Twitch: A Social Media Tool for

Event-goers and Promoters.

 Introduction
What is Twitch?
What is Twitter?
Why is it important?
 Concept Overview
 Twitch – A social event organization website.
 User generated data from Twitter & users.
 Totally generated and instantly updateable
by its users.
 Real-time snap shot of local and national
events.
 Navigable by Band, Venue, Location, Date
and Time.
 Concept Overview
 Broadly accessible as any phone with SMS
capability can contribute to content on
Twitter.
 The website allows information for events
in any area in any region to be shared by
its users because the concept of the
website does not wish to confine its users
to one particular space or group of
locations.
 Twitter
“Twitter is a real-time information
network powered by people all around
the world that lets you share and
discover what’s happening now.”
(Twitter, 2010)
 Why we chose Twitter
• Rapidly expanding user-base.
• Open and accessable API
• Fits in well with the concept : “Discover
what’s happening now”
• Integration with other technologies such as
SMS and Facebook.
 "Twitter attention and use is
proliferating, with estimates that
web traffic to the Twitter.com site
has grown over 600% from
November 2007 to November
2008"
Hughes, A.L. & L. Palen.,
2009
Twitter
 "Despite the slow down, the
number of new posts is
constantly growing,
approximately
doubling every month indicating a
steady base of users generating
content."
Java, A., Song, X., Finin, T.
and Tseng, B. (2007)
Twitter
 Twitter Users
some act as information providers, others
are merely looking for new and interesting
information” (Java, A. Finin, T. Song, X.
Tseng, B. 2007).
“nearly 60% come from Web which includes
the twitter.com Web site and unregistered
applications that use the API”
(Krishnamurthy, B. Gill, P. Arlitt, M. 2008).
Flow Chart
Flow Chart
 Twitch Users

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v
=G7jtfKmzeYg
 Technical Feasibility
 MySQL Database Management System.
 Open Source.
 Allow Data in from Twitter feeds.
 Areas for: “band”, “venue”, “location”,
“date”, “time”, “comment”.
 “To add, access and process data stored in
a computer database”
• Widenius, B. Axmark, D. MySQL AB. (2002). MySQL
reference manual: documentation from the source.
 Commercial Possibility
 Twitch.ie has the ability to cooperate with
event organizations, promotions, and other
sectors involved in the process of event
scheduling.
 Companies associated with planning,
advertising and ticket sales for events are
also potential groups to work.
 Hotels, Venues, Travel firms.
 Commercial Possibility
 Goingforward we would like to contact
companies of this nature to see what
commercial interest there is in the
property.
Problems and Solutions
Why do you need Twitch?
 The Problem
 We live in an age of constantly evolving
relationship and priorities, where events
are generated spontaneously via
technologies such as the web, text
messaging and instant messaging.
 We need newer, faster technologies and
methods to keep up with this ever evolving
data stream.
Customers Perspective

"constructed meaning through

sustained communication."
(Dunlap, J. C., Lowenthal,
P. R., 2009)
 Customers Perspective
 Users wish to find information on events
within a specific area, based on criteria
such as Location, Time and Genre.
 Users want to attend events with people
who have similar tastes, due to self-
verification.
(Swann, William B.; Stein-Seroussi, Alan; Giesler, R. Brian Journal
of Personality and Social Psychology. Vol 62(3), Mar 1992, 392-
401.)
 What we offer the Customer
 A website concerned with social events.
 Information relating to such events.
 Data totally generated by users.
 Working & efficient relationship with
Twitter.
 Information not restricted to events in
certain areas or regions.
 Twitch does not wish to confine its users to one
particular space or group of locations.
 "Most posts on Twitter talk about
daily routine or what people are
currently doing. This is the
largest and most common user of
Twitter"
Java, A., Song, X., Finin, T. and
Tseng, B. (2007)
 Promoters Perspective
 Promoters want rich user data.
 Promoters want valuable users, users who
are actively searching for and attending
events.
 Users who are engaged and interested.
 Social users, users who will bring their
friends with them.
 The Solution: Twitch
• Twitch allows for the best of both worlds.
• Promoters can reach the vast Twitter
audience in a format more suitable for
displaying event information.
• Users can search based on a variety of
criteria.
• Valuable data on users and events can be
gathered and monetised.
Technical Description of Twitch
 Twitter Feed.

 PHP Parsing (Twitter API).

 MySQL Database.

 HTML Website.
Further Work that must be Done

Uploading to a commercial server.

Evaluate and improve the usability of
the system.
Examine potential advertising
models.
Current Approaches
The rest of the market and why
we’re better…
Existing Solutions
 Eventful
 A website offering information about
entertainment and live events.
 Approximately 15 million users.
 Multiple platforms:
 Online, iPhone, Email.
 Information ranging from:
 Movies, Concerts, Sports, Family Fun,
Nightlife.
 Eventful (2010), About [online], available: http://about.eventful.com/
[accessed 03 April 2010]
 Differences to Eventful
• Twitch does not require a signup. Any
person with a Twitter account can use
Twitch.
• Twitch measures popularity based on
retweets.
• Twitch does not take an editorial
standpoint to content, we don’t feature
particular events for money.
 Twitvite
 “Twtvite is a FREE event management
tool based on Twitter that helps you
organize and promote local Tweetups.”
 1) Add content to the website.
 2) View content on the website.
 Can add event to google, outlook or yahoo
calendar.
 Twitvite (2010), Support/FAQ [online], available:
http://twtvite.com/faq.php accessed [03 April 2010]
 Differences to Twitvite
• Twitvite is concerned primarily with
“Tweetups”, events centred around users
who use Twitter.
• Twitch instead uses Twitter merely as the
medium, the focus is always on the event
itself.
 Limerick Event Guide
 A monthly magazine containing previews,
reviews, interviews and listings of events
in Limerick.
 Online versions available online at
www.eightball.ie
 Hard copies widely available in over 200
locations across the region.
 Eightball (2010), Home [online], available:
http://www.eightball.ie/ [accessed 03 April 2010]
 Text Messaging
“Globally, the volume of text messages sent
from mobile phones is worth around USD 80
bn per year and continues to grow,
especially in developing countries and for
premium-rate services.”

“Twitter messages can be received by users

as a text message on their cell phone,”
(Krishnamurthy, B. Gill, P. Arlitt, M. 2008).
 How We can Utilise Text
Messaging
• Users can Tweet events from their phones
using SMS, this is already a feature of
Twitter.
• Users can sign up for alerts from Twitter to
their phones via SMS.
 Newspapers
• Current circulation of national newspapers
in Ireland is 608493.
• Total Newspaper advertising revenue in
Ireland in March 2009 was €56,498,566.
This is down almost 40% year on year,
(National Newspapers of Ireland, 2010)
 Newspaper Advertising
• Irish Independant current rates:
Colour Facilities and Rates:
Full Page: Euro 36,955
Half Page: Euro 18,475
S C C: Euro 98.35

• 73% of 3rd level students read any

newspaper
,(National Newspapers of Ireland, 2010)
 Facebook
• Every month, more than 70% of Facebook
users engage with Platform applications
(Facebook, 2010)
• Average user is invited to 3 events per
month (Facebook, 2010)
• We feel that a Twitch Application could be
successfully integrated into Facebook with
further R&D time.
 The Advantages of Twitch
 Data both generated and modified by
users.
 Working & efficient relationship with
Twitter.
 Information not restricted to events in
certain areas or regions.
 Twitch does not wish to confine its users to
one particular space or group of locations.
 Potential Market
“one-half (49 per cent) of all those aged
eight to 17 in the UK who use the Internet
had a page or profile on a social
networking site in 2007.” (Ofcom, 2007)
• Again, total size of Twitter is increasing
exponentially.
Project Management
Men, Machines and Hours
 Initial Planning
• Initial planning began in February of 2010.
• Each member of the team came up with
possible concepts.
• After deliberation and discussion based on
our prediction of timescale and production
of a prototype, we chose the Twitch
concept (then called RockTwit).
 Initial Planning
• After deciding on the concept we started
laying down a lot of the groundwork for
going forward.
• We chose HTML, CSS and MySQL
technologies as our production tools due to
familiarity.
• We sat down and brainstormed the concept.
How did it relate to Twitter, how did it relate
to similiar sites?
 Initial Planning
• Concepts such as Blue, Tweet, Twit,
Event, Flock, quick and spontaneous
came up regularly.
• We decided on the name Twitch based on
the concept of Tweeting and the “itch” to
do something.
 Design
• We felt that it was important to stick with
some familiar Twitter concepts.
• Birds, Flocking, Blue and White are all
consistent twitter themes.
• To differentiate ourselves however we chose
darker colouring than Twitter.
• We examined best practice approaches for
Web Applications and implemented these in
Paper Prototypes.
 Prototype Development
 Interface established after paper
prototyping session
 The logo and overall aesthetic of the site
was prepared in Adobe Photoshop
 Mock-ups presented
 Psd file cut up and coded to HTML and
CSS
 Functioning database linked with php
 Prototype Development
 Unique results page developed
 Automated pages for each event created
 Retweet counters added (real interaction
with Twitter).
Demonstration
 Further Development
• Dynamic Database
– Relevance
– Efficient Parsing
– Stability
– Multi Browser Compatibility
• Smarter Search Function
• Customisable Results i.e. by Date, Time
and Location
What is a Successful Outcome?
• An uptake by Web 2.0 users (twitter,
facebook, etc.)
• Recognition by event organisers
• Create awareness of various events
through the site.
Thanks!
 Selected References
Dunlap, J. C. & Lowenthal, P. R. (2009). Tweeting the night away: Using Twitter to enhance
social presence. Journal of Information Systems Education, 20(2).

Java, A., Song, X., Finin, T. and Tseng, B. (2007) Why We Twitter: Understanding
Microblogging Usage and Communities, Proc. of the Knowledge Discovery and Data
Mining (KDD), San Jose, CA pp. 56-65.

Hughes, A.L. & L. Palen. Twitter Adoption and Use in Mass Convergence and Emergency
Events. In Proc. ISCRAM 2009.

B.A. Huberman, D.M. Romero, and F. Wu, “Social networks that matter: Twitter under the
microscope”, First Monday, 14(1), 2009.
"Reinhardt, W., Ebner, M., Beham, G., & Costa, G. (2009). How people are using twitter during
conferences. Proceeding of 5. EduMedia Conference: Creativity and Innovation
Competencies Onthe Web, Salzburg. 145-156."