Not quite satisfied with my first data analysis of the Tweetorial, I chose an alternative approach. I tried to understand the dynamic of the conversation and which role individual users took. For this purpose, I came up with the idea to draw a diagram, displaying the communication. I chose a Tweet by Jeremy Knox (JK) and looked what happened. Several branches of conversations evolved from Jeremy’s initial Tweet. I randomly picked the first one. For a better understanding of the chronology of the conversation, I came up with the idea of “rounds”, with each new Tweet being a new round. The first Tweet happened in round 0, the last in round 9. The idea was to look not at the whole Tweetorial data but do a micro analysis, to better understand the dynamics of the conversation by purely looking at the connections and not at the content at all.

 

Round 0

JK makes the initial Tweet, not adressing/ mentioning anyone directly, but using the hashtag #mscedc. Thus everyone looking for the jashtag is invited to comment.

Round 1

MS picks up on the tweet and replies, including in his reply the hashtag, BUT DROPPING JK.

Round 2

DJ joins in mentioning MS and including the hashtag.

Round 3

MS replies to DJ, mentioning him, using the hashtag. So far, so normal.

Round 4

Something intersting happens. EA joins in and RE-INTRODUCES JK, mentioning him, MS and DJ and using the hashtag.

Round 5

NP joins the conversation, mentions all the above, uses the hashtag.

Round 6

So does CP, who joins now.

Round 7

Again something intersting happens: NP DROPS the hashtag, closing off the conversations for others in the #mscedc area.

Round 8

CM joins in, mentioning everyone above, now not using the hashtag, which was dropped. Interstingly he finds the conversation, ALTHOUGH the hashtag was dropped.

Round 9

LM joins now, too, and also without having come across the conversation by means of hashtag. She mentions everyone above. Yet the conversation dies here.

Additional findings:

JK started the conversation and was mentioned in most Tweets, but remained silent.

DJ joined in round 2, was mentioned in every round, so he was practically bombarded with mentions, but remained silent for the whole thread.

The people seen in the diagram but without connections replied to JK’s tweet and started a different branch of communication.

 

Update

So I draw the graph above and now I am reminded that I am not the first, doing this sort of things. I guess I must have seen it somewhere, forgotten it and then thought it is my own. Nevertheless I found it helpful to draw it manuall and thus think and find what I wrote above. Oh and it looks neat.