We're going to be using Twitter a lot for Get FISA Right activism over the next few weeks. If you're new to Twitter, it can take some getting used to. This page describes how to set up an account and get started.

To get an account, sign up at http://twitter.com/signup. There are a couple of steps to the signup you’ll probably want to avoid: Twitter will ask to go through your mail to see if your friends are on Twitter, and then suggest people for you to follow. Just click on “skip this step” at the bottom of the page and move on. You’ll now be on your Twitter “Home” page.

From here you can tweet by typing a message in the "What are you doing?" box on your Twitter home page. You might also want to follow GetFISARight to make it easier to keep up with our updates: go to our page at http://twitter.com/getfisaright and click the Follow button.

Twitter's FAQ and Howcast's How To Use Twitter video have more information to get you started

Making sense of what's going on

Experienced Twitterers use a lot of conventions and abbreviations to maximize how much information they can fit into 140 characters, and it can be very bewildering getting started. Here's a quick cheat sheet:

• @ is used to refer to a person or Twitter profile; for example, @getfisaright is the CFP Twitter profile
• RT stands for a "retweet", forwarding on information somebody else has tweeted
• shortened URLs enclode longer links to help them fit
  
• # is used for "hashtags", which are used to organize information and make it easier to search. #patriotact is the hashtag people use for ; #privacy has tweets about, guess what, privacy; and so on. @rjleaman's "An Introduction to Twitter Hashtags" on Wild Apricot has more on hashtags in general; you can find out more about a particular hashtag at WTHashtag and hashtags.org.

Accessibility

Accessible Twitter is an application (still in the "alpha" stage) written by Dennis Lembrée that provides web accessibility for Twitter that works with or without Javascript. Items currently implemented include making all links are keyboard accessible, large default text size and high color contrast, and forms marked up for optimal accessibility. Follow @AccessibleTwitr for more.

Twitter clients

Rather than interacting with Twitter's somewhat-clunky web interface, many people prefer to use a "Twitter client" for a better user experience. For example: Twazzup (pictured on the right) is a great way for following a topic; http://getfisaright.twazzup.com is a great way of seeing the latest Patriot Act news. Following the Patriot Act battle on Twitter with Twazzup has more. Tweetchat lets you focus on a particular hashtag and treat it as a chat room. Tweetgrid, Seesmic, and many others have friendly user experiences -- and are available on mobile phones as well. Twitter's downloads page lists some of the most popular clients.

Patriot act conversations via Twazzup

More information

• @randomdeanna's two-part Why Twitter, anyways? and A non-fanatical beginner's guide to Twitter, @pogue's Twittering Tips for Beginners in The New York Times, and @CharlotteAnne's Twitter 101 are good starting points
• @jdp23's Social network activism and the future of civil liberties sets Twitter in a strategic context.
  

• @hrheingold's Twitter literacy (I refuse to make up a Twittery name for it) presents reasons for using Twitter and the perspective of tuning the network of information you receive and feeding the network of people who follow you.
  
• @copyblogger's The Art of Writing Great Twitter Headlines has excellent suggestions on how best to make use of those valuable 140 characters.
  
• @OliviaMitchell's How to present while people are Twittering discusses the value of a "backchannel" and has tips for presenters
• @Jesse_Newhart's How To Effectively Follow 15000+ People On Twitter Using These Tweetdeck Tricks is an excellent tutorial even if you have a lot fewer friends.
• The DigiActive Guide to Activism on Twitter, written by Andreas Jungherr, includes case studies, a step-by-step strategy, and additional resources. @DigiActive's blog posts on Twitter also have some excellent reports on how activist organizations are using Twitter.