PatriotCast Welcomes 1776

PatriotCast has had a wonderful first year, including exciting skirmishes around Boston, in the south and at sea along the American coast line.  We have followed an amazing political movement as a rebellious congress orchestrates an illegal war while deciding the fate of thirteen separate colonies. Finally, we have followed in live time, two of the most amazingly intricate and  influential battles in American history, Lexington and Concord and the Battle of Bunker Hill.

The end of 1775 was rather light on content and I must apologize for not updating as well as I could have.  I have had trouble with my twitter phone application and recently started a new job which demanded much of my time in December.  I do plan on updating PatriotCast in 2011 (1776) with as much vigor as the first few months of 2010 (1775).

On another programing note, the Battle of Quebec with happen in real-time, however it will be 24 hours later than it occurred in the timeline.  The highlights of the battle take place in the early morning of Dec. 31st but you can read about them when you wake up (whenever that may be) on New Years Day.  The timeline will follow its normal daily course from that day forward.

I hope everyone enjoys the new year (both 2011 and 1776).  Highlights will include Washington’s success in Boston, the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the gigantic battle of New York, and at about this time next year Washington’s crossing of the Delaware. I also  plan on rolling out a few more features and other twitter accounts to enhance the experience. Stay tuned.

Jason

New Twitter = New PatriotCast

Most of you have heard that Twitter is rolling out a brand new layout for their site.  (If you have not check it out)  The highlight of this reboot is adding a second panel of embedded media. Now if anyone posts a picture or video you no longer have to open another browser window to view that content.  The content will be embedded on  Twitter in the second panel.   It should create a more seamless and simpler environment for users.

Ironically, Twitter made this adjustment just as I was beginning to add a new feature to PatriotCast.  In order to enrich the PatriotCast experience I have begun to add links to Google maps.  These maps represent the geographic area that the action in the posts is occurring.  Twitter’s new layout will now allow you to view the maps while also reading the PatriotCast timeline.

Many equate following PatriotCast to following a colonial newscast.  This new Twitter feature should make PatriotCast feel even more like a news feed from 1775 by providing as much data on the events as possible.

So far Twitter has only announced the new layout and has yet to start it for everyone.  When they do, I would encourage feedback about the new layout and how it works with PatriotCast.  Let me know.

Jason

Twitter Reenactment Directory

I hope everyone has enjoyed following PatriotCast so far. It has been a year since I signed up for my personal Twitter account and eight months since I registered the PatriotCast account. In that time I have noticed many other historical Twitter accounts and some that even reenact historical events in real-time. I am glad to see so many others are “retweeting” history. I created a directory of these other historical twitter accounts.  Let me know if I am missing any and I can update the list.

@JQAdams_MHS This account run by the Massachusetts Historical Society.  They take actual one-line diary entries from John Quincy Adams and tweet them every morning.  Incredibly fascinating that we get to read the actual words of our sixth President.

@MonticelloTJ Does the same line a day diary method as @JQAdams_MHS but for Thomas Jefferson.  The fine folks at Monticello run it.  The guy really liked to talk about the weather.

@PaulRevere1734 This twitter feed is run by the Paul Revere’s House organization.  It has “Revere” updating about what happened in his life on particular days.  It does not follow a particular timeline, but during the Battle of Bunker Hill on PatriotCast he made a first hand mention of the battle down to the correct minute.  It was very cool to read.

@Wendell_Howe Wendell Howe is a great spin on a twitter timeline project.  Wendell is a fictional character (I think) that travels though time.  One day he is in the 25th century and the next he is in 19th century India.

@Twhistory Twhistory is an organization dedicated to teaching history online.  They act as a clearinghouse and an organizational tool for making your own timeline.  They promote using twitter and online resources as a teaching tool by either following or creating a historical timeline.  Many of their events revolve around multiple characters “tweeting” updates from a historically significant moment.

@SecretDelegate SecretDelegate is a mysterious Constitutional Congress Delegate who updates from the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787.  This account is run by the Constitutional Center in Philadelphia.  It is very well done and they have a very impressive picture.  Can you guess who it is?

What are Patriots saying?

PatriotCast has been active for a little over a month now and the Twitterverse reviews have had some good things to say. I have provided a few of them below. Please feel free to contribute your thoughts also!

Please visit the new PatriotCast Facebook page for updates, discusion, and pictures.

WCSH6 says

“If’n you want to geek out for Patriot’s Day, follow @PatriotCast They’re “live tweeting” the battles of Lex and Con #shotheardroundtheworld“

Carolcdt says

“If you like US history, I encourage you to follow the historically accurate reenactment tweets from @PatriotCast“

RDadmaine says

“@sarahdelage When I see a tweet by @patriotcast, I want to say, “film at 11″. “

WhereTraveler says

“@PatriotCast is CNN of Colonial era & tweets daily play by play of Am Revolution. Begins Apr 1, the day the war began. Tune in! ^LH #Boston“

sonicbrewtality says

“If your into american history check out @PatriotCast and @PatriotCast2! pretty cool twitter pages!!!

twinmom3 says

“@PatriotCast just sent your information to my boys’s teachers. am hoping that they can access twitter from school & read it daily 2 the kids”

wmchamberlain says

“History teachers, are you following @PatriotCast ? You should!”

peterfrancisco says

“@PatriotCast <– Like a virtual day-by-day calendar of the American Revolution! Great project!"

TimClarkeJr says

“Awesome tweetstream from @PatriotCast gripping blow-by-blow from early days of the Revolutionary War. #mustfollow #historyonetweetatatime“

WilliamHogeland says

“@PatriotCast This is getting seriously exciting. Great idea. Hard to RT tweet in progress, but: #history! #drama! #America! #liberty!”

jkcorfy says

“Historical #FollowFriday Keep up with the latest developments of the American Revolution 235 years after the fact @PatriotCast“

AmericanHistFF says

“@patriotcast Love your tweets!”

mumus4Jesus says

“@livefr0mnewy0rk That is THE coolest thing ever and so completely nerdy. I love it!”

unfatmatt says

“@PatriotCast Thanks for yesterday’s tweets of the famous battle.”

rmbwebs says

“Wow, this is pretty cool. Check out @patriotcast, broadcasting 8 years of the American revolution on a 235-year time shift”

TotalBeverage says

“American Revolution began on this date in 1775. Check @PatriotCast for a day-by-day online reenactment of events. Very cool! #imageek“

JenArch says

“loving @PatriotCast today. I’m such an Early American history junkie.”

WilliamHogeland says

“But to get in better mood about today in #history, check out @PatriotCast. Cool idea–and today would be a good day to get into it.”

RDadmaine says

“@PatriotCast I think I’m going to like this because I really enjoyed “Rise to Rebellion” & “The Glorious Cause” by Jeff Shaara.”

sarahdelage says

“On this Patriots Day, check out @PatriotCast, real time tweets reenacting the American Revolution”

jillelswick says

“Follow —> @PatriotCast, an eight-year, day-by-day account of the American Revolution IN TWEETS!”

meverha1 says

“OK. @PatriotCast is really cool. Everyone should follow them. http://bit.ly/chEBB3“

emmiellifluous says

“If you’re into American #History, #follow @PatriotCast They’re tweeting the day to day events of the #AmericanRevolution. I love it!”

2 Weeks Down….

PatriotCast has completed its second week, with only 437 to go. I wanted to take a second to reflect on the project so far. This is certainly the first time I have done anything like this and I am learning a lot!

First, I am very pleased with the response and interest I am getting for PatriotCast. I have had almost every tweet mentioned or “retweeted” by one person or another. I am “listed” at about a 10% rate by all my followers. That indicates that people are making an effort to read PatriotCast apart from all the other Twitter feeds they are following. Clicks on this blog continue to increase each week.

I will admit the information seemed a little disjointed and random in the first few weeks, but that is unavoidable. Some of the tweets do not seem to follow a linear plot line. It is harder to find content regarding the days leading up to Lexington and Concord (afterwards is a much different story.) You will find that the story runs better in the next few days as we lead up to the events of the 18th. Then after that the action really gets going and we will start to see some of the stars of this saga.

So far the key element of the project has not revealed itself . The “real time” nature of the project has not taken center stage. The information I have found for the first two weeks of April 1775 have not been very time sensitive. Therefore, I usually take the information and estimate when it would be released on that particular day. In the coming days and especially on the 18th and 19th the reenactment will be broadcast with accuracy down to the historical minute.

Finally, I want to say thank you to the followers who have helped with advice and corrections. I am impressed by the collective knowledge of PatriotCast’s followers. Please let others know about the project and let’s try to create some excitement about Lexington and Concord!

Jason

PatriotCast2

Allow me to introduce my newest Twitter persona.  I have cleverly named it PatriotCast2.  The reason for creating the second Twitter account is to allow PatriotCast to be focused only on the historical updates.  The second account (PatriotCast2) will be an account where I can continue to interact with any followers.  I can answer questions, have discussions, and re-tweet additional American Revolution information.  So if you are a fan of PatriotCast please sign up and follow PatriotCast2.

Remember the project starts in 10 days!

Visual Authenticity

Twitter has some great personalization features and I plan on using them to help tell my story.  If you are reading this entry before April 1st then you can see in the background  a colonial map of the town of Boston and the profile picture is a “Don’t tread on me” flag.  I plan on changing both the background and the profile picture during this project to reflect the location of the main action and the flag being flown by the American side.  I hope it adds that extra touch and makes the project more visual and interesting for readers

Don’t forget!  Project Starts April 1st.

Online War, What is it Good For?

In the American Revolution there were certain colonial citizens who thought breaking away from England was a crazy idea.  Similarly, I am sure some readers might think organizing and delivering PatriotCast is also a crazy idea.  After all it requires gathering large amounts of detailed information and displaying it daily over that eight year time period!  I suppose I should explain part of my reasoning for creating this project.  One way to explain this is to describe what my four different “market segments” are.  I will start from smallest to largest “market segments”:

Market Number 1: Myself.  I can be my own market segment right?  I am eager to see how the project works and I am extremely interested to see what it is like to follow the war in real time.  So yes, one reason I’m doing it is for me, but I have a feeling that I can find more people like me.

Market Number 2: History Buffs.  Whether you have a strong affection for the American Revolution or you’re just a general fan of history this should be a “cannot be missed” Twitter Feed.  It is going to be highly detailed and a brand new way to experience history.  The History Buff segment might not only love the tweets surrounding the exciting battles, but those in between.

Market Number 3:  Teachers and students.   I very much hope this project makes it way in to the American history classrooms across the county.  While any given student may not have enough attention span to follow the project for all eight years, I think it would be a great teaching tool for the major events.  Teachers could assign students to follow a few days, months or a whole history class worth of events.  They could even bring up the Twitter feed in the classroom.  Hey,  it could get their attention better then a textbook.

Market Number 4: The General Public.  I encourage anyone to join my Twitter feed obviously.  I see no reason not to.  You should learn about your countries’ history and all it takes is a click of the “follow” button.   You don’t have to keep up with every single update if you don’t want to, but every once in a while you might see an interesting tweet about the war that happened just miles away from you (for those east of the Mississippi River obviously).

I hope I did a good job explaining who I am doing this project for.  Now to answer the question “Am I crazy for doing it. ” No comment

What is PatriotCast?

PatriotCast will be a real-time, online reenactment of the American Revolution. Or perhaps the best way to describe it would be a “Twit-enactment.” That’s right, PatriotCast will be using the increasing popular mini-blog/ social networking site as its platform to provide real-time, daily updates on the events that shaped this nation’s beginning.

Another way to think of it would be as if “Twitter” were around during the 18th century and perhaps a large news corporation using twitter was following the politics and actions in America between the years of 1775 and 1783. PatriotCast will reenact and in a way mirror those years between the years of 2010 and 2017, with tweets coming usually everyday (often multiple tweets per day) corresponding with the historical date. The tentative start date for the Twitter feed to activate will be April 1st of 2010 which would correspond with the historical date April 1st 1775, and so on for eight years.

This blog will be auxiliary to the PatriotCast twitter feed as a place to post general information and updates on this project, to leave the PatriotCast pure for “Twit-enactment” updates.

Stay tuned….