The Problem of Citing & Archiving Tweets
Although this applies also to websites and blogs, I think the situation with twitter is an interesting angle. With such rapid change and tweeters tweeting all over the place how can one cite a tweeters tweet? WebCite has, what I think, a nice solution to the dilemma. WebCite will create a cached archive of a webpage that can be a tweet, blogpost, news page, etc. and then WebCite has provided tools to help cite that page more effectively and efficiently. As a blogger, web designer, and programmer, I know by experience that web pages come and go. WebSite is an interesting tool and one that we are all going to have to use more and more as the web becomes more agile and less static.
Archiving a webpage is easy and we should all do it more. I have included a simple 3 step how to below. As more and more people voice their opinions and share their knowledge on the web credibility and authenticity of information is becoming an increasingly larger problem. One way to combat this diminishing credibility is to cite sources in your post.
Gunther Eysenbach (archived at http://www.webcitation.org/5fs5PvtyZ) was kind enough to take the time to read my post and correct a few things that needed fixing. I had tried to archive a single tweet which doesn’t currently work (04/07/09). Gunther Eysenbach writes more about this on his blog at http://gunther-eysenbach.blogspot.com/2009/04/how-to-cite-twitter-how-to-cite-tweets.html (archived on http://www.webcitation.org/5frDrQdNC )
Simple How To
1) Find webpage to be cited. Such as a search at search.twitter.com
2) Copy URL and run it through WebCite.com archive page.
3) Use the resulting citation links to site the tweet or webpage that you are referencing in your work.
Example
@MikeGrace commented on getting a lot of follows on Twitter saying, “There is no substitute for gaining followers by adding real value and connecting with those of analogous interests.”
MikeGrace. Getting followers on Twitter. Twitter. 2009-04-06. URL:http://twitter.com/MikeGrace/statuses/1464232606. Accessed: 2009-04-06. (Archived by WebCite® at http://www.webcitation.org/5fq1i0Sp2)
*Disclaimer
I am not very experienced with citing works so if I have done the citations incorrectly please let me know by comment and I will be sure to fix it.
WebCite. . 2009-04-06. URL:http://www.webcitation.org/. Accessed: 2009-04-06. (Archived by WebCite® athttp://www.webcitation.org/5fq0EkqIm)
Twitter Search. 2009-04-06. URL:http://search.twitter.com/. Accessed: 2009-04-06. (Archived by WebCite® at http://www.webcitation.org/5fq1Br1Eu)
WebSite Archive. 2009-04-06. URL:http://www.webcitation.org/archive.php. Accessed: 2009-04-06. (Archived by WebCite® at http://www.webcitation.org/5fq1K1Ox5)
——
References
1. WebCite. URL:http://www.webcitation.org/. Accessed: 2009-04-06. (Archived by WebCite® athttp://www.webcitation.org/5fq0EkqIm)
2 Gunther Eysenbach. GUNTHER EYSENBACH’S RANDOM RESEARCH RANTS. URL: http://gunther-eysenbach.blogspot.com/2009/04/how-to-cite-twitter-how-to-cite-tweets.html Accessed: 2009-04-06 (Archived by WebCite® at http://www.webcitation.org/5fs4THrfi)
Please use the URL http://www.webcitation.org/5fs4THrfi to access the cached copy of this page