Maps 2.0

In my presentation on January 12, I touched on the promise of geo-tweeting, but concluded it’s not quite here yet.

At the time, I knew it had been added to the API, was available for third-party applications, and that there was now a place to enable it in Twitter account settings. It was also listed as a feature in TweetDeck, but I couldn’t find any evidence of it actually working, beyond TweetDeck’s introductory video.

Well, it’s here! At least partially.

Here’s a screenshot of what it looks like in the desktop version of TweetDeck:

Geotagged Tweet in TweetDeck

And the best news is that it’s not that difficult to get started. Here’s what you’ll need to geo-tweet:

• Turn on geotagging in your Twitter account
• Get a Twitter application that can create geo-coded tweets
• Look at your geo-coded Tweets to verify them
• Tell your audience how they can view your tweets on a map

Twitter’s Geotagging Setting

The first step is to turn on “geotagging” in your Twitter acount.

At this time, it seems like this must be done directly on the Twitter website.

Login, then click on the Settings link in the upper right. In the middle of that page, check the box next “Enable geotagging”:

Location Settings on Twitter.com

Then click Save at the bottom. (Don’t forget that part!)

Sending Geo-Tweets

Next, you’ll need a Twitter client application that can create geo-tagged tweets.

So far, there are only a few. I tested two on my iPhone: TweetDeck and Twittelator Pro.

TweetDeck for iPhone is a free app that I’ve been using for several months now. From what I can tell, the geo-features have just been added in the last few weeks. It has two location-related features I really like.

First, you can specify the accuracy of coordinates in metric orders of magnitude, i.e. best, 10m, 100m, 1 km, etc. — an excellent method of obfuscation if there are privacy concerns:

TweetDeck accuracy set to 100 meters

Or:

TweetDeck accuracy set to 1000 meters

TweetDeck for iPhone will also alert you if it thinks the current accuracy of coordinates might be outside the radius of your accuracy settings. After I pressed Send on a tweet with my geo-tagging accuracy set to 100m, it warned me that it had only determined my current location to within 162 meters, and gave me the option of canceling to wait for more accurate coordinates, or sending as is:

TweetDeck Accuracy Confirmation

I once saw this screen when it had only determined my location within about 1200m, so it’s great to know about such discrepancies before sending your tweets.

I also tested Twittelator Pro for the iPhone, which costs US$4.99. (They have quite a few screenshots on their site.) It has some extended audio and video features, so if you’re thinking about sending various types of media from the field via Twitter, it may be worth a look.

Note that the free version of Twittelator does not support geo-tweeting. The options are listed in the settings, but when you try to turn it on, you are directed to buy the Pro version.

Twittelator Pro also has an easy way to embed maps of your current location directly into a tweet using the ‘push-in-crosshairs’ button on the right:

Adding a map link in Twittelator Pro

Adding a map link would be an additional way to share location with audiences that might not be familiar with viewing geo-tweets yet. (See below for more on that.)

Combing through the source fields of a large data set of geo-encoded Tweets, Ed Borasky found a few other possible geo-Tweet clients listed:

UberTwitter, Travel Off The Cuff, Echofon, WordPress, and Adaptive.

I haven’t tested any of these apps directly. If you have experience with them, please share your thoughts in a comment or an email.

Verification

It’s a good idea to confirm that your tweets are actually getting geo-tagged and that the coordinates are reasonably correct before encouraging others to take a look.

Both the apps described above will add an icon to any geo-tagged tweets, and pressing on the icon will display that tweet on a map. For example, in TweetDeck for iPhone:

Mapped Tweet in TweetDeck on iPhone

And Twittelator Pro:

Mapped Tweet in Twittelator Pro on iPhone

In testing both of these apps, I’ve found the accuracy to be pretty good, typically within 20-40 meters of my actual location. I did have one outlier that was coded with coordinates about 600 meters away from my actual location when I sent the tweet, but I was on a moving train at the time.

Here in downtown Portland, we have tall buildings that cause interference, and a dense cell network that helps cell phones determine their location more accurately, so the results of our accuracy tests may not translate to other locations.

We’re eager to hear how accurate these tools are in the field. If you are using location services on an iPhone or any other smart phone/device in Haiti or any other disaster response situation, please let us know.

One caveat: Twittelator Pro will not display any warnings or error messages if the geo-tagging features are turned on within the app, but not enabled for your Twitter account. In other words, you might think you’re sending geo-tagged tweets, but there aren’t any coordinates attached.  TweetDeck does display a warning the first time you try to send a geo-tagged tweet if geo-tagging is not enabled for your Twitter account:

TweetDeck reminder

Tell Your Audience

Since geo-tweeting is so new, there are only a few ways to view geo-tagged tweets so far. I imagine we’ll see a surge in display options and mashups that put tweets on all kinds of maps in the near future.

For now, one of the easiest ways to view tweets on a map is with a desktop program like TweetDeck.

The first image in this post is from TweetDeck, and here’s another one, with the map displayed:

Geo-tagged tweet viewed in TweetDeck Desktop

Why Start Now?

If all of this is so new, why are we encouraging field partners to start using it?

If you are already tweeting, it doesn’t take that much work to start geo-tweeting. Once it’s set up, there really isn’t anything else to do. It just works. (Assuming you have a phone with location services. We’ll explore other options in future posts.)

The minor effort is worth the benefits. What are those benefits?

I can think of a number of them, but this post is already long, so I’ll focus on just two.

There have been several efforts to aggregate and analyze text messages and tweets from Haiti. At the moment, these efforts have had to rely on the location setting in Twitter profiles (often unreliable) or the use of hashtags like #Haiti, which doesn’t necessarily indicate a tweet is really from Haiti.

The ‘noisiness’ of these data sets makes it difficult to analyze them meaningfully.

Ed Borasky took a look at one set of 7500 tweets related to the Haiti relief efforts, and found that only 93 were geo-tagged. As more people start testing and using these tools, the quality of data going into systems like Ushahidi will improve, for this response, and future responses.

As the quality of data input increases, so will the quality of analysis, mapping products and situational awareness tools that can be delivered to the field.

And a more direct benefit: This is a relatively easy way to add location to the story you are telling.

Whether your tweets are directed towards supporters, fans, donors, staff at HQ or the worried mothers of your volunteer teams, adding ‘where’ to your tweets is a great way to keep them all engaged with the important work you’re doing on the ground.

If you are geotagging tweets from Haiti or elsewhere, and have thoughts or questions, please add a comment or send us an email.