The following is an excerpt from 140 Characters, page 9.

There’s the story you wanna tell, and the story a reporter wants to hear, and somewhere in between is the story that gets told.

-@realizing

Real reporting can take place within social networks. There are two key principles to remember.

First: Public Twitter and Facebook updates are a part of the permanent record, and all searchable content is fair game for journalists.

Second: A direct relationship with your social sphere is fundamental; keep it independent of the media outlet that employs you.

Keep your professional identity as a reporter independent and portable because jobs can come and go. You will want to retain your readers during times of change.

Additional caveats apply to journalism. This list is not comprehensive, but is rooted in experience with corporate blogging and investigative reporting.

Ten tips, in order of importance:

1. Own your smartphone and a great set of mobile apps.
2. Determine your employer’s social networking policy. If they don’t have one, write up a policy of your own and submit it.
3. Check sources and attribute-[shakes fist] check sources!
4. Think twice before posting: once for your source and once for your editor.
5. One drunken, angry tweet could ruin you.
   

   some things can’t be said in under 140 characters. especially after some champagne.

   -@jack

6. Jokes can almost always be taken the wrong way; expect this.
7. Never discuss a story before its time, or tweet about something before it happens.
8. Be as clear as possible with your sources about when you expect your story to post so they know when and how to promote it.
9. Avoid writing about colleagues or the workplace.
10. Follow other journalists: @jennydeluxe, @michaelbfarrell, @mat, and the rest.

“Oh look, I sent you a link.” “Oh, I sent you a link, too.” “That’s great, we’re journalists!”

-@mantia

You think you want to be a Twitter journalist? You’ll need to check your facts, provide a truly unique perspective, and most of all lead with action. Do this with fairness, accuracy, and more than a single source, and you will always have a job.

Excerpt from 140 Characters: A Style Guide for the Short Form, page 18.

How many microscopic adjustments are made to a sculpture before it is complete? How many stitches go into a fine garment? This is the level of awareness you must achieve: down to the individual character.

!
-case

Judge your simplicity by skimming your words.

Your readers will skim it. They will misunderstand it. They will even repost it, having skimmed it and misunderstood it. Expect this, plan for it, optimize for it.

Get ready to say it once. Or, get ready to say it wrong, delete and repost really quickly. If you’re lucky, no one will notice your mistake except the search engine. Limit yourself even further than the constraint requires, and then having the extra freedom will seem like a luxury.

Yahoo! was generous enough to donate their venue for last Summer’s iPhone Developer Camp. During the event, I was finishing the last chapters of 140 Characters.

To follow up on that experience, Yahoo! visited my office for a Developer Spotlight on the history of iPhoneDevCamp, Twitter, my book, and the iPhone App.

I’m excited to travel to Park City, Utah for my first visit to the Sundance Festival.

Location: Tweet House

Friday, January 22nd

Reception

I’ll be signing copies of 140 Characters: A Style Guide for the Short Form, and demonstrating Square, the revolutionary new payments system from the inventor of Twitter, Jack Dorsey.

Saturday, January 23rd

Celebrity Tweetup for Haiti

I’ll be taking donations straight to Haiti via Square.

Sunday, January 24th

Twitter: Past, Present, and Future

To visualize the future of Twitter, one need only examine the lessons of history. A part of its inception, Dom Sagolla tells the story of Twitter’s humble beginnings and the lessons learned along the way.

A compelling vision for the future of short messaging concludes this talk, influenced by experience traveling across the US and abroad in recent months in support of Dom’s book “140 Characters: A Style Guide for the Short Form.”

Monday, January 24th

Snowboarding

Hitting the slopes of Park City with the folks from Tweet House. You’re welcome to join us!

Apple has featured 140 Characters as the number two New and Noteworthy App in iTunes! Additionally, the App is shown as the first icon in the App Store on your desktop.

Tweet your first impressions by replying to @bookapp and have your writing appear in the App all week. As new readers emerge, we make a special effort to follow, retweet, and list them on Twitter.

In addition, you may comment from within the App by tapping at the bottom of each Chapter. Here’s a great quote from one of our readers, @SteveElder:

Thinking that the simple/small act of choosing this as my first read of 2010 was a great choice, and will shape the remainder my year.

Thanks, Apple! Stay tuned for an update to the Book text.

I wrote the Book for @Meredith.

Thanks to Case, Varese, Britt, and Jack for encouraging me.

Thanks to my son Leo for inspiring me.

Thanks to Adam for prompting me.

Thanks to Jenna for writing about this.

Thanks to Erin for reading on a weekend.

Thanks to Shannon, Deborah, and Matt for picking me up.

Thanks to my reviewers and contributors, especially Mom, Dad, Mark, Ben, Erik, Andrew, and Alex for comments.

I wrote the App along with the help of many people from iPhoneDevCamp pictured above, including @ravenme, @grigs,@jtkeith, @lyzadanger, @aileen_jeffries, @schwa, @bmf, @mantia, @tristan, @emory, @twittelator, and @atebits.

@Jack, @case @ceedub and @rr contributed to the App design.

@24klogos did the artwork including the hummingbird, feather for the Book cover and baby feather for the App icon.

There have been many other contributors to the text and the testing community. Thank you to everyone, and please keep the comments and suggestions coming.

I met Tracy Sheridan at Lunch For Good, where she bought a copy of 140 Characters using Square. It was still in private Alpha then, so when it launched I met her again. This time at Sightglass Coffee & Roastery.

Here’s a clip of us using Square to sell Tracy her second copy of 140 Characters:

We also talked about the beginnings of Twitter, the genesis of the book 140 Characters, and the book iPhone App. Also included are some thoughts on being a Square merchant.

Thanks Tracy for capturing this.

I have been testing Jack and Jim’s new invention Square since April 2009. Jack bought me breakfast, then proceeded to charge me for it, using his iPhone.

I became a Square merchant in May. Since then I’ve been documenting a new 140 character space: the credit card line item.

Right now, I’m one of a handful of active merchants using an Alpha version of this new payment system (including Sightglass, Lilybelle, and Willotoons). I can process credit cards without the need for a merchant’s account to start. I use Square to sell copies of my book 140 Characters: A Style Guide for the Short Form.

Powered by the force of my swipe, the scanner is designed to fit into any smart device (read: Google, Blackberry, etc). Development is planned for the other devices (see Jobs), but the Beta is only for iPhone or iPod touch at the moment.

For more information, sign up for the Square Beta (opening soon to a few more merchants), follow @Square and keep a lookout for @SquareBook.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Co-creator of Twitter Dom Sagolla releases 140 Characters for iPhone and iPod touch, a new form of hypertext book continuously updated with fresh content.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA: 140 Characters, A Style Guide for the Short Form has been released worldwide via the iTunes App Store. Distinctly different from the Kindle edition, the text has been updated and expanded with an additional chapter and exclusive multimedia features.

• Regular updates to the Hypertext Book, with In-App Browser.
• Read-only Twitter client with hooks into the mobile version of Twitter.com.
• Comments and Copy/Paste throughout.

Read the work as it was originally intended, as a companion to the text edition published by John Wiley & Sons.

See a brief demonstration of the App.

140 Characters demo from Dom Sagolla on Vimeo.

Press Resources for the App

press@140characters.com
415-287-7775
http://140characters.com

In 140 Characters or less, the App:

The Full Mention
@Dom’s @BookApp 140 Characters for iPhone & iPod touch, a hypertext book continuously updated with fresh content. http://j.mp/140-t

The Big Mention
@Dom’s @BookApp 140 Characters for iPhone & iPod touch. http://j.mp/140-t

The Short Mention
@BookApp 140 Characters for iPhone. http://j.mp/140-t

The Tiny Mention
@Dom’s @BookApp http://j.mp/140-t

The Nano Mention
@BookApp http://j.mp/140-t

The Landing Page
http://dom.net/1

Facts.

Shipped: November 18, 2009.
Publisher: DollarApp
Rating: 9+

The App icon code.

<a href=”http://j.mp/140-web” title=”140 Characters App Icon by Sagolla, on Flickr”><img src=”http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2638/3988595268_ea3b582f88_t.jpg” width=”100″ height=”100″ alt=”140 Characters App Icon” /></a>

Press Resources for the Book

Same as for the App, except:

The Full Mention
@thebook by @Dom Sagolla. 140 Characters: A Style Guide for the Short Form. http://j.mp/140-chars

The Big Mention
@thebook by @Dom Sagolla. 140 Characters http://j.mp/140-chars

The Short Mention
@thebook 140 Characters by @Dom http://j.mp/140-chars

The Tiny Mention
@thebook by @Dom http://j.mp/140-chars

The Nano Mention
@thebook http://j.mp/140-chars

The Amazon
http://j.mp/140-chars

The Borders
http://j.mp/140-chbo

The B&N
http://j.mp/140-chbn

The List
http://j.mp/140-list

Facts.

Ship Date: October 12, 2009.
Publisher: Wiley
ISBN: 0470556137

The book jacket code.

<a href=”http://j.mp/140-chars” title=”140 Characters in 3D by Sagolla, on Flickr”><img src=”http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2440/4009911664_f49ae378a1_m.jpg” width=”175″ height=”240″ alt=”140 Characters in 3D” /></a>

Thanks for blogging, linking, tweeting, emailing, and generally promoting this work.

I had an amazing time in Amsterdam, and will be writing lots more about it later. For now, enjoy this brief interview with the Dutch Cowboys at iPhone Developer’s Camp.

Thanks to all who attended—this is just the beginning.