@Ramona_W Mother & student geek |

Q1 Name Ramona White

Q2 Twitter username Ramona_W

Q4 Website None at present. I’m considering starting a new blog but I’m not sure what focus I want it to take. I’m open to suggestions though.

Q5 Bio I’m 47, mother of a sixteen-year-old, back in college to be “retrained” and enter the computer field. I have a little trouble with the written tests- can you say major nausea- but the hands on stuff is a breeze even if I’ve never seen the machine before. My teachers say I’m a natural geek and I now wear that as a badge of high honor. One of my usual accessories is a piece of yarn on which is a Flash drive, currently only two gigs, and the key used for locking/unlocking hard drives.

Q6 When did you start using Twitter and how were you introduced to it? I started sometime in October mid September. I listen to iandrea on her podcast Geek is Chic- http://www.geekischic.org – and she talks about a lot of different social media. And I heard different candidates were on it and I wanted to see what they were up to. One day I just decided to go for it.

Q7 What are your typical Twitter habits on an average day (e.g. frequency & time of day most active)? I am on Twitter all day long. The first thing I do when I wake up in the morning is go back to my last tweet and see what happened while I was asleep. (Yes, even before coffee.) My schedule is really crazy so I don’t have a particular time I tweet more or less. I do though tweet a lot more if something big is going on like the night my mom had a stroke.

Q8 What are the main reasons you use Twitter (e.g. business, marketing, fun, community etc)?Right now I would say for fun and for community. I might use it for business or marketing later. I have a writing project I’m working on. Also I hope to work for a candidate- no idea who yet- during the 2010 midterm elections and then someone else in 2012 and I want to be able to introduce them to New Social Media and it’s potential.

Q9 What aspects of Twitter do you love?… I love how you follow people and they follow you based on connections to the people you or they are following. Did that make sense? It’s also fun to stalk the podcasters I listen to and see what they’re doing when they’re not podcasting. Hi, Rachel of The Sims 2.

Q10 …and dislike (if any)? This might be a BlackBerry issue but if I view Twitter in “Standard” mode then I can see all the pretty avatars but I can’t tweet.

Q11 If you could make changes to Twitter what would they be? Nothing so far. I’ll have to find some examples and get back to ya. *wink*

Q12 If you Tweet from a PC or a Mac which Twitter applications do you use and why (e.g. main Twitter site, Tweetdeck etc)? I use a laptop and a desktop at home that are both PCs plus I’m using the BlackBerry and PCs at school so I am only using the main Twitter site.

Q13 When posting Tweets via mobile, what applications do you use most (e.g. Twitteriffic, Tweetie, Twinkle etc)? I haven’t tried these yet but I hear very good things about Twitterific.

Q14 What other Twitter apps and tools do you use and would recommend? Haven’t used any.

Q15 Do you actively seek followers? If so how do you go about increasing your followers? I would say when I had about ten to thirty followers I felt very bad about myself compared to the people with 500 and I went out and read the Guy Kawasaki article and tried to increase my followers. I’d say I would like to increase my followers because I’m interested in what people are doing and I’d like more information on certain topics I’m personally following. I’m a rabid Mariners fan and I will definitely want as much inside scoop as possible on that topic once the season gets closer.

Q16 Do you automatically ‘follow’ back or are you more selective? Nope, I’m an automatic follower back.

Q17 If looking for people to follow what attributes do you look for? When “find people” was an option I looked for people in the same geographic area as me. I tend to follow people who are being followed by people I “know” or who have posted something interesting I find in a hash mark search. And I’m always looking for more people who love bacon.

Q18 What type of behaviour would make you unfollow someone? I’m in favor of free speech but if someone I was following started being horrid to someone else I’m following or who’s following me or tweeters in general then I’d unfollow them. I appreciate sarcastic humor and cynicism but the world is too small and life is too short for nastiness.

Q19 What tips do you have for newbies? It depends on why they’re on Twitter but I would recommend searching for people who have the same passions you do and following them in order to create a community. Also be prepared to get a lot less sleep.

Q20 Do you use an auto welcome message? Yes, I got it started through SocialToo.

Q21 How do you find new people to follow (e.g. Twellow, Summize, friends of friends etc)? Primarily friends of friends. I guess I should check out some of these tools but I just haven’t had time.

Q22 How many Twitter accounts do you have? If more than one – how many actively used?

Q23 What are your views on Magpie? I’ve seen the hash tags for it but haven’t investigated it.

Q24 Do you know what hashtags are and do you use them? Oh yes. I discovered these during the debates. I use them if I’m adding to a stream that’s ongoing like #bacon or if I’m trying to get a stream going.

Q25 Qwitter – do you use it? If someone unfollows you do you reciprocate? I do use it. I don’t automatically unfollow because sometimes I have waited a day and Twitter has said they were still following me after all. Also just because they no longer find what I have so say worth reading doesn’t mean that I and the people following me don’t find them interesting.

Q26 If you agree that Twitter should be monetized do you have any suggestions how? I agree with the idea of encouraging companies to use Twitter for internal communication a la Yammer and charging for that. Are there grants or something available?

Q27 What other social media communities do you belong to? Which do you use more often? I’m also on Facebook. I don’t know many people over there yet and the people I do know seldom update their status. I prefer something more conversational like Twitter but I heard from several people that “You gotta be on Facebook”. I’ve been considering Plurk but I do have homework, etc.

Q28 Any famous people you’d like to see join up with Twitter? Groucho Marx would be awesome. Oh…live people. Alan Rickman but only because I really (heart) him not because he has anything necessarily interesting to say and it would only really be cool if he read his tweets. (Have you seen “An Awfully Big Adventure”? But now I’m getting silly and the giggling and blushing will start.) Same goes for Hugh Laurie. Seriously, you know who I’d really like to be able to follow? Bill Richardson, the probable future Secretary of Commerce, Especially if he could tell us what meetings he’s going to and what they’re working on. That would be really cool to have a fly’s eye view into the process.

Q29 I’m looking for interesting people to follow – who do you recommend and why? You might enjoy following @brampitoyo because he tweets a lot about fonts and typography and takes geekiness in a whole nother direction. @EdwardMoore doesn’t post a lot but he is an excellent cook- from what I can gather from his tweets and the recipe he sent me for pineapple muffins- and his tweets are very thoughtful. @ronsims is one of the first fairly local politicians I’ve seen on Twitter. He talks about what’s going on in the world and what political processes he’s involved in as well as where he had coffee and who he met. He’s very accessible and has a lot of good information and links in his tweets. He seems like a very nice person not just a politician.

Q30 What other question would complete this interview (if any)? Does anyone have access to the original code they used to create Eliza? How about a good resource for learning Python. Kthxbai.