In April 2010, the Library of Congress acquired all Twitter's archives and announced it - obviously - through its official Twitter account: "Library acquires ENTIRE Twitter archive. ALL tweets". This unprecedented step confirms the relevance held by social networks and unveils some unexplored possibilities linked to them.
What is the Library of Congress
The Library of Congress was established in 1800 in Washington, D.C. (where it is still located) and it is the biggest library in the world, collecting the largest number of documents and receiving every single book, print, photography, map or musical piece registered through the United States Copyright Office. Despite being open to public, only government officials are allowed to search through the documents here stored.
The Library already owned a massive amount of digital assets, now comprising the entire archive of Twitter messages, since its debut in 2006.
Twitter and History
Social networking has become a common experience to most people in the world, constituting - altogether - a continuous chronicle of contemporary times. Millions of users produce a perpetual flood of information and perspectives able to present the natural turns of current events and phenomenons.
The intense cultural impact of Twitter became evident to everyone when Iranian dissidents started using it as their only possible communication device, or when, through a simple tweet, Barack Obama announced his victory, back in 2008.
Possible Consequences on Users
Concerning the privacy of users, following the recent acquisition, it has been stated that the huge amount of data will be available for scholarly and research purpose only - and the most part of the messages are already publicly published on the internet, anyway.
There is the possibility that knowing all their entries to be filed, Twitter's users may change their habits towards the social network, elaborating posts thought to be archive-worthy, but this risk is minimum considering the typical spontaneous attitude of these web tools - and also, the news about the Library Congress' acquisition is not that known to the general public, yet.
Twitter as a Resource
Twitter counts more than 100 million users producing a massive amount of messages - about 55 millions entries daily - now available to be studied from many different point of views: anthropological implications, historical processes, economic researches - and, possibly, other less academic works, such as commercial surveys.
The analysis of such extensive data can provide a better understanding about the conditions of a time and a place, processing ordinary people's thoughts and takes, telling a story closer to the real on-ground experience, rather than usual intellectual elaborations presented by an educated élite.
Cristiana Bedei - CRISTIANA BEDEI cristianabedei@gmail.com EDUCATION Academic Year 2008 – 2009 BA in “Scienze dei Beni ...
Join the Conversation