I'm just about as far from the finish line as I am from the start. I've submitted half the words that will go into the book. Before edits, the first 10 chapters contain about 41,000 words. My experience is that the second half of the book will go faster and be less painful than the first. When you start a massive project like a book, you have your toes to the mountain and it is daunting. Now can see the end.
There are four more chapters to the first--and longest--section of Twitterville, called "What's Happened." I've made a lot of changes to the Table of Contents, mainly because the story keeps evolving as I try to write it--a dangerous situation in a book that will hopefully have at least a three-year shelf life.
Here's my summary for the next four chapters:
Chapter 11 Personal Brand.
This chapter will spotlight a few individuals who have become globally recognized because of what they have done on Twitter. There were a large number of people to choose from, some of whom are close friends. I tried to be objective and find five diverse stories. They are:
I'm pretty happy with just profiling these five people, but if you know someone who has a great story of being world-influential because of what he or she has done on Twitter, please let me know. I'm more prone to take in someone who is not an obvious, famous person.
Ch 12. Braiding Traditional & Citizen Journalism
This is a new concept and the cont will be abridged because a whole book could be written here. The idea is that traditional media is not using Twitter the way they used to use "stringers." We are becoming the 'feet on the street" for the traditional media organizations. Among the examples I will discuss will be USAir 1549 on the Hudson River; Mumbai and Gaza.
I will also discuss Tweeting in a crisis, using events the Gulf Coast Hurricanes & Grand Canyon Floods, the China Quake and others as examples of Twitterville Citizen Journalism
I m still thinking through this Chapter and am open to additional content suggestions and thoughts.
Ch 13 Politics and Govt
When I started this project, this was a thin soup chapter. Since then a great deal has happened, including the Obama election. I would really like to speak to someone who worked on th Twitter project for Obama and if you could connect me, I would greatly appreciate it. I will also be covering The UK Prime Minister's account and several others.
There's a ton of government and political tweeting going on. I am looking at really interesting applications of it and I will be covering it from a non-partisan viewpoint. I'm looking for twitter accounts that are effective, not lame.
Ch 14 Twitterville Humanity
This is yet another huge topic. I will be covering the inspirational Susan Reynolds
--Connie Reese Frozen Pea Fund Story as well as Twestival Charity:Water campaign. After that, there are just so many effective fund raisers. I'm looking for 2-3 more moving stories on how people in Twitter have helped each other for the purpose of humainity. They do not have to be fund-raising stories, but they should be stories that show the better nature of people come out in Twitterville.
Part 2 of Twitterville will be much shorter. It will be more about the finer points--and the cautions needed to use Twitter effectively. A major highlight will be a guest chapter on tools by Chris Brogan.
Please let me know your thoughts. Have I missed something major? Yeah, I know, but Shaq, Britney and the other start Tweeters just don't interest me that much.
