Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
TwitterFM: An Experimental Application
in Entertainment and Social Broadcasting
Theodoros Kalaitzidis and Nikitas M. Sgouros
Department of Digital Systems, University of Piraeus
18534, Piraeus, Greece
sgouros@unipi.gr
Abstract.
We describe TwitterFM a web application that explores ways by
which social broadcasting via Twitter can be enriched with entertainment
features. The system views Twitter as a dynamic set of 'radio stations', each one
transmitting under a keyword (hashtag). The user can 'tune in' to the radio
stations he wants. Once this happens all messages transmitted by this station are
rendered into speech via TTS accompanied with music selected by the user
and/or the system. TwitterFM analyzes the affective content of each rendered
message and colors accordingly the sub-window in which it is displayed.
Keywords:
Entertainment Applications, Microblogging, Social Broadcasting.
1
System Description
Entertainment is inherently a social process as it provides an experiential setting for
the elicitation of affective reactions and behaviors. Social broadcasting, on the other
hand, has greatly enabled access to information by providing decentralized models for
the dissemination of news and opinions and by allowing information diffusion
through social processes such as content sharing and retransmission. Combining
entertainment and social broadcasting can create novel media forms that facilitate
access and consumption of information and provide media-enriched, socially
influenced and customized solutions for content presentation. We describe TwitterFM
[1] a web application that explores ways by which entertainment processes can enrich
social broadcasting and support microblogging environments such as Twitter. Twitter
supports a light and informal style of communication that we believe is suitable for
casual interaction with the user similar to what is the case with entertainment radio.
TwitterFM views Twitter as a dynamic set of 'radio stations', each one transmitting
under a keyword (hashtag). The user can select the hashtags she is interested in and
organize them in various radio bands. She can then 'tune in' to the radio station she
wants. Consequently all messages transmitted by this station are turned into speech
via TTS and rendered accompanied with music selected by the user and/or the system.
Furthermore, the system analyzes the affective content of each rendered message and
colors accordingly the sub-window in which it is displayed. TwitterFM employs a
mashup architecture combining five web APIs: Twitter, Alchemy, TinySong, LastFM
and YouTube. The Twitter API provides the text messages that are used as input to
