I'm fruitgumphill on twitter, I'll post conditions when I hit a beach. I'd like to follow some like minded windsurfers.

I'm usually not a twit either. I think if its a goer we need to become twits and then become a follower of fruitgumhill so he can twitter to the twits who are following him.

Where do you usually windsurf Fruitgum?

sparky72 said...

Yes, good idea fruitgum. There's no particular benefit to having a communal login though - it probably works better to use it the normal way, and include a tag like '#wsnsw' and maybe one for the location eg '#kyeemagh' and then anyone can search using those two tags and see the latest posts. Although we have the airport windmeter at Kyeemagh...

The point about the communal access is that anyone at that location can update the conditions. Or can we do that as a response to fruitgum's tweet.

I reckon it could be woth a try. I don't know how many times I've been suckered in by the wind stations....you see a 15-20 knot reading, get to the spot and find calm windelss pond.

A realtime report could save a drive, eg. it's gusting 20 knots , planing on a 7m about 70% 0f the time etc...

OK, I think I've got the hang of twitter. I have an account set up and I'm following fruitgumphill and will do the same for anyone else that will tweet wind reports.

So I have my mobile set up to follow the selected tweets so i can have a look at the tweet at any time before I head off for a sail.

I have set up an account 'W4wind', so I'll endeavour to tweet a report when I get to the beach.

I guess the more people doing this the better the results.. I like it, finally found a good use for twitter!

Ian K said...

Sounds good but couldn't it all be done here on seabreeze? Look over the distant shoulder of any kiter/windsurfer on an iphone down the beach and you can usually just make out the seabreeze green arrows.

Twitter seems to be well optimised for mobile devices. I think it would be much easier to read or write a tweet than browse and enter comment on the web using a small screen.

I just set it up on my phone. As soon as I hit the twitter icon I can see the relevant tweets I'm following. It comes up as a simple text based message, quick and easy.

Waiting4wind said...

Good idea.

I don't use twitter so a technical question> Can you set up a twitter account for many users, ie. just use the same password for anyone to access and update?

The idea is that if we can set up a twitter account called 'wind' or an account for a particular location then anyone can log in and provide an update. With enough users there is bound to be someone out sailing who's willing to report from a mobile device.

Great idea fruitgum!

Firstly, using one account for multiple people isn't a good idea as there are some API limitations that will cause some problems. There are ways to do this but more about that further down.

Instead this can be done with what is called a hastag which is in essence a keyword that can be tracked by mobile applications such as Twitter for iPhone. Twitter for iPhone for example can pop up a notifcation message on your phone every time someone posts a message with a specific hashtag.

In order to submit a message to twitter you will need to signup for an account. The advantage of doing it this way is that you can then also send a direct message to the person that tweeted the report in case you want to meet them for a sail at the beach.

As an example we could use a hastag called "#nswwind". You would post a message as follows:

"#nswwind Wanda, 15 - 25 knts NE, 6 foot swell, 10 out"

Most mobile twitter apps also let you include a photo.

We would simply need to agree to a few things:

1) hastags
2) format of a meaningful post
3) agree to some guidelines to avoid hastag spamming

As mentioned above there is a way to do a group tweet style approach that is password protected but I think to begin with it would make sense to just go with the standard approach and see how we go.

WORD!

Waiting4wind said...

I reckon it could be woth a try. I don't know how many times I've been suckered in by the wind stations....you see a 15-20 knot reading, get to the spot and find calm windelss pond.

A realtime report could save a drive, eg. it's gusting 20 knots , planing on a 7m about 70% 0f the time etc...

stehsegler said...

Waiting4wind said...

Good idea.

I don't use twitter so a technical question> Can you set up a twitter account for many users, ie. just use the same password for anyone to access and update?

The idea is that if we can set up a twitter account called 'wind' or an account for a particular location then anyone can log in and provide an update. With enough users there is bound to be someone out sailing who's willing to report from a mobile device.

Great idea fruitgum!

Firstly, using one account for multiple people isn't a good idea as there are some API limitations that will cause some problems. There are ways to do this but more about that further down.

Instead this can be done with what is called a hastag which is in essence a keyword that can be tracked by mobile applications such as Twitter for iPhone. Twitter for iPhone for example can pop up a notifcation message on your phone every time someone posts a message with a specific hashtag.

In order to submit a message to twitter you will need to signup for an account. The advantage of doing it this way is that you can then also send a direct message to the person that tweeted the report in case you want to meet them for a sail at the beach.

As an example we could use a hastag called "#nswwind". You would post a message as follows:

"#nswwind Wanda, 15 - 25 knts NE, 6 foot swell, 10 out"

Most mobile twitter apps also let you include a photo.

We would simply need to agree to a few things:

1) hastags
2) format of a meaningful post
3) agree to some guidelines to avoid hastag spamming

As mentioned above there is a way to do a group tweet style approach that is password protected but I think to begin with it would make sense to just go with the standard approach and see how we go.

I think that making the process as quick and easy as possible will be the trick.

So with the 'hastag', do you just include that in the start of the tweet? And how do you set up your twitter account to respond to the specific 'hastag' ?

ok cool, can go with #nswwind, not too sure this idea is flying yet, I only have a few followers. Really like the idea of real time beach report, come on people..

adamhatfield said...

This idea taking off, seems mine was the only tweet this weekend!

maybe you where the only guy that had time? ;-)

Give it some time... these things area a case of critical mass. Plus I am guessing once the weather warms up it will actually catch on.

Agreed ... i did that for Gerroa last summer and we had some great feedback from quite a number of people. The biggest question I got from people was "anyway I can get that on my mobile"

If I get some time I'll throw together a short primer explaining all this as well as pulling the hashtag onto a web page that is easily accessible via mobile phone.

Plus I'll start contributing with reports. That is when I get more time... snowed under with work at the moment.

All the more reason to tweet so other people know it's not worth going down!

stehsegler said...

Agreed ... i did that for Gerroa last summer and we had some great feedback from quite a number of people. The biggest question I got from people was "anyway I can get that on my mobile"

If I get some time I'll throw together a short primer explaining all this as well as pulling the hashtag onto a web page that is easily accessible via mobile phone.

Plus I'll start contributing with reports. That is when I get more time... snowed under with work at the moment.

This confuses me? If you have twitter on your mobile you have a smartphone, which means you have the internet, which means you can read seabreeze/gerroa updates easily...am I missing something? Just saying.

CJW said...
This confuses me? If you have twitter on your mobile you have a smartphone, which means you have the internet, which means you can read seabreeze/gerroa updates easily...am I missing something? Just saying.

Simple, there's no real time wind monitor where I sail, the nearest one is a good few k's away. This way it can save wasted journeys.

Seabreeze isn't always spot on anyway

CJW said...
This confuses me? If you have twitter on your mobile you have a smartphone, which means you have the internet, which means you can read seabreeze/gerroa updates easily...am I missing something? Just saying.

Seabreeze means I have to go visit a web site, then dig through tons of meaningless posts before I get to the info I want.

Twitter means I can get messages automatically pushed to my phone. Think of it as automatic SMS updates on what the conditions are like at various spots and who is sailing where.

The wind readings on Seabreeze are still important but in some cases the is no wind meter at certain spots.