Twitter-Inspired Dictionaries

Clean the Sky - Positive Eco Trends & Breakthroughs

140pedia Defines the World in 140 Characters or Less

— February 27, 2009 — Pop Culture
With the launch of 140pedia, Twitter has officially taken over the world--well, at least its concise crowdsourced encyclopedias. 140pedia lets you define a term, word or meme using 140 characters or fewer.

For credit, each 140pedia submission must include the writer’s Twitter account. There’s a giant button to instantly tweet any given entry. The encyclopedia comes from the Internet-obsessed minds behind the ‘I Can Has Cheezburger’ enterprise, so there are links to LOLCats and Failpix aplenty.

Trend Themes

  1. Crowdsourced Encyclopedias — Creating a crowdsourced, concise encyclopedia that allows for quick and easy contributions could be disruptive to traditional encyclopedia publications.
  2. Micro-definitions — Breaking down complex terms into micro-definitions that can be easily shared on social media platforms could provide opportunities for content creation and education.
  3. Social Media Integration — Incorporating social media integration into educational resources like encyclopedias could increase engagement and usage among younger audiences.

Industry Implications

  1. Education — Educational institutions could use crowdsourced and socially integrated encyclopedias to create new resources for students.
  2. Publishing — Traditional encyclopedia publishers could benefit from integrating social media and micro-definitions into their content to keep up with changing consumer behaviors.
  3. Social Media — Social media platforms could leverage the popularity of micro-definitions to create new features and engage users in educational content.
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