Monday, June 02, 2008
Tweets from space
“The first dig on Mars is complete. Here are images of the dig http://tinyurl.com/5hdanw and scoop with dirt in it http://tinyurl.com/62hbyv”
posted about 7 hours ago to Twitter by MarsPhoenix
I grew up in South Florida watching space shuttles take off outside of my schools instead of on the television. We were 150 miles away from Cape Canaveral, but the launches were still easily visible. My first “when I grow up I want to be...” that I can remember was an astronaut.
Back then I wrote to NASA, letters that is, and they sent me photos of planets and moons and the earth from space. Now fans of all ages can find information on shuttles, the solar system, astronauts and so much more at the NASA site, which is a huge leap forward in user interaction from mailed promotional packages. The addition of Twitter updates allows even more options for fans to read about the expedition and ask questions through mobile text, the web, and desktop applications. I’m still convinced that’s the thing Twitter does best: allow the users to choose how they send and receive content.
The New York Times covered the MarsPhoenix Twitter account and its fandom Saturday. At the time journalist Kenneth Chang noted 9,636 followers ... today that number is already up to 15,430 (and I haven’t added it yet). NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory also has 1,190 fans on Facebook, but that pales in comparison to the everyday interaction with the rapidly growing audience at Twitter.
