Tool: Twitter

Written by Mary Joyce on January 17, 2008 – 4:03 am -

Tool Description: Twitter is social network where people update their friends about their actions in real-time via SMS. People can read your SMS posts online.
Activist Application: Kenyan blogger AfroMusing used her Twitter channel to send news updates on the unstable situation in the country following the recent elections. The Twitter channel KenyaNews has been set up specifically to update people on the latest news out of Kenya.
Ease of Use: Easy. Just sign up for a Twitter account here and inform your friends of your Twitter channel.

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Here’s an example of AfroMusings’ Twitter text:

  • credit ordered on mamamikes still not delivered, thx to friends who sambazad credit. Really helped 10:25 AM January 02, 2008 from web
  • A better day. uploading pics to flickr and trying to wrap my mind around this mess. 10:23 AM January 02, 2008 from web
  • going to watch tv for updates, though i really shouldnt, this tension is starting to get to me. 09:48 AM January 01, 2008 from web
  • Posted pics on flickr. Still in Eld, tension eased a bit since its daylight, still precarious situation :( 04:15 AM January 01, 2008 from web
  • kassfm is perhaps the only fm radio station reporting results from diff. areas.theyve had to do it in english swahili & kalenjin 03:03 PM December 27, 2007 from web
  • driving by polling stations, most of eldy area appears to be raila country by large margins 01:39 PM December 27, 2007 from web

And from KenyaNews:

  • A major victim in all this seems to be Kenya’s economy, which powers trade and industry across a large swath of eastern Africa. about 10 hours ago from web
  • In Nairobi, the capital, police officers sealed off the central business district and ordered everyone out. about 10 hours ago from web
  • The worst clashes were in Kisumu, Kenya’s third largest city and an opposition stronghold. about 10 hours ago from web
  • Opposition protests resumed in Kenya on Wednesday, and as many people here feared, violence erupted across the country once again. about 10 hours ago from web

And there’s more:

  • Click here to read what MobileActive has to say about Twitter
  • Click here for a list Twitter-clones in other countries. Maybe there’s a local Twitter service where you live.

Thanks to Ndesanjo for alerting me to this story.


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Posted in Mobile Phones, Sub-Saharan Africa, Tools |


4 Responses to “Tool: Twitter”

  1. By obama on Nov 7, 2008 | Reply

    yah for obama winning as the first black to sit in the white house ,is a good notification to the world that all or each and every one can rull as a president in any part of the world.obama remain good in all he was doing? and will make peace in the u.s

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