Twitter Your Senator -- a campaign initiated by Obama organization

Data collection began with Archivist on July 29; that was the day after the campaign started. Later I found the original web page asking people to twitter their Senators. The first stages of the project are documented in the 'lifestream' at the left.

I have been learning with this project. Getting Archivist to work correctly took a number of iterations. So I have a number of xml files that will eventually have to be put together.

I have also been learning how to document this research. I am giving 'lifestreaming' -- or what I call lifestreaming using FriendFeed/Twitter -- a try. The lifestream at the left was a first effort. I have subsequently learned that I need more 'definition.' So the more recent messages begin with #grbs as well as #grbhc09 identifying each note. I am also going to put together a "start-page-xxx" for each project, which this now is. Maybe I can keep track of everything this way.

There are six files of tweets that are relevant

The first five are in chronological order. There are five because I was having problems with Archivist working properly while I was trying to collect the messages. They overlap. They can be combined by expunging the redundant tweets. The hcr... file is a look at another hashtag that was being used concerning the health care reform for purposes of comparison.

I have been taking 'pictures,' in the form of streamgraphs, while the campaign has been going on. They give some indication of the dynamics. The file name gives 'campaign,' date, and time.