Notes For A Twitter Syntax

Notes for a Twitter Syntax –

a minimalist approach through the use of “context markers” – Antonio J. T. Bueno / @bznsslgcs First published as a Knol on July the 30, 2009.

The concept of communication implies the need of a continuum of data upon which human action and eventually human achievement might be expected to take place. Such a continuum, if one does agree to its possibility, should be regarded as the cornerstone of social development. In this respect, no data is of much use unless it can be easily retrieved by means of proper retrieval keys. The easier the way such keys are made available, the better it is, as far as efficiency of communication is concerned. To establish a Twitter Syntax by means of “context or theme markers” appears therefore to be, if not essential, at least most useful. Tweets are expected to serve good social purposes (instead of promoting narcissistic competitions or attempting to patronize private opinion in shallow or empty ways, as in a few isolated recent cases). Apart from the #hashtag, a most successful and essential tool, already fully accepted, some other “tags” or “markers” should be considered by the Twitter Community for the purpose of improving the chances of Tweets playing in some degree a part in promoting social change as far as, for instance, such possible objectives as the promotion of peace, the fostering of world trade and the implementation of tolerance in contemporary world society, to mention but a few of the higher and most desirable possibilities. Just in order to begin negotiating a better Twitter Syntax, it is suggested in this paper that the adoption of the following thirteen tags be considered, as context or theme markers, or else metadata. Each tag would be written by adding the ampersand symbol & - to one consonant (exceptionally two consonants, in the case of law or of legal aspects of some issue), for a given context, as follows: &A: on art; &B: on business; &C: on cinema; &D: on drama, comedy or theater; &E: on economics; &L: on literature; &LW: on law or on legal aspects of some issue. &M: on music; &N: on news &S: on social aspects of contemporary life or on social (or philosophical) theories; &T: on technology and science;

&V: on environmental aspects of contemporary life and on aspects of theories of sustainability; &W: on show business. Those tags do not appear as “too many” (in the author’s point-of-view) and, if accepted, might allow for better filtering and better “tweetmetrics”. © Antonio J T Bueno. Free reproduction of this article is allowed if unabridged/unedited and if name of author, date of first Internet publishing and expression @bznsslgcs be mentioned.