A new (and old) invention – the tweetbook

When thinking about a useful project to contribute towards COP15 we wondered if there was a way to condense the real context of climate change into something that could fit in the palm of your hand. Could we create something that could bring all of the people in all of the affected places closer together; we hoped so? If you are looking to squeeze and simplify then twitter seems like a pretty good place to start. We would capture a personal story, insight or concern about the impacts of climate change in any place anywhere in the world in just 140 characters. If we put enough of these together they would all have a voice. However we would need a format still small, digestible and portable enough to grasp; thisplace, all of it, in one little volume.

Twitter is a great platofrm for getting snippets and stories but it is also fleeting. Its good at ‘now’ but not so good at ‘here for keeps.’ We would need the help of another media and could not think of anything more suitable than a book. For both storing and transporting all the #thisplace contributions to the delegates at the conference it would be a fabulous medium to use. It’s somewhat of a contrast to place new and old media together in this way. But media itself has never been about one being better than the other, its about playing to their strengths. This new meets old mash-up of sorts seems to make sense.

With our tweetbook we hope we can give a little reminder to the delegates in Copenhagen to keep the big picture in mind. We hope it helps them remember that they have all of the worlds shared problems, personal anxieties, hopes and dreams about climate change in their hands. We are still working on the best way to get this book to the right people. We have plenty of our own thoughts but if anyone has more ideas or some good contacts to pass on to us we would be very grateful. We’d love to hear from you.