Tweet to screen...

[Ash]

Hi guys & girls,

I've recently been promoted in work and want to make an impression. We had a meeting today to discuss how we could improve our Christmas parties (I work in a hotel) and one of the MD's wants the ability for guests to "tweet" and for that tweet to appear on a large screen to the rest of the parties...

Great thinking, shouldn't be too hard to do but there's no real meat on the bones - it gives the ability for people to use it recklessly and negatively and we want to be able to monitor what goes on.

Their thinking was to literally have twitter open on a laptop, and have that laptop linked to a screen via a VGA cable, which obviously means when we're filtering out the negative tweets it means people get to see us do it, so really we're not filtering anything!

Would you guys recommend a certain program able to do this, or if not what would you be expected to pay for someone to code it?

Thanks. x

[Marc]

A quick Google search brought this up...

www.firetext.com/twitter-to-screen.html

Their website itself doesn't exactly invoke confidence in their product, but it's got a 14-day trial, so if it works well you'll be able to use it for the party without having to pay (I didn't see any restrictions/watermarks/etc for the trial version).

[Ash]

Sept 4, 2012 17:09:33 GMT -8 Marc said:

A quick Google search brought this up...

www.firetext.com/twitter-to-screen.html

Their website itself doesn't exactly invoke confidence in their product, but it's got a 14-day trial, so if it works well you'll be able to use it for the party without having to pay (I didn't see any restrictions/watermarks/etc for the trial version).

I did google, and did take a look at this website however the parties will be running for well over a month, so I would need to use a paid version and in some respect wouldn't fancy paying a $1000 for it.

[coolcoolcool]

I'm kind of confused.

How would you know someone tweeted? Do you mean when they tweet @yourhotelname?
If that's the case, it wouldn't really be that difficult to program. All the programmer would have to do is build a simple database, cache your twitter account and update the db, and build a simple web interface where it lists the tweets and allows an admin to approve or disapprove tweets.

How much it would cost is a different story though. A lot of software companies have an initial fee and then charge by hour. I could easily see something like this costing near $1000. I haven't googled whether or not this kind of thing already exists though, so good luck doing that. If not, then your manager's idea is probably the best way forward unless you plan on using this for many years and are willing to spend the money.

Good luck.

[Ash]

Sept 8, 2012 8:55:05 GMT -8 coolcoolcool said:

I'm kind of confused.

How would you know someone tweeted? Do you mean when they tweet @yourhotelname?
If that's the case, it wouldn't really be that difficult to program. All the programmer would have to do is build a simple database, cache your twitter account and update the db, and build a simple web interface where it lists the tweets and allows an admin to approve or disapprove tweets.
Good luck.

This is exactly what I need. You make it sound so simple, yet state it will cost near to a $1000, why so much for something so "simple"?

[Marc]

Sept 8, 2012 14:35:45 GMT -8 Ash said:

Sept 8, 2012 8:55:05 GMT -8 coolcoolcool said:

I'm kind of confused.

How would you know someone tweeted? Do you mean when they tweet @yourhotelname?
If that's the case, it wouldn't really be that difficult to program. All the programmer would have to do is build a simple database, cache your twitter account and update the db, and build a simple web interface where it lists the tweets and allows an admin to approve or disapprove tweets.
Good luck.

This is exactly what I need. You make it sound so simple, yet state it will cost near to a $1000, why so much for something so "simple"?

Most career freelance programmers charge anywhere from $40/hr to upwards of $100/hr, which is why you are looking at the cost that coolcoolcool estimated.

I would suggest posting a listing on freelancer.com for this and seeing what people quote; often times you will get freelancers who are just starting out, and therefore charging substantially less than professionals. It might be worth a shot.

Actually, scratch that. Check your PMs.