I'm fascinated by Twitter's potential for tracking live events - one can track updates of Pakistan's Long March using the hashtag #longmarch by searching for #longmarch at Twitter Search, or automated live updates here. What Are Hashtags? A hashtag is just a keyword with a # before it, which allows users to search for it as a separate topic, and hence to also publish to it. You'll notice that we've used the tag #LongMarch in the title of this article, instead of just "Long March". Once published, the story will be automatically also published to MediaNama on Twitter (using Twiterfeed via our RSS Feed) and because of the presence of the hashtag, will be visible to those tracking the trending topic. This is Crowdsourcing TwitterSourcing is crowdsourcing at its very best, and worst. During the Mumbai Attacks in India, we found that live updates on Twitter tend to be a mix of the following: -- Journalists and individuals updating from the ground - hence the information is crowdsourced -- Un-authenticated rumours published, and spread by people looking to just spread anything interesting, or looking for authentication of information. This is dangerous -- Republication of information being broadcast on TV -- Requests for help and more information on individuals who may be missing or hurt For Publishers - their own Twitter? Coveritlive is an online Twitter like service for publishers that offers them a great amount of control over who is updating. We had considered using Coveritlive for event coverage on MediaNama when…
