Twitter As Realtime Sports Reporter

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Twitter As Realtime Sports Reporter

Posted by timothy on Sunday June 26, 2011 @06:51AM from the lts-f-cmprssion'ld-b-hndy dept.

mikejuk writes that a "group of researchers at Rice University think that '[t]he global human population can be regarded as geographically distributed, multimodal sensors.' When it comes to sporting events, it seems that all you have to do is look to the Twitter frequency. The system that they created seems to work for most games. The exception to this is the Super Bowl for the reason that the sheer number of tweets about the game saturated the Twitter distribution system and so they couldn't pick out the maximum in tweet frequencies. They also have some interesting observations on how fast tweets follow an event." Sports reporting via Twitter makes me think of the stories about Ronald Reagan's broadcasting exploits creating "live" play-by-play based on telegraphed updates — and sometimes the wire went dead. I wonder whether the control-happy local franchises will do anything to prevent in-person fans creating and sharing such instant play-by-play accounts.

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ib4 Oblig XKCD by SilverHatHacker · 2011-06-26 06:54 · Score: 3, Funny

http://xkcd.com/723/

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Funny may not give karma, but +5 Informative never made anyone snort coffee out their nose.
1. Re:ib4 Oblig XKCD by Arancaytar · 2011-06-26 07:06 · Score: 2
  
  Also http://xkcd.com/904/
2. Re:ib4 Oblig XKCD by kermidge · 2011-06-26 09:12 · Score: 1
  
  re 723, tnx
  Like the sig; I had to be careful when reading rec.humor.funny.
GoldCup by rottz · 2011-06-26 07:03 · Score: 1

Tons of people were realtime tweeting about the #GoldCup last night, even Celebs that don't usually talk about soccer. Prolly cuz it was in LA. Too bad US couldn't hold 2-0 lead, letting 4 goals in a row is embarrassing.

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Founder of Securityflaw Creator of
High school sports by theantipop · 2011-06-26 07:12 · Score: 4, Interesting

I've been using Twitter to get realtime high school sports scores for a year or so. It's really the only way I've found to do this because even local news websites don't post scores until hours after a game is over at best, and usually not until the next day.
1. Re:High school sports by Anonymous Coward · 2011-06-26 07:34 · Score: 0
  
  even local news websites don't post scores until hours after a game is over at best
  I agree, everything should be done in real time as and when you demand it. What is the world coming to when it takes hours for someone to update a website with college sport results? Almost like the staff at local news outlets prioritize the revenue generating parts of their job and/or personal lives or something... Those thoughtless inept fuckers, not updating websites in realtime for the one individual in thousands who can't wait a few hours!
2. Re:High school sports by Anonymous Coward · 2011-06-26 09:03 · Score: 0
  
  screw that, I want the scores posted BEFORE the event.
3. Re:High school sports by Anonymous Coward · 2011-06-26 12:42 · Score: 0
  
  It's exactly this attitude that sees old businesses losing more and more tech-savvy customers (read: youngins) to other, often free services
4. Re:High school sports by bradintheusa · 2011-06-27 01:37 · Score: 1
  
  There is a beta web site to keep/post scores http://scrbrd.com/
Sounds<sarcasm>really</sarcasm> useful by NoNonAlphaCharsHere · 2011-06-26 07:12 · Score: 1

OMG!!! Goooooooaaaaaalll!! lol
Yes. by Kid+Zero · 2011-06-26 07:15 · Score: 1

. I wonder whether the control-happy local franchises will do anything to prevent in-person fans creating and sharing such instant play-by-play accounts.
The SEC (American College Football) already frowns upon tweeting the games.
1. Re:Yes. by ScrewMaster · 2011-06-26 07:26 · Score: 1
  
  . I wonder whether the control-happy local franchises will do anything to prevent in-person fans creating and sharing such instant play-by-play accounts.
  The SEC (American College Football) already frowns upon tweeting the games.
  They can frown all they want. Let them start deploying cell phone jammers at stadiums, and then there will be trouble.
  
  --
  The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
2. Re:Yes. by kenrblan · 2011-06-26 08:44 · Score: 2
  
  Have you been to an SEC stadium for a football game? No special technology is required to jam the cell phones. The extreme concentration of people with phones usually overwhelms the capacity of the cell networks. The real danger from the conference's perspective is the home viewer tweeting details of each play. Most of the cell activity at the game is people trying to coordinate with family and friends about locations and refreshments, game statistics, or scores from other games. Overall, the last thing the SEC needs to focus on is twitter effect on revenue. Their television contracts are huge in terms of both dollars and ratings. Given the choice of a Twitter feed for updates, television, or the in-stadium experience, even the most casual fan will pick Twitter last.
  Twitter, however, is excellent for people trying to keep track of sports from colleges and universities that don't have large television or radio presence. My alma mater is a prime example. It's located in a very rural location and most graduates move far away after graduation. As an FCS/I-AA school, television appearances are rare. Only a couple of radio stations actually air the games. That leaves a streaming audio stream from the campus radio station and Twitter. Twitter has the added bonus of recreating some of community experience since many of my friends might be following along and commenting as things unfold.
  Supporting my argument about the cell networks, I went to a game between my alma mater and Tennessee at Neyland Stadium last year. The game wasn't quite a sell-out, but attendance was around 99,000. Doing anything on the cell phone was an exercise in futility.
  
  --
  Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler. - Albert Einstein
I use twitter for ALL breaking news by mykos · 2011-06-26 07:17 · Score: 4, Insightful

Collectively, twitter is faster and more accurate than news outlets.
1. Re:I use twitter for ALL breaking news by Announcer · 2011-06-26 07:31 · Score: 2
  
  It's also great when Facebook goes down, to discern whether it's a problem with just your account, or everyone's.
  
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  Willie...
2. Re:I use twitter for ALL breaking news by Nationless · 2011-06-26 07:50 · Score: 2
  
  Collectively, twitter is also faster and less accurate than news outlets.
3. Re:I use twitter for ALL breaking news by westlake · 2011-06-26 07:53 · Score: 1
  
  Collectively, twitter is faster and more accurate than news outlets.
  Where do you do think these twits get their news?
4. Re:I use twitter for ALL breaking news by tehcyder · 2011-06-27 02:24 · Score: 1
  
  Collectively, twitter is faster and more accurate than news outlets.
  Maybe faster for some eye witness reports, but can you trust the eye witness?
  
  --
  To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
Control-happy franchises... by Announcer · 2011-06-26 07:24 · Score: 1

As far as I know, every major sporting event has a disclaimer with words to the effect, "Accounts and descriptions of this game cannot be disseminated with the express written consent of (insert team name here)"
So, that means they already severely frown upon it. However, unless and until they:
1) prohibit or confiscate all smartphones at the gate
2) install cell signal jammers at venues ...it will be impossible to stop people from tweeting/texting about key plays in the games.

--
Willie...
1. Re:Control-happy franchises... by Announcer · 2011-06-26 07:25 · Score: 1
  
  Correction: That should read, "WITHOUT the express written consent..."
  I need better glasses! ;)
  
  --
  Willie...
2. Re:Control-happy franchises... by kent_eh · 2011-06-26 08:16 · Score: 1
  
  But I only had implied verbal consent.
  Ha! take that!
  
  /Homer
  
  --
  
  ---
  "I can't complain, but sometimes still do..." Joe Walsh
3. Re:Control-happy franchises... by artor3 · 2011-06-26 12:25 · Score: 1
  
  It's not like you need to be at an event to report on it. They would need to confiscate phones from everyone who owns a TV or radio. Not to mention a lot of news sites now have play-by-play reporting updated every fifteen seconds or so.
ban phones from game venues? by gl4ss · 2011-06-26 07:27 · Score: 1

that's the only possible way. and eh, it just wouldn't work, the locker for them would suck, be hugely expensive operation to run and would generally just annoy people, not to mention those people who could come if they remained accessible via phone while at the match.

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world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
I wonder... by errandum · 2011-06-26 07:56 · Score: 1

If it would be possible to teach a neural network or something like it to get tweets it recognized as sports commentary and generating an automated live stream (as long as you had the event tag you could subscribe).
Reagan the Liar? by jmac_the_man · 2011-06-26 07:58 · Score: 1

Timothy, back in the day, everyone in the in the industry did broadcasts by ticker tape for away games. Reagan didn't invent the idea. (Back then, it was considered too expensive to send the radio crew to the away games.) The audience knew what was going on, just like they know that professional wrestling is fixed. It wasn't a Reagan thing, but thanks for implying that he was a liar.
1. Re:Reagan the Liar? by Anonymous Coward · 2011-06-26 08:21 · Score: 0
  
  It's par for the course around here. The Slashdot "editors" and I use that term in the lightest sense, are the most left leaning morons on the face of the Earth. They will stoop to enormous lows just to take shots at anyone they think is conservative or remotely leans that way. they will inject Palin, Reagen, Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh every chance they possibly can, regardless of the relevancy. This place has been going down the shitter for the years, this post is an example of why Slashdot is a laughing stock now, up there with 4chan, Reddit and Digg.
2. Re:Reagan the Liar? by Politburo · 2011-06-27 03:53 · Score: 1
  
  I'm struggling to find anything in the writeup that implies Reagan invented the practice or that he was a liar.
3. Re:Reagan the Liar? by jmac_the_man · 2011-06-27 07:05 · Score: 1
  
  Timothy could have called it the "old time practice" of calling games via ticker tape or something. He also calls it "Ronald Reagan's exploits" (Exploits are usually bad, right? Especially on slashdot, where they tend to mean someone can break into your system) and puts "live" in scare quotes. (Reagan, like everyone else who did this, WAS doing a live broadcast. It wasn't taped or anything. He just wasn't physically present at the ballpark.)
  This was a poor editorial job, but hey, what are Slashdot editors for?
Remember the other twitter? by tepples · 2011-06-26 07:59 · Score: 1

twitter is faster and more accurate than news outlets
Where do you do think these twits get their news?
Probably from WestBake.
World Cup 2010 got me using twitter regularly by IANAAC · 2011-06-26 08:41 · Score: 1

The World Cup in South Africa is what actually got me using twitter on a regular basis. I didn't have a particularly fast internet connection at the time, so that was as close to realtime as I could get.
I've since been using it for all sorts of other stuff - news, personal interests.
For as much flack as twitter gets, I find it a hell of a lot more useful than any other "social" tool.
1. Re:World Cup 2010 got me using twitter regularly by tehcyder · 2011-06-27 03:19 · Score: 1
  
  the World Cup in South Africa is what actually got me using twitter on a regular basis.
  I suppose it depends where you live, but in the Uk you could read a live commentary on the BBC website of the World Cup, same as you can every Saturday for league matches. I'd be surprised if something like the World Cup was a tiny minority interest in many countries.
  
  Now, admittedly, if you had to know how your local Sunday pub team were doing you won't find hat on even a localnews website in live form, but that raises the question of why it's so important to know everything immediately. Fair enough, if your kid was playing and you had to go to work (or something) but for personal stuff like that you'd just get a friend to call/twxt you with updates of how many goals little Dave had scored.
  
  --
  To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
I'm a geek damnit. by Lord+Kano · 2011-06-26 08:56 · Score: 1

I really don't care about sports reporting.
Just because you add "with technology" to something, doesn't change the fact that the base subject is boring.
Watch this...
"Will Twitter change the world of realtime gaysex?"
See? If you're not interested in gaysex, adding technology doesn't make the subject more interesting.
LK

--
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
1. Re:I'm a geek damnit. by artor3 · 2011-06-26 12:30 · Score: 1
  
  Look, I know TV sitcoms told you growing up that smart people and athletic people are mutually exclusive groups that must always hate each other. But it's a lie. It is entirely possible to be smart and enjoy sports. In fact, with the more strategic sports (football and baseball, for example) you need to be smart to really understand what's going on. You aren't really burnishing your geek cred by suggesting that all sports are boring. You're just making yourself seem close-minded.
2. Re:I'm a geek damnit. by Lord+Kano · 2011-06-26 12:47 · Score: 1
  
  I have to disagree with your assertion that Football is a strategic sport.
  LK
  
  --
  "Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
3. Re:I'm a geek damnit. by artor3 · 2011-06-26 12:53 · Score: 1
  
  I'm referring to American football. It's probably the most strategic sport there is, as should be clear to anyone who really understands it. Association football (aka soccer) may be another story, I honestly know next to nothing about it.
4. Re:I'm a geek damnit. by Lord+Kano · 2011-06-26 16:11 · Score: 1
  
  I'm referring to American football.
  As am I.
  
  --
  "Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
5. Re:I'm a geek damnit. by tehcyder · 2011-06-27 03:21 · Score: 1
  
  I really don't care about sports reporting.
  Just because you add "with technology" to something, doesn't change the fact that the base subject is boring.
  Watch this...
  "Will Twitter change the world of realtime gaysex?"
  See? If you're not interested in gaysex, adding technology doesn't make the subject more interesting.
  LK
  So there are no sports geeks? I think the sort of people who travel thousands of miles to support their teams, and collect every programme would disagree.
  
  --
  To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
6. Re:I'm a geek damnit. by tehcyder · 2011-06-27 03:24 · Score: 1
  
  I suspect you have to be from North America to appreciate American football. To someone fom the Uk it's just rugby without the excitement or occasional moments of beauty.
  
  And baseball is just rounders for nerds.
  
  --
  To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
I am following a soccer related riot via Twitter by stm2 · 2011-06-26 09:03 · Score: 1

I am watching on TV and following on Twitter how River Plat Club loose premier league status. There are multiple fires at the stadium, general looting, and Twitter is adding a new dimension to this mess.

--
DNA in your Linux: DNALinux
Not exactly a sport, but... by Tirs · 2011-06-26 10:00 · Score: 1

Well, we are using Twitter to broadcast our Castellers performances, and we know the local and specialised media follow us to get the latest achievements (or failures) as soon as they occur.
If you don't know what I'm talking about, better than explaining in a lot of words I recommend you this video from UNESCO channel in Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iSHfrmGdyo
Each group has a "twitter manager" responsible to twit a castle as soon as we finish it, one way or the other (and, just in case someone asks: no, we don't twit them from up there: we need both hands and all the concentration for the castle!)

--
Strength, balance, courage and reason. If you know what's this about, contact me!
The reason I have an account. by itchythebear · 2011-06-26 10:01 · Score: 2

I'm not sure how other sports work, but I think each hockey team in the NHL has an official twitter account. So I follow the one for my favorite team. This is actually a pretty big help because I can get info (like injury updates) that I wouldn't normally get while at the game, as well as various info about the team while I'm not at the game.

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If what I just said sounded like a troll, it was probably just a failed attempt at humor.
Er.. Ever heard of Cricinfo.com by jim_kaiser · 2011-06-26 19:50 · Score: 1

Its a legit website, which has been giving live written commentary of cricket matches for years for free. In India, while you are at work, it's the best way to get updates. I don't see why live sports reporting should be a problem. You have a working and highly popular example right in front of you.. There are also services on cellular networks which provide live scores for around half a dollar a month.

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The last person to mod me down is a rotten egg..... there.. that should do it..
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Re:I am following a soccer related riot via Twitte by tehcyder · 2011-06-27 03:27 · Score: 1

I am watching on TV and following on Twitter how River Plat Club loose premier league status. There are multiple fires at the stadium, general looting, and Twitter is adding a new dimension to this mess.
What is it adding that you don't get from TV though? Not great pictures or incisive social commentary, I imagine. Then again, it depends how good your TV stations are in Argentina..

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To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it