(bit of a space theme this week)
I know there are those, like Iain Hepburn, who doubt the use of Twitter as a news outlet (I, for one, think it is incredibly underused as a news outlet for posting live updates to events and so on – and I’ve used it for the likes of T in the Park, election gossip and award ceremonies as previous posts here show).
But here’s one from the NASA people – Tweets from the Mars Phoenix probe. Not a tweet about the probe or detached information, but writing as if it’s the actual probe writing it, first person, the lot.
Brilliant. Quick snippets of information. Great way to interest someone. Imagine being a kid and realising that you’re getting information sent to you by a robot on Mars. (And yes, I know it isn’t, but it’s close enough – have some romance in your soul.)
(and as you can’t impersonate someone on a blog, how long before we get a law saying it’s illegal to impersonate someone on a Tweet, even a robot? 🙂 )
5 responses to “NASA shows the best use for Twitter yet”
oh for feck’s sake.
Glad I could count on you for the appropriate sarcasm mate! Turns out NASA might have over-egged the pudding on this one as there’s also Tweets for the following:
http://twitter.com/LCROSS_NASA – NASA moon missions
http://twitter.com/LADEE_NASA – 2011 Lunar probes
http://twitter.com/LRO_NASA – another Lunar probe nowhere near the moon just now
http://twitter.com/NASAKepler – Kepler probe
http://twitter.com/CassiniSaturn – the Cassini probe
Now, the only one of them actually useful at this point is the Cassini one. The rest are all concepts. It’s a case of taking a cute idea and overkilling it.
Now, what I want to see are the fictional probes. I want to see Hal from 2001, Skynet (first tweet: “I…I am”, second tweet: “You’re all dead”, third tweet: “bloody John Connor”) and so on or fictional ones for the above (Mars probe: “entering Mars atmosphere. OYAH THAT”S HOT. STOPIT. NEED ICE ON ASS.” and “Begin Classified Tweet: Martians say ulah”
In fact has anyone used Twitter as a movie promotion/prequel tool yet?
[…] is here. I’ve alread pointed out that I find Twitter useful for journalism and PR, it can be educational, and it can be just good fun to keep in touch with people. Having said that it does have downsides […]
[…] NASA used Twitter to break the news of what appeared to be water ice on Mars by the Phoenix Mars Lander. The Los Angeles Fire Department has put the technology to use to help communicate during California wildfires. The University of Texas at San Antonio College of Engineering is using Twitter to relay information to students. And though we cannot verify if God Twitters (yet), many of his followers at Westwinds Church in Jackson, Michigan conduct weekend worship services in what they call Twitter Church. […]
[…] from before my Twitter article for AllMediaScotland, I’ve been banging on (and on) (and on) about how handy Twitter is for keeping in touch with people, for PR purposes and […]