Archiving twitter messages

[Garson O'Toole]

Will a comprehensive database of tweets be available to language
researchers of the future? Here is an excerpt and a link for an
article from a Canadian news service on this topic.

#history #dilemma: Social media proving difficult for archivists
By Teresa Smith, Postmedia News July 13, 2012

http://bit.ly/Lwv5lb

[Begin excerpt]
OTTAWA — When Tim Uppal, minister of state for democratic reform, used
Twitter to announce that the government would repeal its ban on
posting early election results before polls close, he made political
social media history.
He also highlighted a 21st-century record-keeper's worst nightmare.
No one has yet figured out how to keep a permanent record of social
media and, with elected officials increasingly entering the online
conversation — whether it be a scripted announcement or a comment they
later regret — governments are struggling to figure out how to record
it for posterity.
[End excerpt]

Garson

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org