Paper presented at the Challenge Social Innovation conference, Vienna, 19 Sep. 2011.

1. Ad Hoc Innovation by Users of Social Networks: The Case of Twitter Assoc. Prof. Axel Bruns Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia a.bruns@qut.edu.au – http://snurb.info/ – @snurb_dot_info

2. Source: AllTwitter

3. Twitter Fundamentals Core features: 140-character messages Flat network structure: either public or private, following public accounts is non-reciprocal and needs no approval Any user can be publicly addressed by name Public Twitter messages visible even to non-users Technological basis: Relatively open and powerful API Thriving ecosystem of third-party clients and applications

4. Twitter as User-Led Innovation Major user innovations on Twitter: @replies – mentions of user by name @snurb_dot_infoThanks for posting this paper! It looks great. Retweets – reposting of messages by other users: OK. This is getting silly. RT @Telegraph: Welsh harpist ready for Royal Wedding http://tgr.ph/fXw62f Hashtags – tagging messages as belonging to a topic: #socialnetworksAd hoc innovation by users of social networks: The case of Twitter http://t.co/4XC690A

5. (news.com.au)

6. #qldfloods Tweets

7. Third-Party Innovation Helper Websites: URL shorteners: bit.ly, j.mp, t.co; also nyti.ms, tgr.ph, … Photo/audio/videosharing: twitpic, yfrog, twaud.io, … Client applications: Tweetdeck, Hootsuite, Yoono, …(also for multiplatform social media updates) Capture, tracking, visualisation: Twittermap, Ushahidi Maps yourTwapperkeeper, Streamgraphs, …

10. Twitter and Third-Party Innovation Embedding of user-generated solutions: Functions to send and track @replies and retweets Functions to track hashtag feeds, trending topics lists Functions to support embedded links and images “Need-intensive tasks involved in developing a particular type of product or service are assigned to users, along with the tools needed to carry those tasks out. At the same time, solution-intensive tasks are assigned to manufacturers.” (Eric von Hippel)

11. Misunderstood User Innovations Flawed implementation of retweets: User-created manual retweet format allows for comments: RT @Telegraph: Welsh harpist ready for Royal Wedding http://tgr.ph/fXw62f OK. This is getting silly. RT @Telegraph: Welsh harpist ready for Royal Wedding http://tgr.ph/fXw62f Twitter ‘button’ retweets are verbatim only:

14. Twitter able to provide link traffic analytics

15. Overall demonstration of Twitter’s influence on traffic

16. Undermines third-party URL shortener ecosystem

18. Twitter Ecosystem under Threat? Corporate priorities: Twitter forced to generate revenue and attract funding Increasing focus on Twitter stars and celebrity culture Twitter infrastructure changes geared towards promoting message dissemination and tracking, not conversation User priorities: Self-organised communication and information sharing Effective interpersonal and group communication Straightforward and user-friendly link and content sharing Unencumbered third-party tools development

19. Image by Maproom Systems

20. Axel Bruns Associate Professor ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation Creative Industries Faculty Queensland University of Technology Brisbane, Australia Email: a.bruns@qut.edu.au Twitter: @snurb_dot_info Blog: http://snurb.info/ Produsage: http://produsage.org/ LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/snurb More Information Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life, and Beyond:From Production to Produsage(Peter Lang, 2008)