UN microblogging. The rise of twitter.
/Twitter has been non-stop in the news lately. According to EDUCAUSE we could consider Twitter as an on-line application which is part blog, part social network application and part mobile phone/IM tool. Users update on a regular base their network in 140 charachters on their projects, ideas, experiences, thoughts, … and it this way Twitter creates a interconnected network of users. People either access it through the internet or through their mobile phone. Organizations start to pick up twitter as a tool for external communication, public relations and continuous dialogue with their stakeholders. Development organisations use it to promote their mission statement. A series of UN agencies (UNHCR, UNDP, FAO, IAEA, UNICEF, UNIFEM, UNODC, UNESCO, WFP, UN Staff College, UNITAR) are already involved and other organizations do so too (World Bank, OECD). The Web2forDev site identifies microblogging as a useful tool for internal knowledge sharing.
