wrote on Dec 28^th, 2011 at 10:47am:

Cool, now thats a challenge ... to get the CIA to follow little me. :-)

It's the CIA Greens, they wouldn't know what to do with you once they found you  ;D

Five million foreign tweets, what a laugh  ;D


You can follow the Bradley Manning Support Network at:

@SaveBradley on Twitter

http://twitter.com/savebradley

or Julian Assange:

http://twitter.com/JulianAssange_

no!  ;) ;)

Twitter accounts put workers' rights under spotlight


EMPLOYERS may have the right to cash in on their employees' personal social-media accounts after they leave a job because too few companies have clear social-media policies, say experts in the field.

Noah Kravitz, a writer from California, is being sued by his former employer because he left the company and took his 17,000 Twitter followers with him. While working for the mobile phone website PhoneDog, Mr Kravitz began a Twitter account under the name Phonedog-Noah writing personal and professional tweets and amassing 17,000 followers.

When he quit his job, PhoneDog said he could keep the account in exchange for posting occasionally but the company is now suing him, saying the Twitter list was a customer database. It is seeking damages of $US2.50 a month for each follower for eight months, a total of $US340,000.

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Australian workers could easily find themselves in a similar situation because social media use at work was still a grey area, according to the independent social-media consultant Tommy Tudehope.

''The prime reason it could happen here is because companies who want to get into the social-media space often ask people in their company to start up a Twitter account and be an online spokesperson,'' he said. ''That's where the conundrum is. There needs to be a demarcation between who owns the content and who owns the account and that can easily be overcome by companies having good social-media policy, which few do.''

The American case is likely to set a precedent in the online world around ownership of social-media accounts. Several large companies such as Qantas and ANZ are active on Twitter.

Shana Schreier-Joffe, the chief executive and senior team leader of Harmers Workplace Lawyers, said the case would revolve around whether a Twitter list was confidential information that had propriety or monetary value. She said it might be difficult to prove the list of Twitter followers was not public but the case should be a warning to companies to protect online customer lists.

''A lot of companies aren't up to scratch yet,'' she said.

http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/digital-life-news/twitter-accounts-put-workers-rights-under-spotlight-20111228-1pczv.html

Turnbull's card details exposed by hackers

Millionaire MP Malcolm Turnbull and billionaire businessman David Smorgon have had their credit card details published on the internet by hackers.

The loose-knit hacking movement Anonymous claimed on Sunday through Twitter that it had stolen thousands of credit card numbers and other personal information belonging to clients of US security firm Stratfor.

Hackers posted a link online to what they said was Stratfor's private client list.

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They also posted images claiming to show receipts for donations made to charity using credit cards belonging to Stratfor clients, including the US Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security.

The Australian Department of Defence has a contract with Stratfor for a database subscription until November 2012.

The details of Mr Turnbull, the opposition communications spokesman, and Mr Smorgon, founder of Generation Investments, were also among those published online, News Limited reports.

A spokesman confirmed Mr Turnbull's private details had been published.

Mr Smorgon said he had cancelled his credit card upon hearing the news.

"I was advised (by Stratfor via email) a few days ago on what had happened," Mr Smorgon told The Australian.

"I was totally surprised (by the hacking) ... I have cancelled my American Express credit card and I was obviously not the first to do so.

"This is a warning bell for everyone and I guess it's the cost of doing business online."

http://www.theage.com.au/national/turnbulls-card-details-exposed-by-hackers-20111229-1pd79.html

@rupertmurdoch: new account gets twittersphere buzzing

HAS Rupert Murdoch, the media magnate who once saw the internet as the home of ''porn, thievery and hackers'', succumbed to the siren song of the 21st century and joined the increasingly ubiquitous microblogging site, Twitter?

If his first apparent attempts to use the social-media website are any indication - misplaced full stops appear - it seems the octogenarian billionaire may still be getting the hang of it.

Joining Twitter would be the strongest sign yet that Mr Murdoch has moved away from what earlier in the 2000s appeared to be a strong antipathy on his part towards the internet.

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In a 2009 article in Vanity Fair, Murdoch biographer Michael Wolff described Mr Murdoch's view of the internet as predatory, writing: ''For him it's a place for porn, thievery, and hackers.''

That same year, Mr Murdoch warned investors at the annual Sun Valley media and technology conference to ''be careful'' of investing in Twitter, which he reportedly said had yet to show it could provide a sustainable revenue stream.

But during just six hours yesterday, he appeared to throw his doubts aside.

There was ruminations on holidays - ''Vacations great time for thinking. St Barth's [sic] too many people. Thoughts best kept private around here. Like London!'' - and the recently published biography of Steve Jobs: ''… interesting but unfair. Family must hate.''

While many were quick to assume the account was a hoax, that became less likely when it was ''verified'' by Twitter, and its co-founder, Jack Dorsey, greeted him in a message on the site.

''With his own voice, in his own way, @rupertmurdoch is now on Twitter,'' Mr Dorsey said.

Within 13 hours of the account being created, Mr Murdoch, the chairman and chief executive of the world's second-largest media company, News Corporation, had almost 14,000 people following the posts, or ''tweets''.

It also appeared that the @rupertmurdoch account was being used as a platform for Mr Murdoch's personal views, rather than to absorb those of others.

The account has so far subscribed to the tweets of only two people: Mr Dorsey and Silicon Valley entrepreneur Mark Pincus.

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/rupertmurdoch-new-account-gets-twittersphere-buzzing-20120101-1ph91.html

Less than two days after joining Twitter, media mogul Rupert Murdoch appears to have had his first brush with tweeting-before-thinking, after suggesting that the British have too many holidays for a "broke country".

Though Mr Murdoch, who joined Twitter less than 48 hours ago and already has almost 40,000 followers, quickly deleted the message, it was preserved by some Twitter users and quickly spread around the website.

"Maybe Brits have too many holidays for broke country!" Mr Murdoch, who is holidaying on the Caribbean island of Saint Barthelemy, wrote about 6am Australian time

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/new-to-twitter-the-tweet-murdoch-took-down--fast-20120102-1phxs.html