Ad hoc innovation by users of social networks : the case of Twitter

摘要: Generic, flexible social media spaces such as Facebook and Twitter constitute an increasingly important element in our overall repertoires. They provide a technological basis for instant world-wide, ad hoc, many-to-many communication, their effect on global communication patterns has already been highlighted. The short-messaging platform Twitter, example, caters uses ranging from interpersonal quasi-private phatic exchanges to ‘ambient journalism’: hoc new reporting dissemination major events break. Many have themselves emerged through user-driven processes: even standard conventions the @reply (to publicly address fellow user) or #hashtag(to collect related messages easily accessible space) are user inventions, fact, were incorporated into Twitter’s own infrastructure only subsequently. This demonstrates substantial potential of social, user-led innovation spaces.