Click the play button on the video window to the right to see the storyA group of students and staff at ASU describe themselves as a “Tweam” of social media experts.
On Wednesday, Tiffany Duening will be getting her degree in Industrial Design from ASU.
She described a “Tweam” as a team of people who use social networking to communicate.
It is a tongue-in-cheek way to refer to Twitter, an increasingly popular social networking website.
Tanner Woodford, who is also receiving his diploma on Wednesday, said covering an event using social networking sites helps users get right to the heart of what it is like to be there.
Woodford, who is getting a degree in Graphic Design, and Duening are excited that President Barack Obama will be delivering their commencement address.
But they seemed even more jazzed when they were talking about the way they are going to be sharing that event with the public.
Gary Campbell, spokesman for ASU, said the process is most likely unprecedented.
Nothing of this scope has been done before to cover an ASU Commencement.
They will be posting thoughts, pictures, and video on sites like
Flickr,
Twitter, and
Facebook right from the field, bleachers, and press box of
Sun Devil Stadium.
They will also have a
live streaming broadcast of the event online and plan to podcast.
Campbell described it as organic but organized.
This way of covering the event is tapping into the way college students are already communicating, through social networking sites rather than mainstream media.
Deuning said listening to a student who is there describe what she is feeling when Obama walks on stage is more powerful, more personal, communicates more emotion that a traditional television reporter asking that graduate how she feels.
The posts put you in the moment.
On Twitter, they've created what is called a “hashtag."
It is a code that you put into the search bar of Twitter, which then takes you to a Twitter feed exclusive to all posts about Wednesday’s commencement.
In this case the “hashtag” is
#asugrad09.
Duening and Woodford said if you want your Tweet to appear on this special feed, add the hashtag to the end of your post.
They have also created special sites on
Flickr and Facebook.
If you would like to follow their posts, ASU’s Nina Kulhawy e-mailed us this information:
General Graduation information is at
http://graduation.asu.edu/.
The site for streaming video is at
http://graduation.asu.edu/live.
There will be a blog linked off that site too, written by a student.
They also have a Ustream.tv channel set up for viewing video live as well
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/ASU-Live The graduation Twitter feed is at
http://www.twitter.com/asugraduation And the main ASU feed is
http://www.twitter.com/asu.
The Twitter hashtag for the event is #asugrad09, which you can see in action at
http://search.twitter.com/search?q=asugrad09.
The Facebook event is at
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=85810025828.
There is a Flickr group for photos at
http://www.flickr.com/groups/asugraduation.
And photos and videos can be tagged with asugrad09 as well.
