Article

The convergence of digital signage and Twitter

The social media tool is serving as a way for screens to get user generated content, and its not as hard as you might think.

August 3, 2009

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Perhaps the most forward-thinking company in this area has been LocaModa, which has integrated Twitter into its digital signage social media tool Wiffiti. Previously, Wiffiti served as a platform where users could text messages to a short code and have them show up on screens in bars, restaurants, cafes, etc.

A Locamoda Wiffiti screen featuring Twitter feeds.

"The most mundane topics like weather can be brought to life with Twitter," Randall said. "Many digital signage screens feature a weather banner. If you tag Twitter with weather and display it on a Wiffiti screen, you can connect people all around the world. It could be raining I Massachusetts, and you could see messages from people in California talking about how sunny it is or from Japan talking about how it's freezing. It can still tell you today's weather, but tell you in a way that makes you feel connected."

1) Create a server somewhere that pre-processes the Twitter feed for certain formatting or exclusion rules

2) Take the RSS data straight in as a ticker.

3) Develop a flash page to read the RSS stream and jazz it up

4) Create a Web page (either as a Web archive or live from a server), use Javascript to read the RSS feed.