Visualised: A day in the life of Twitter

Continuing an inadvertent theme on the blog, I’ve just come across this visualisation of a day in the life of Twitter by informatics researcher Chris McDowall:

Mapping a Day in the Life of Twitter from Chris McDowall on Vimeo.

It’s worth viewing in full screen, in HD, on Vimeo as you can see some of the fainter spots lighting up around the world.

Among other places, the map clearly highlights the popularity of Twitter in Indonesia.

There are waves of activity in the USA in the middle of the night on 18 November 2010. An East Coast wave occurs just before 08.00 GMT, a Midwest one just before 09.00 GMT and a broader sweep including the West Coast just before 10.00.

McDowall says these are caused by "an automated Twitter service that tweets local news for specific ZIP codes".

There’s more about the technical background on McDowall’s blog.