Join the Perseids tweetup on Twitter

Continuing our current series of posts on Twitter, Newbury Astronomical Society is organising a Perseids tweetup to mark the annual meteor display as the Earth passes through debris from the Swift-Tuttle comet. The visual display occurs every August, as the Earth passes through debris from the Swift-Tuttle comet, creating a spectacular meteor shower known as the Perseids.

The peak viewing time is Tuesday 11th August, but you should be able to watch over several nights if conditions permit. If you want to participate, add the hashtag #meteorwatch to your tweets, to share your observations and ask questions of other stargazers.

Hashtags are a Twitter community convention for adding additional context and metadata to your tweets, which you add in your post. You create a hashtag simply by prefixing a word with a hash symbol: #hashtag.

For more info on the event click here to see Guardian: Tweet a falling star

Whitehall Publishes A Guide To Twitter

The government has published a 20-page guide to explain how Whitehall departments should use Twitter as part of their communications strategy. The Power of Information taskforce set up by the Cabinet Office has recommended greater use of social networking tools to help broaden government communications beyond traditional routes. Now Whitehall can Twitter away even when they are on holiday!

However, even its author admits that a 20-page strategy paper for government departments on how to use Twitter might be regarded as “a bit of over the top” for a microblogging tool with a limit of 140 characters a message.

If you want to check out a guest post on the subject by Neil Williams, head of corporate digital channels at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, on Cabinet Office blog, Click here to read the Template Twitter strategy for Government Departments