Mae mwy na Foursquare yna. Mae fe hefyd yn sôn am bolisi gwrth-ieithoedd Quora. Wel, fel y dwedais ar y pryd sa’ i’n trysto unrhyw platfform gyda’r un polisi ieithyddol a Generalísimo Franco.

Ond mae mwy o heriau i’r platfformau nag ieithoedd a mwy na rhyngwyneb yn dy hoff iaith. Pam fod gyda ni polisi? Ydyn nhw wedi ystyried dy bolisi a fy mholisi?

Dw i’n dechrau colli diddordeb mewn platfformau dan gwmniau ‘trwm’ er enghraifft. Mae lot yn teimlo fel rheolaeth top-i-lawr. Os oes na gormod o reolau mympwyol, dw i’n gadael. Er bod rhai o bobol Cymraeg ddim yn mynegi’r problemau gyda’r un geiriau, maen nhw yn sensitif i’r wendidau fel y mae Rhodri yn dweud am enwau llefydd ayyb. Ac dw i’n cymryd bod y stori yn debyg yn ieithoedd eraill.

Dw i’n eitha hapus i dalu platfform gyda fy data ac hyd yn oed ‘gweithio am ddim’ iddyn nhw os dw i’n cael gwerth yn ôl. Os oes gyda ti cyfrif Facebook neu unrhyw gwasanaeth am ddim rwyt ti’n cytuno. Rwyt ti’n hapus i weld lluniau dy ffrindiau a’r clonc diweddaraf mewn cyfnewidfa, ti’n cynnig dy data.

Mae rhyddid yn bwysig i fi. Nid jyst rhyddid ieithyddol.

Rhyddid i bostio am bob math o bwnc. (Os oes gyda ti ddiddordeb yn democratiaeth ac ymgyrchu gweler y stori Facebook am ymgyrchwyr eleni.)

Mae rhyddid i adael. Wyt ti’n gallu allforio dy gynnwys Quora neu Foursquare i wasanaeth arall, dy flog neu ffeil lleol? Sa’ i’n meddwl. ‘Corporate blogging silos‘ fel y mae Dave Winer yn dweud.

Ar blatfformau fel YouTube neu Twitter mae tipyn o reoliaeth ysgafn (tu fas i broblemau hawlfraint) ond mae’n teimlo fel bod ychydig mwy o ryddid. Rydyn ni’n gallu anghofio presennoldeb y cwmni i roi ffocws ar y sgwrs/cynnwys. WordPress.com a rhai o’r wasanaethau Google yn dda o ran allforio dy stwff. Gweler Google Data Liberation Front.

Wrth gwrs mae lot fawr o stwff yn dod dan y categori cyfryngau digidol, nid jyst Facebook, Twitter nid hyd yn oed YouTube, Flickr ac ati… Un dyfodol delfrydol: mwy o reolaeth yn y gymuned Cymraeg, sef mwy o bethau fel adolygiad.com (ar steroids), blogiau annibynnol, platfformau annibynnol, prosiectau fel Diaspora sydd ddim yn cynnig rhwydwaith gymdeithasol o gwbl ond gwe gymdeithasol. Does dim rhaid i ti fod yn codydd i elwa o ryddid.

(Llun gan Paul Clarke)

Mewn gwirionedd mae’r byd wedi colli rhai o’r egwyddorion Tim Berners-Lee.

Cyn hir bydd gwasanaeth neu mwy nag un dewis o wasanaethau Diaspora yng Nghymru. Neu rywbeth tebyg. Mae cyfathrebu dynol yn rhy bwysig i fod ar blatfform cwmni enfawr.

Nôl i’r we yn hytrach na gweoedd o gwmpas y lle.

Datganoliad digidol!

Felly dyma neges agored i Golwg360.

Mae rhannu cymdeithasol yn bwysig, lot mwy na SEO weithiau. Ac mae pobol yn licio sylwadau, barn, pethau dadleuol ayyb.

Ar hyn o bryd mae gyda Golwg360:

• y blog – gyda chofnodion achlysurol
• sylwadau ar straeon (enghraifft) a chofnodion blog

Dw i ddim yn dilyn @golwg360, mae’r ffrwd yn ormod (i fi). Ar hyn o bryd mae cymysgiad o straeon golygyddol a chofnod neu dau. Ond mae’r cofnodion ar goll yn y ffrwd. Hoffwn i ddilyn rhwybeth fel @golwg360blog (blog yn unig, o’r ffrwd RSS). A rhywbeth fel @golwg360sylw (dolenni i sylwadau newydd) – neu yr un peth trwy ffrydiau RSS ar wahan.

Mae galw am ffrydiau – mae’r ystadegau ar @golwg360 yn eitha da. Rhwng 10 a 35 clic yn ôl bit.ly (ychwanega arwydd + i’r diwedd yr URL, e.e. i weld ystadegau http://bit.ly/jdDHRZ, cer i http://bit.ly/jdDHRZ+

Dw i’n postio’r peth yma achos fi’n ffan Golwg360 a hefyd achos dylai’r cyfryngau eraill meddwl am y cyfleoedd yma. Dylai’r cwmni rhedeg y cyfrifon. Dw i ddim eisiau creu rhywbeth fel @s4cclic bob tro (croeso iddyn nhw gofyn am y cyfrif unrhyw bryd).

Gweler hefyd: Crowdbooster (ystadegau manwl iawn), New York Times a Twitter a’r peth pwysicaf ar Facebook os ti’n postio newyddion fel cwmni/sefydliad.

I was going to leave a comment but instead opted to write here. White says:

At risk of sounding hopelessly naive, I don’t know why Twitter and Facebook would restrict the free flow of headlines via RSS. Sure, in Twitter’s case the headline is basically the whole tweet and it may be about attracting people to their website where they can see advertising, but this risks alienating many users. RSS remains the best way for content to be shared and fed through to multiple platforms.

Facebook are trying to compete with the open web and offer the whole experience there. Facebook.com is a – pretty seductive but ultimately inferior – second web.

Facebook the company are happy to use the architecture of the web but would much rather you experience it in their garden. That’s why they don’t want to offer RSS.

I have friends who land on Facebook as their default home page and largely equate Facebook with the web. That’s perfect. For Facebook. More generally I think people undervalue RSS because they haven’t tried it or they’ve been lured away by RSS-lite systems like the Twitter or Facebook feeds. That goes for tech journalists too, the people who should be highlighting how important this is.

Where Facebook does play with the open web – identity system, like buttons, comment system and so on – it’s in an attempt to make websites and their visitors more dependent on Facebook. And to bridge people into their experience.

I don’t know exactly what Twitter are planning but I know they were a promising start-up with a variety of monetisation options they could have chosen but are now essentially an advertising company, as Facebook are. So probably the same.

White also highlights the tension between the “privacy settings” and the open web:

Twitter cited security concerns, but Twitter is a tool for sharing content with the option of setting updates to private if you want to. In the same way, there is no particular reason why RSS shouldn’t also be available from Facebook pages and groups unless they are explicitly set to private. It’s an important part of web literacy to understand that if you wouldn’t share something in earshot of people you don’t know in real life, you shouldn’t share it online. That still leaves a lot that we want to share.

The designers of these systems often make the mistake, or perpetuate the untruth, that privacy is merely a set of software options. Privacy on the web is really about us, the users, understanding what we’re getting into and being in true control of our information sharing. By this definition, Facebook in particular fail big time with their privacy offering. Of course, their interests are not aligned with your interests in controlling your privacy. It benefits the company if there is personal information on there which has been posted in trust.

Thing is, if Facebook and Twitter were totally public it probably would have been better for people’s privacy.

(Diolch Rhys am y dolen.)

Mae rhyw fath o gysylltiad i Cân i Gymru yn 8 o 10 “gair” yma.

Dw i’n meddwl bod tri ohonyn nhw yn tagiau: #cig11, #cig2011 a #cig.

Bydd un tag cryf iawn yn well na tri tag gwahanol. Dylai sianeli dangos tag “swyddogol” ar y sgrin am ddigwyddiadau. Neu ar y cyfrif Twitter am y sianel o leaif.

Pam? Mae’r sgwrs yn dameidiog, dim digon o gydsymud. Hwn yw’r rheswm pwysicaf – annog a bwydo sgwrs da ar-lein. Cyfryngau cymdeithasol pleb. Mae hwn yn tyfu’r rhwydwaith am bob math o bethau da yn y dyfodol. Ffeindiais i mwy o bobol newydd ar Twitter. Mae pobol yn dilyn pobol diddorol yn ystod pethau fel Cân i Gymru. Bydd pethau da yn bosib gyda rhwydwaith cryf. Dw i’n siarad am yr iaith wrth gwrs hefyd.

Dw i ddim yn obsessed gyda chreu trends, yn enwedig trends yn y DU neu “byd-eang” (UDA fel arfer). Ie, maen nhw yn dangos ar y gwefan Twitter ond…? Mae’r Llywodraeth Cymru yn trio nawr. OK, gwych, llwyddodd “Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Sant” wythnos diwethaf yn y DU yn y pen draw (yn hytrach na’r tagiau swyddogol dw i’n meddwl). Ond beth nawr?

Rheswm arall. Na, dw i ddim yn obsessed gyda trends ond dw i’n deall y pwysigrwydd o ratings. Mae’ch rhaglen yn cystadlu gyda rhaglennu eraill a phynciau eraill. Hefyd mae nifer o wylwyr ar teledu go iawn yn “well” na wylwyr ar-lein yn y ratings. Pfft, dw i ddim yn cytuno ond does dim ots. Yn 2011 o leiaf mae’n wir yn dudalennau y Western Mail ayyb.

Arsylliad. Mae Twitter yn newyddion da i ddarlledwyr sy’n licio’r amserlen. Anghofia’r crystal ball (Martin), dyma beth mae pobol yn wneud yn awr. Mae Twitter yn gweithio yn erbyn y shifft amserol. Rydyn ni’n mwynhau digwyddiadau ar y teledu eto gyda’n gilydd ar yr un pryd. Wrth gwrs tynnodd e rhai o gwylwyr newydd i’r rhaglen. Mae darlledwyr yn ddeall hwn am rhaglennu “dweud eich dweud” fel Question Time, Noson Gwylwyr. Dw i ddim yn siwr iawn os mae pob sianel yn ddeall am rhaglennu eraill, digwyddiadau yn enwedig.

Neithiwr yn y stafell fyw cawson ni un sgrin gyda’r rhaglen ac un sgrin gyda Twitterfall – am ymchwil ac hwyl. Mae hwn yn normal.

Dw i wedi wneud rhywbeth debyg o’r blaen gyda Rhodri yn ystod Question Time gydag ychydig o help gan Piratepad am nodiadau. Ymchwil diddorol.

Dweud eich dweud! Jolch. Gyda llaw rydyn ni eisiau siarad am eich rhaglen. Dydyn ni ddim eisiau siarad gyda chi bob tro, sianeli, ond byddan ni’n diolchgar am blatfform neu tag cyffredin.

Croeso i’r byd cyfryngau ôl-Twitter. Mae pobol yn hoffi bod yn rhwydwaith. Yn fy marn i, bydd rhai o’r egwyddorion yma yn ddefnyddiol tu allan o Twitter neu ar ôl Twitter ar y system nesaf. Rydyn ni’n siarad am gyfryngau pleb amser real.

Gwnes i lanlwytho erthygl o gylchgrawn Golwg, Galw am drydar Cymraeg pwrpasol gan Angharad Mair, i’r we gydag ychydig o help gan sganiwr, meddalwedd OCR, WordPress ac ategyn o’r enw Commentariat. Roedd y system yn eitha gwahanol i’r system Y Bydysawd felly defnyddiais i enw gwahanol, Skdadl.

Mae’r erthygl wedi cael 29 sylw hyd yn hyn, yn gynnwys dau sylw gennyf i ac un gan Angharad Mair ei hun. Tro yma roedd y sylwadau o ansawdd hefyd. Croeso i ti gadael sylw os ti eisiau trio fe.

Pwrpas gwreiddiol Commentariat oedd dogfennau ymgynghori cyhoeddus. Ond fel WordPress ei hun, mae’r ategyn wedi cael ei rhyddhau dan GPL felly o’n i’n rhydd i fwynhau rhyddid sero. Dw i ddim yn awgrymu y triniaeth Twitter am bob cofnod ond efallai bydda i ailadrodd y peth gydag erthygl arall. Y syniad oedd arbrawf, esgus i drio Commentariat ac i newid yr erthygl Angharad Mair am defnydd Twitter i “tweets” – wel, paragraffau ar wahan. Yn hytrach na chynnyrch go iawn. (Ateb i gwestiwn Dafydd, “ydi e ar gyfer pobl thic sydd ddim yn gallu ystyried a thrafod erthygl yn ei gyfanrwydd (fel sydd angen gwneud?)”.)

Dw i’n meddwl bod 29 sylw deallus yn llwyddiant bach yn yr iaith Gymraeg achos mae rhan fwyaf o erthyglau neu gofnodion arlein yn disgwyl dim ond ychydig o sylwadau neu dim byd. Faint fasen ni wedi disgwyl gyda sylwadau ar y gwaelod, y ffordd draddodiadol? Mae’n anodd dweud.

Heblaw y system sylwadau anarferol, beth oedd y ffactoriau pwysig?

• barn profoclyd (yn hytrach na straeon newyddion “niwtral”, y rhan fwyaf ar Y Bydysawd ar hyn o bryd)
• cyfeiriaidau i bethau cyfoes fel Yr Aifft, Twitter, Umap, Hacio’r Iaith ac S4C yn yr un erthygl
• mae nifer da o bobol yn nabod yr awdur trwy teledu, ymgyrchu ayyb. Efallai dylai hi blogio.
• erthygl am Twitter, gwnes i hyrwyddo fe ar Twitter i bobol yn fy rhwydwaith ac ebost i 10 person yn unig (ateb bosib i rhai o’r broblemau o diffyg sylwadau). Mae Skdadl ar gau i Google ar hyn o bryd. Dw i’n postio’r dolen ar Facebook heno. Gyda llaw, dw i ddim yn poeni am drafodaethau “meta”. Yn amlwg roedd pobol yn siarad am y ffôn ar y ffônau cyntaf a wedyn ehangu i bynciau eraill, does dim ots.
• o’n i’n gwybod bod yr erthygl yn brofoclyd cyn i mi brynu Golwg (ar ôl clywed amdano fe a darllen sgwrs o flaen llaw ar… Twitter). Dw i’n prynu Golwg pan dw i eisiau darllen rhywbeth penodol. Skdadl yw’r unig lle i ddarllen yr erthygl arlein. Does neb wedi cwyno am fy defnydd answyddogol.

Postiodd Sion:

Cer i’r wefan Blog Golwg360 i weld e (ar enw parth gwahanol i’r prif wefan Golwg360 am ryw reswm). Wnes i ddarganfod fod nhw yn defnyddio fy rhestr Twitter o’r enw Cymraeg.

Cer i’r cod HTML a ti’n gallu gweld fy enw yna… Dw i’n rheoli’r rhestr. Mewn theori dw i’n gallu hysbysebu ar Golwg360 am ddim os dw i eisiau(!) Efallai dylen nhw greu rhestr eu hun. Neu (gwell) ffeindio ffordd wahanol, e.e. defnyddio ffrwd o ffefrynnau i reoli’r cynnwys.

Problem yw, mae fy mwriadau yn wahanol i fwriadau Golwg360.

Y newyddion da yw, roedd rhaid i mi greu ail restr o’r enw Cymraeg2 ac mae hon wedi bwrw’r terfyn o 500 aelod. Felly y cyfanswm siaradwyr Cymraeg ar Twitter (gyda chyfrifon agored) wedi pasio 1000 yn ddiweddar.

Beth yw’r diffiniad “siaradwyr Cymraeg”? Cwestiwn anghywir. Beth yw FY niffiniad gan greu rhestrau? Gan greu’r rhestr o’n i eisiau “hyrwyddo” defydd o Gymraeg ar Twitter. Felly dw i wedi bod yn ychwanegu defnyddwyr dwyieithog, dysgwyr, mabwysiadwyr, pobol sy’n uniaith Saesneg ar Twitter ond yn gallu siarad Cymraeg. Sef, y spectrum llawn achos medr != defnydd. Yn aml iawn, Cymraeg neu Cymraeg2 yw’r rhestr gyntaf i “groesawi” defnyddwyr Twitter hollol newydd sbon. (Dw i’n defnyddio chwilio a dw i’n ffeindio tweets gyda chyfeiriadau i bobol newydd, e.e. “croeso fy ffrind @gwalchmai!” neu beth bynnag.)

Y negeseuon i aelodau newydd yw: ti’n rhan o’r clwb, croeso i ti defnyddio Cymraeg ar Twitter, gyda llaw dyma bobol eraill. Mae gen ti ddewis!

Casglu oedd fy thema pan wnes i ddechrau’r rhestr Cymraeg. Weithiau does dim digon o gyfleoedd, hyder, neu cysylltiadau gyda’r “cymuned” gyda phobol. Dw i’n methu siarad o ran pobol tu ôl rhestrau eraill o siaradwyr Cymraeg.

Dyw’r rhestrau ddim yn ddigon unieithog am unrhywbeth fel y defydd cyhoeddus gan Golwg360.

Bydd platfformau cynnwys yn adlewyrchi dwyieithogrwydd o unigolion, e.e. fy nefnydd ar fy nghyfrif personol.

Ond ar yr un pryd dw i’n meddwl bod cyfrifon uniaith Cymraeg yn bwysig. Enghreifftiau: @haciaith, @ytwll, @shwmae. Mae’n golygu ymdrech, gofal gyda retweets ayyb.

Hoffwn i archwilio’r shifft ieithyddol, diglossia ac effeithiau ieithyddol eraill ar gyfryngau cymdeithasol mwy. Paid ag anghofio gwasanaethau fel Quora gyda pholisïau yn erbyn amlieithrwydd hefyd.

A group of us did a free, open event in Aberystwyth on 30th January 2010 called Hacio’r Iaith. It was fun. I learned things. It was based on the BarCamp format. You can use the format to have a conference on any subject and many people do. Some people call it an unconference.

The reasons we organised an offline event should be obvious. A chance to shake hands and consume body aroma content, the only remaining experiences not yet available online.

Around 40 people came. That number seemed about right for a one-day event, I didn’t even get a chance to talk to everyone properly.

One of the main aims was to get people together to talk about shared interests, so on that basis it was almost bound to be a success after the second or third person said they’d come along. When you know people will get talking there is no need for anxiety, even if the wifi access goes down (it was fine actually), the food doesn’t arrive (it did and was splendid – thanks chefs and sponsors!) or the firewall doesn’t allow FTP access (unfortunately it didn’t, but that was a mere glitch and chance to learn something).

Keywords will be in bold here because this is getting long…

The offline component of the event is finished. For a few reasons it’s a pity you can’t access big chunks of the event now. You really had to be there maaan. Saying all that, it’s still open to an extent because we purposefully made it a hybrid of offline and online. Several web-based backchannels existed before and during the meet-up: the event wiki, the group blog, Twitter messages, videos on YouTube and photos/images on Flickr.

These backchannels persist afterwards, which increases the value of doing the event for years to come. That goes for potentially everyone on the web (especially now that Google Translate can get you the gist of the Welsh in several other languages).

These are some of the benefits of the social web. These benefits are seldom discussed by the mainstream media, incidentally!

I want other people to see all this stuff if they search for related things. I know there are other people who attended who want it to have an influence. On that note, not every problem is a problem of information. (That’s the second Neil Postman link in this post. Consider that chin thoroughly stroked.) But some problems are related to information. For instance, taking abundant information and converting it into something useful is something we can step up. It’s something that could benefit Wales, where I live and most of the attendees live.

I’d like to see more BarCamps, unconferences and so on happening in Wales. Incidentally that’s part of the reason why I’ve chosen to write this in English, to give the non-Welsh speaking people in Wales some access to the proceedings. And other people around the world who might be interested.

As far as I know, Hacio’r Iaith on Saturday was the first BarCamp-style event to be conducted in Cymraeg, the Welsh language. The subject matter? Web and technology as it relates to the Welsh language. Those things – language and subject matter – don’t necessarily follow. Naturally people discuss their language in their own language. But a group could organise a BarCamp about any subject and do it in the Welsh language. Absolutely any subject.

For nearly everyone who attended it’s their number one language for everything they do daily and has been for as long as they remember.

I can only talk about the sessions I attended. Everything is from my perspective!

The first session was about tools for Welsh learners, including a website and series of online lessons called Say Something In Welsh build with phpBB, an iPhone application called Learn Welsh and some ideas for mobile app “flashcards” suggested by a tutor. We talked about the conflicting difficulties of making apps available to all mobile users, even if they are web-based apps running on mobile. I asked Aran from Say Something In Welsh a question about open content and search engines. The site is a private “walled garden” for a number of reasons related to maintaining a community of learners, but it’s free to register to join. (UPDATE: See Aran’s comment below for more about this.)

I then stayed for the Metastwnsh podcast recording and live web stream. Metastwnsh is a web and technology blog with several contributors. There was some discussion of gadgets and some jokes. My favourite part was a discussion of how the language choice of our online posts and conversations can differ from that of our offline choice. In particular, Twitter was cited as an example of a tool which first language Welsh speakers sometimes opt to use in English, for many reasons – some understandable. It was suggested that perhaps in some cases they file it under an “English language part of their brain”, alluding to the possibility that bilingual people associate some spaces or platforms with specific languages. So the effect of the platform is not necessarily “neutral”, or doesn’t remain that way. (I’ve been building a list of Welsh speakers on Twitter, including learners. Every person who is on the list can see the list and access all the other members of the list. It’s a way of strengthening the network and thereby, potentially, the impulse to post in the Welsh language should people wish to do so. Linguistic diversity leads to other forms of diversity and improves the internet as a whole in my opinion.)

I popped next door to catch the very end of a presentation about Llen Natur, a website about wildlife and nature. It has a dictionary of species, maps and photos.

Free lunch was not something I had insisted on, especially as it increases the admin for such events. But Rhodri ap Dyfrig was convinced it was possible and fixed up catering and covered it with money from some of the sponsors. For me it was a valuable part of the event, meeting some very talented people I’d only previously known online.

It was my turn next – purely because I’d volunteered to speak, as had everyone. So the title was “FyWordPressCyntaf.com – does dim angen profiad o flaen llaw” (which translates as MyFirstWordPress.com – no previous experience necessary). I wanted to talk about WordPress as a blogging and general site CMS, downloadable from wordpress.org with no coding necessary. It gave me the chance to talk about free software (unambiguously rendered as meddalwedd rydd in Welsh, free software as in freedom) with a bit about how localised code and themes are available for Welsh (but, as I also added, we can always do with more). Unlike the audience, Welsh isn’t my first language so I had a job explaining some of the concepts. I achieved my main objective though, which was to get a bare bones installation of WordPress running to show how quick and easy it can be.

In hindsight it was a little ambitious to shoehorn the mash-up/hack session into the event plan. On the day I ended up putting my talk in the hack session, which came just to mean practical session. Even WordCamp, which I attended last year, was spread over two days – allowing space for team building, pre-planning and the hack session on the second day. At Hacio’r Iaith, I think the initiative and creativity of the attendees to do the hacks could have been there, as well as the capability. But in a day already packed with presentations and to some an unfamiliar format, it became too much to expect. Next time some more practical stuff would be good. I do think a dedicated hack event could work.

We had a quick discussion about making online how-to videos and what subjects to cover. There is plenty of room for how-to videos in Welsh, especially showing non-geeks and normal people how to get the best use of software and the web. The ideas we generated are available to take.

Finally I went to a session on the game Civilization IV and its unofficial Welsh translation, using game mods. Welsh translation of open source games like OpenTTD also came up. I’m not a big gamer but it gave me some ideas…

Video by Sioned Edwards

Dw i wastad yn siomedig pan mae siaradwyr Cymraeg yn cau proffiliau nhw.

Dw i’n dal i gasglu cofrestr o proffiliau Cymraeg. Ewch i’r gofrestr a darllena pobol eraill sy’n rhannu pethau. Diolch iddyn nhw. Dyn ni’n adeiladu’r rhwydwaith Cymraeg person wrth berson.

Mae Twitter yn gweithio yn dda pan ti’n agor dy broffil i bobol eraill a chwilio. Ti’n gallu gofyn cwestiynau, addysgu pobol eraill, dylanwadu pobol eraill, helpu dysgwr efallai. Mae pobol yn gallu nabod dy ddiddordebau a chynnig gwaith, swyddi a phethau diddorol.

Mae’r ymgyrch yn dechrau yma! Agora dy broffil. Pam lai?

Bydd yn dipyn gofalus gyda phethau ti’n postio. Mae pawb yn gallu darllen nhw. Dyna’r pwynt. Ond fydd pawb ddim yn darllen nhw rili. Dylet ti ddeall geotagging os ti’n defnyddio ffôn.

Agora dy broffil! (Ewch i Settings, cliria “protect my tweets”. Bocs gwag. Diolch.)

Neu os ti eisiau cael proffil preifat, dechrau proffil arall agored.

Wrth gwrs, ti’n gallu penderfynu pa fath o gyfrif ti eisiau rhedeg. Dw i wedi trio opsiwn preifat yn y llun yma. Ond dw i wedi troi’r opsiwn yn ôl yn sydyn. Dw i eisiau cyfrannu i’r we agor.

Dw i’n sôn am yr iaith hefyd wrth gwrs.

Os ti’n cau dy gyfrif, byddi di’n anweledig! A bydd dy iaith Gymraeg yn anweledig hefyd.

So Twitter Inc have decided to increase support for the world’s languages, which is an excellent move. They’ll be asking users to collaborate on translating the interface, which again is good. The language community, made up of fluent users and some professional translators, knows best. Then everyone wins.

Twitter Inc haven’t said exactly how they’ll choose the next languages. But we can ask for Welsh. Here’s how.

1. Go to http://twitter.com/translate
2. Click the link “Sign up with your username and language”.
3. Type your Twitter username.
4. Select “Welsh” from the list.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a Welsh speaker or not. Welsh can belong to everyone!

I’m calling it a “vote”. You might as well use your vote for a language you’d like to see supported, even if you’re not a speaker.

Let’s not wait months and months for Welsh to get support – we can ask now. If they receive a high number of requests, it may spur them into offering Welsh.

Facebook made a similar move a while back. The whole thing was a game, with scores and a leaderboard for contributions. This resulted in a very rapid translation, completed in around three or four weeks as I recall. Twitter will be even quicker, I think we’ll do it in mere days.

In fact, Welsh was among the first languages to be supported by Facebook. This was mainly because there was a lot of demand expressed noisily, via a group.

“The squeaky hinge gets the grease.”

Twitter the company never describe their service as “microblogging”. That’s a smart move from the viewpoint of marketing the service to people who might have preconceived ideas about blogging. But mainly, it probably helps each user and the communities represented to be unconstrained and perhaps more creative in the way they actually use it as a medium.

Twitter feels like blogging at reduced friction. Each tweet (blog post) is tiny and you can type it quickly, on the go. They are also quicker to read than macroblog posts.

So Twitter could be fairly accurately described as microblogging. Some of the Twitter observations Pickard makes are accelerated in comparison to blogging.

People write more posts (tweets) than on a long-form macroblog – in my experience. The “half-life” of conversations is reduced. There’s probably a whole bunch of research someone could do on that if they wanted. (And I’m not talking about the paper where they dismissed 40% of Twitter as “babble”. I think that totally missed the point.)

So I wanted to expand on Pickard’s post and draw more connections between blogging and Twitter, between macroblogging and microblogging if you will. Some of this will apply to Identi.ca and other microblogging services. But I think Twitter’s larger user base makes it a bigger playground for this stuff.

The post
Let’s start with the obvious. A tweet is a blog post. Your tweets are organised by time, with newest at the top. Apart from that you can write anything you like. Same, same.

Following
Following is subscribing. Again, there’s less friction on Twitter because it happens in fewer clicks.

The client
Your Twitter client is your feed reader. The default web client is just a web-based feed reader. You get everyone you’re following aggregated together. But it can also be set to a single blog (a single person’s Twitter timeline).

URL and feeds
Your blog has a HTML version and it also has an RSS or Atom feed. Twitter feels like it has feeds but they’re invisible, they’re simulated by API calls. What I mean is, when you click Follow you’re not made aware of what happened in the background, it’s a black box. Whereas when reading blogs there is a URL to a feed which you subscribe to. (Although every Twitter account has a bona fide RSS feed as well.) Also, because Twitter and other services have emphasised real time there are efforts to make blog feeds real time. Twitter, in turn, is influencing technologies that were established before.)

Replies
Replies on Twitter are like blog pingbacks. They notify @someone that you made a response to their post. But unlike blogs, the “pingback” of a Twitter reply is not visible to onlookers reading the original tweet.

Tags and categories
The counterpart of blog post metadata – tags and categories – is the Twitter hashtag, which was deliberately introduced by a user and then popularised. The Hashtags website is what Technorati is for macroblogs (or rather used to be).

Retweet
Retweets, usually written as “RT @someone” or “via @someone”, are ostensibly about acknowledging a source. They’re a somewhat strange byproduct of Twitter’s lack of a quick way to link to, and read, another tweet. For programmers, it’s analogous to passing by value instead of passing by reference. They’re not native to Twitter at the time of writing.

Suggested user list
When someone joins Twitter now, the site suggests accounts for you to follow. This helps new users to get started and see how it’s being used. But it also offers a huge boost and arguably an unfair advantage to companies and individuals represented. It’s an editorial decision made by Twitter staff, one of the very few such decisions on a service which is mostly neutral – which to some “feels” wrong. There’s no equivalent on the blogosphere, which is sustained by a network and not hosted by a single provider. If Twitter the company want to be seen as fair, maybe they should behave like the blogosphere.

Blogrolls
In the early years of blogging, a blogger would have a “blogroll” which is a list of links to their favourite blogs. These seem to have faded in importance and usage as blogging has popularised. But during the growth of the new medium, they were useful for people navigating the blogosphere and finding other bloggers to subscribe to. Blog rolls were also about giving kudos and link juice. The earliest form of blogroll I have noticed on Twitter is the #followfriday tag, where people suggest accounts worth following.

Twitter list feature (new!)
The new Twitter list feature is a bit like a blogroll. It can be seen as a public endorsement of certain accounts and also a way of giving kudos. You can have up to 20 different lists, e.g. colleagues, bands, journalists, people in my hometown – which is similar to blogrolls that have categories. With Twitter, the emphasis seems to be on usefulness to the compiler of the lists, with the openness and kudos as byproducts. Like blogrolls, the lists help to grow the network by helping people navigate. Twitter lists can also be likened to OPML files, which are bundles of links to RSS feeds. In other words, an OPML file is a blogroll in a file.

Besides Twitter has always had lists. Each account has a grand list of all the people you’re following and it’s public. So the list of people you’re following is a blogroll. Albeit massive and context-blobby.

I think I’ve talked about Twitter as microblogging in enough detail now.