Edmonton Election 2010: Candidates capture the moment on Twitter

By Mack D. Male · October 20, 2010 at 3:30pm

Twitter is a great way to capture the moment, so I wondered, what did the candidates tweet after the results came in? Here are post-election tweets from the victorious candidates, followed by the tweets from everyone else (if an account isn’t listed below, it’s because either they haven’t yet updated, or the account has already been deleted).

Enjoy!

Thank you Edmonton!Stephen Mandel
Oct 19 via Facebook

So proud of the citizens of Edmonton! Onward and upward!! #yegvoteKim Krushell
Oct 18 via Facebook

Thank you Ward 3 !Dave Loken
Oct 18 via Twitter for BlackBerry®

I’d like to thank the voters of Ward 5 for their vote of confidence in me. Also, thank you to all the kind wishes #yegKaren Leibovici
Oct 18 via TweetDeck

Thank you everyone for your support. All but one poll is in and it looks like I’m heading back to Council in Ward 8 #yegvote #yegcc #yegBen Henderson
Oct 18 via web

Touched by #yegvote results in the first batch of results.Don Iveson
Oct 18 via TweetDeck

We did it! Thanks to everybody. It’s an amazing feeling and I’m ready to get to work for folks. I’m honored. #yegvoteKerry Diotte
Oct 18 via Twitter for iPhone

I’ve received a kind call from Ward C candidate Tony Henshall. My thanks to the #yeg Twitter community for all your help. #yegvote #epsbChristopher Spencer
Oct 18 via web

I just removed the word "candidate" from my twitter bio. Thanks #WardG! #epsb #yeg #yegvoteSarah Hoffman
Oct 19 via web

Thanks to all the residents/supporters of Ward I. Best wishes to @PublicTrustTina. Ready for the leadership role as Trustee Cleary on EPSB!Leslie Cleary
Oct 19 via web

Everyone has gone home, kids are all in bed, house is quiet and I am still way too excited to sleep! THANK YOU supporters ! #yegvote #epsbCheryl Johner
Oct 19 via TweetDeck

A brave new world emerging within Edm. Public tonight. I say hurrah. Democracy delivers. #yegvote #yeg #epsbDave Colburn
Oct 18 via web

Welcome Trustee-Elects Johner, Spencer, Mackenzie, Hoffman, Janz & Cleary, Congrats to Trustees Shipka & Colburn. Let’s get to work! #epsbCatherine Ripley
Oct 18 via web

Thank you Edmonton for your support. It has been a great honour to have my name stand for Mayor of Edmonton. #yegvoteDavid Dorward
Oct 18 via web

Hat’s off to @mandelformayor. My sincerest congratulations. #yegvoteDaryl Bonar
Oct 18 via Osfoora for iPhone

Taking tomorrow off to spend with my family. Thanks for the support #yeg I will be back #yegvoteDaniel Dromarsky
Oct 18 via ÜberTwitter

New day, New goals, "Defending Democracy" www.andrewlineker.webs.comAndrew Lineker
Oct 18 via web

Thank you everyone for your support!Brian Kapitza
Oct 18 via web

@serfx Thank you very much for the kind words and the campaign for 2013 starts tomorrow – today I will rest.Andrew Knack
Oct 19 via TweetDeck

Thank you to all who supported me! We ran an honest upfront campaign and I am proud! #yeg #yegvoteCris Basualdo
Oct 19 via ÜberTwitter

Thanks for all your kind words everyone. Running for council was a privilege. Stay engaged, folks. Be well. #yegvote #yegScott McKeen
Oct 18 via Twitter for iPhone

a little disappointed in tonight’s results, but the road to 2013 starts Wednesday (Tuesday is nap time…) #yegvoteBrendan Van Alstine
Oct 19 via web

Took all my signs down Putting less up means taking less down Good luck 2 the others w/cleaning up your 1,000′s of pieces of litter #voteroxiemaloneRoxie Malone
Oct 19 via web

Thank you everyone for listening, even if you elected someone else. Rami #yeg #yegvoteRami Bader
Oct 18 via web

Its been a good fight. Hats off to @KerryDiotte for winning Ward 11. Thanks to all my volunteers. #yeg #yegvoteShane Bergdahl
Oct 18 via web

I want to thank all the volunteers and the voters. We ran a clean campaign and in 28 days, we fought hard had some fun & made new friends.Chuck McKenna
Oct 19 via web

Thanks to all those in #yeg 4 their support and encouragement. The beginning of a new era for #epsb & the (cont) http://tl.gd/6i9ujiDarryl Lagerquist
Oct 19 via web

Beaten, but not defeated. I’ll be back so watch every steps and mind your mistake Mr Consoller for I will keep an eye on you the next 3 yrsCalvin Lim
Oct 19 via web

Oh so close! 1% difference. Recount! #epsb #yegvote #abed #yegTina Jardine
Oct 19 via Twitter for BlackBerry®

Of course, candidates weren’t the only ones capturing the moment on election night! More on that in a future post!

Edmonton Election 2010: Final Mayoral Forum Recap

By Mack D. Male · October 15, 2010 at 10:30am

Last night was the second and final mayoral forum, held at Eastglen School. It was extremely well-attended, so much so that the overflow seating was all gone shortly after the event began at 7pm (estimates put the total attendance at around 600). Dozens of people stood at the back of the theatre and in the lobby throughout the entire evening. There were large sections of supporters in the audience, most wearing t-shirts for their respective candidates.

It was an evening full of surprises, heated discussion, and some comedy (perhaps unintentional). When Stephen Mandel delivered his opening remarks, he was greeted with boos and jeers from people in the audience who support his rivals. It would happen throughout the night. Probably the biggest surprise came when Andrew Lineker stood up to deliver his opening remarks. He accused David Dorward of stealing his platform, said Daryl Bonar had no platform, and finished with “this forum for myself is done” before he stormed out. Bob Ligertwood delivered a meandering and off-topic opening address, while Dave Dowling talked about democracy. Dan Dromarsky was strong all evening, and made a good impression with his opening statement. Daryl Bonar presented himself as the alternative to Dorward and Mandel, saying he was “beholden to no one but voters”.

Here are some of the more memorable quotes from the forum:

“Vote for the future of Edmonton.” – Mandel
“I’m Dan Dromarsky and I can count to seven.” – Dromarsky in response to Dowling suggesting there were only four viable candidates
“Being your mayor will be a tremendous challenge, no doubt.” – Dorward
“I would definitely support an inquiry, if not a criminal investigation.” – Dowling on EPCOR
“That’s a lot of plebiscites.” – Dromarsky commenting on Dowling’s love of direct democracy
“Closing the City Centre Airport was a vote against your democratic rights.” – Ligertwood
“I grew up in social housing. It doesn’t work.” – Bonar
“Our city is at a crossroads, make no mistake about it.” – Bonar
“The winds of change are upon us.” – Dorward
“We should be experts at snow removal, but the sad thing is, we’re not.” – Dromarsky
“We need to place needs before wants.” – Dromarsky
“It would be the biggest mistake we’ll make in our lifetimes.” – Ligertwood on the Downtown Arena
“We’ve found creative solutions and we’ve moved forward – all of us.” – Mandel
“I Dave Dowling…” – Dowling

There wasn’t much time for questions, which was unfortunate. I also thought it was odd that the first question came from Ward 6 candidate Adil Pirbhai. The candidates were surprisingly brief with most of their answers.

As is so often the case nowadays, Twitter played a role in the event. From 6pm to 10pm last night, there were 1225 tweets posted using the #yegvote hashtag or one of the candidates’ names. There has been consistent chatter on Twitter over the last couple of weeks, but the forum really stood out:

Here’s a wordle of those tweets, with only the #yegvote hashtag removed:

And here’s a wordle with the candidates, #yegvote, and Twitter names removed:

It doesn’t come out as clearly as I thought it might, but the key issues last night included the City Centre Airport, the EPCOR deal, LRT expansion, and transparency.

Here are all the tweets, from oldest to newest:

Hopefully that’s useful as you prepare to vote on Monday. You can read the Edmonton Journal’s recap here. Here’s the CBC’s recap. The recorded webcast will be available here shortly. Stay tuned to the Election centre on ShareEdmonton for updates, including live results on election night!

State of the Calgary Twittersphere – July 2010

By Mack D. Male · September 2, 2010 at 10:00am

Welcome to the seventh State of the Calgary Twittersphere of 2010, my look at the intersection of Twitter and Calgary, AB. You can see last month’s stats here.

For information on the data, definitions, and other background, click here.

For July 2010:

# of local users: 10501 (a decrease of 125 from June)
# of tweets by local users: 501941
# of tweets by local users containing #yyc: 22956 (4.6%)
# of tweets by local users that were replies: 153421 (30.6%)
# of tweets by local users containing links: 148567 (29.6%)
# of tweets by local users that were retweets: 21291 (4.2%)
# of tweets by local users that were twooshes: 16440 (3.3%)

Here are the numbers above in graphic form:

Here are the top clients used by local users for posting updates:

Some other interesting stats for the month:

Just over 50% of all local tweets were posted between 9 AM and 5 PM.
Local users posted roughly 11.3 tweets per minute in July (compared to 11.7 tweets per minute in June).
The day with the most local tweets posted was July 30 at 19863. On average, 16821 local tweets were posted each day (compared to 16821 in June).
Of the 153421 replies posted by local users this month, 47364 or 30.9% were to other local users.
A total of 1960 users posted 50 times or more in July. In comparison, 1587 users posted just once.

Here are the top ten most followed local users:

Here are the top ten most listed local users:

Here are the top ten most active local users (not including bots):

Here are the top ten most active local users using #yyc (not including bots):

Here are the top ten most replied to local users:

Here are the top ten most retweeted local users (by other local users):

Final Thoughts

A small decrease in users in July, maybe because everyone was outside doing things! No surprise that the Calgary Stampede was among the most retweeted for the month. Chinook Centre celebrated its 50th birthday on August 1, and made a big push for followers during the month of July which likely explains why it was retweeted so much. With the Calgary election heating up, it’s interesting to see that mayoral candidate Naheed Nenshi was the 6th most retweeted user. I wonder if we’ll see more election-related stats as October 18 draws near.

State of the Calgary Twittersphere – June 2010

By Mack D. Male · August 27, 2010 at 11:30am

Welcome to the sixth State of the Calgary Twittersphere of 2010, my look at the intersection of Twitter and Calgary, AB. You can see last month’s stats here.

For information on the data, definitions, and other background, click here.

For June 2010:

# of local users: 10626 (an increase of 79 from May)
# of tweets by local users: 504633
# of tweets by local users containing #yyc: 22382 (4.4%)
# of tweets by local users that were replies: 156128 (30.9%)
# of tweets by local users containing links: 148101 (29.3%)
# of tweets by local users that were retweets: 22445 (4.4%)
# of tweets by local users that were twooshes: 17296 (3.4%)

Here are the numbers above in graphic form:

Here are the top clients used by local users for posting updates:

Some other interesting stats for the month:

Just under 50% of all local tweets were posted between 9 AM and 5 PM.
Local users posted roughly 11.7 tweets per minute in June (compared to 11.4 tweets per minute in May).
The day with the most local tweets posted was June 17 at 20079. On average, 16821 local tweets were posted each day (compared to 16355 in May).
Of the 156128 replies posted by local users this month, 49139 or 31.5% were to other local users.
A total of 1978 users posted 50 times or more in June. In comparison, 1600 users posted just once.

Here are the top ten most active local users (not including bots):

Here are the top ten most active local users using #yyc (not including bots):

Here are the top ten most replied to local users:

Here are the top ten most retweeted local users (by other local users):

Final Thoughts

First off, my apologies to those of you who have been waiting for a stats update! I’ve been a little behind this summer.

There was a slight increase in the number of users in June, and a slight decrease in the number of tweets posted. I think that decrease is due to two things: one less day than in May, and the large amount of downtime that Twitter experienced in June (it was their worst month since August 2009).

State of the Edmonton Twittersphere – July 2010

By Mack D. Male · August 26, 2010 at 10:00am

Welcome to the seventh State of the Edmonton Twittersphere of 2010, my look at the intersection of Twitter and Edmonton, AB. You can see last month’s stats here.

For information on the data, definitions, and other background, click here.

For July 2010:

# of local users: 8227 (an increase of 49 from June)
# of tweets by local users: 446078
# of tweets by local users containing #yeg: 32290 (7.2%)
# of tweets by local users that were replies: 155793 (34.9%)
# of tweets by local users containing links: 121874 (27.3%)
# of tweets by local users that were retweets: 19864 (4.5%)
# of tweets by local users that were twooshes: 15646 (3.5%)

Here are the numbers above in graphic form:

Here are the top clients used by local users for posting updates – UberTwitter and Twitter for iPhone continue to duke it out.

Some other interesting stats for the month:

Just over 51% of all local tweets were posted between 9 AM and 5 PM.
Local users posted roughly 10.0 tweets per minute in July (compared to 9.8 tweets per minute in June).
The day with the most local tweets posted was July 30 at 19129. On average, 14390 local tweets were posted each day (compared to 14068 in June).
Of the 155793 replies posted by local users this month, 61444 or 39.4% were to other local users.
A total of 1658 users posted 50 times or more in July. In comparison, 1164 users posted just once.

Here are the top ten most followed local users:

Here are the top ten most listed local users:

Here are the top ten most active local users (not including bots):

Here are the top ten most active local users using #yeg (not including bots):

Here are the top ten most replied to local users:

Here are the top ten most retweeted local users (by other local users):

Final Thoughts

Even though July is one of the busiest months of the year here in Edmonton, local Twitter users were still pretty active! Not many new accounts, but there was a noticeable jump in the number of updates posted. The busiest day of the month, July 30, was the last Friday of Capital EX and Taste of Edmonton, and was also the day the Eskimos snapped a four-game losing streak to win their first game of the regular season.

State of the Edmonton Twittersphere – June 2010

By Mack D. Male · August 10, 2010 at 10:00am

Welcome to the sixth State of the Edmonton Twittersphere of 2010, my look at the intersection of Twitter and Edmonton, AB. You can see last month’s stats here.

For information on the data, definitions, and other background, click here.

For June 2010:

# of local users: 8178 (an increase of 127 from May)
# of tweets by local users: 422018
# of tweets by local users containing #yeg: 29861 (7.1%)
# of tweets by local users that were replies: 148809 (35.2%)
# of tweets by local users containing links: 108225 (25.6%)
# of tweets by local users that were retweets: 21092 (5.0%)
# of tweets by local users that were twooshes: 15355 (3.6%)

Here are the numbers above in graphic form:

Here are the top clients used by local users for posting updates – UberTwitter has been overtaken!

Some other interesting stats for the month:

Just over 51% of all local tweets were posted between 9 AM and 5 PM.
Local users posted roughly 9.8 tweets per minute in June (compared to 9.6 tweets per minute in May).
The day with the most local tweets posted was June 25 at 17106. On average, 14068 local tweets were posted each day (compared to 13894 in May).
Of the 148809 replies posted by local users this month, 56284 or 37.8% were to other local users.
A total of 1631 users posted 50 times or more in June. In comparison, 1229 users posted just once.

Here are the top ten most active local users (not including bots):

Here are the top ten most active local users using #yeg (not including bots):

Here are the top ten most replied to local users:

Here are the top ten most retweeted local users (by other local users):

Final Thoughts

First off, my apologies to those of you who have been waiting for a stats update! I’ll be getting caught up over the next week or two.

State of the Calgary Twittersphere – May 2010

By Mack D. Male · June 23, 2010 at 10:30am

Welcome to the fifth State of the Calgary Twittersphere of 2010, my look at the intersection of Twitter and Calgary, AB. You can see last month’s stats here.

For information on the data, definitions, and other background, click here.

For May 2010:

# of local users: 10547 (an increase of 439 from April)
# of tweets by local users: 507017
# of tweets by local users containing #yyc: 21053 (4.1%)
# of tweets by local users that were replies: 152349 (30.0%)
# of tweets by local users containing links: 153152 (30.2%)
# of tweets by local users that were retweets: 22158 (4.4%)
# of tweets by local users that were twooshes: 16966 (3.3%)

Here are the numbers above in graphic form:

Here are the top clients used by local users for posting updates:

Some other interesting stats for the month:

Just over 48% of all local tweets were posted between 9 AM and 5 PM.
Local users posted roughly 11.4 tweets per minute in May (compared to 11.6 tweets per minute in April).
The day with the most local tweets posted was May 27 at 19816. On average, 16355 local tweets were posted each day (compared to 16661 in April).
Of the 152349 replies posted by local users this month, 47020 or 30.9% were to other local users.
A total of 1959 users posted 50 times or more in May. In comparison, 1610 users posted just once.

Here are the top ten most followed local users:

Here are the top ten most listed local users:

Here are the top ten most active local users:

Here are the top ten most active local users using #yyc:

Three are clearly bots so here are the next three:

Here are the top ten most replied to local users:

Here are the top ten most retweeted local users (by other local users):

Final Thoughts

A decent jump in users and Calgary has finally broken the 500,000 tweets per month mark! There was a noticeable increase in the number of tagged tweets this month too. As with Edmonton, the official Twitter clients are climbing the charts.

State of the Edmonton Twittersphere – May 2010

By Mack D. Male · June 18, 2010 at 11:45am

Welcome to the fifth State of the Edmonton Twittersphere of 2010, my look at the intersection of Twitter and Edmonton, AB. You can see last month’s stats here.

For information on the data, definitions, and other background, click here.

For May 2010:

# of local users: 8051 (an increase of 378 from April)
# of tweets by local users: 430714
# of tweets by local users containing #yeg: 32901 (7.6%)
# of tweets by local users that were replies: 152459 (35.4%)
# of tweets by local users containing links: 105836 (24.6%)
# of tweets by local users that were retweets: 22356 (5.2%)
# of tweets by local users that were twooshes: 14753 (3.4%)

Here are the numbers above in graphic form:

Here are the top clients used by local users for posting updates – the official Twitter clients continue to grow in popularity:

Some other interesting stats for the month:

Just over 50% of all local tweets were posted between 9 AM and 5 PM.
Local users posted roughly 9.6 tweets per minute in May (compared to 9.4 tweets per minute in April).
The day with the most local tweets posted was May 28 at 16908. On average, 13894 local tweets were posted each day (compared to 13492 in April).
Of the 152459 replies posted by local users this month, 57401 or 37.7% were to other local users.
A total of 1640 users posted 50 times or more in March. In comparison, 1175 users posted just once.

Here are the top ten most followed local users:

Here are the top ten most listed local users:

Here are the top ten most active local users:

A couple of those are bots, so here are the next two:

Here are the top ten most active local users using #yeg:

And because three of those are bots, here are the next three:

Here are the top ten most replied to local users:

Here are the top ten most retweeted local users (by other local users):

Final Thoughts

We’re back over 8000 active users this month! We’re inching ever closer to 500,000 tweets per month as well. I suspect that the numbers won’t look as good for June given all of the downtime that Twitter has had recently. It’s interesting that three of the top ten active users using #yeg are bots. That’s the downside of a popular hashtag I guess. More on that next week!

State of the Calgary Twittersphere – April 2010

By Mack D. Male · May 28, 2010 at 10:00am

Welcome to the fourth State of the Calgary Twittersphere of 2010, my look at the intersection of Twitter and Calgary, AB. You can see last month’s stats here.

For information on the data, definitions, and other background, click here.

For April 2010:

# of local users: 10108 (an increase of 194 from March)
# of tweets by local users: 499825
# of tweets by local users containing #yyc: 18291 (3.7%)
# of tweets by local users that were replies: 148981 (29.8%)
# of tweets by local users containing links: 147895 (29.6%)
# of tweets by local users that were retweets: 27169 (5.4%)
# of tweets by local users that were twooshes: 16932 (3.4%)

Here are the numbers above in graphic form:

Here are the top clients used by local users for posting updates:

Some other interesting stats for the month:

Just under 49% of all local tweets were posted between 9 AM and 5 PM.
Local users posted roughly 11.6 tweets per minute in April (compared to 10.6 tweets per minute in March).
The day with the most local tweets posted was April 28 at 20061. On average, 16661 local tweets were posted each day (compared to 15259 in March).
Of the 148981 replies posted by local users this month, 41125 or 27.6% were to other local users.
A total of 1883 users posted 50 times or more in April. In comparison, 1502 users posted just once.

Here are the top ten most followed local users:

Here are the top ten most listed local users:

Here are the top ten most active local users:

Here are the top ten most active local users using #yyc:

Here are the top ten most replied to local users:

Here are the top ten most retweeted local users (by other local users):

Final Thoughts

Calgary crossed the 10,000 active user mark this month! And came tantalizingly close to breaking the 500,000 tweets per month mark too. User growth was smaller than the month before, at least partially due to improvements I made in my algorithm for identifying local users.

I think the “most retweeted” list is useful for measuring influence, though it alone doesn’t tell the whole story. Just to clarify, the most retweeted list only accounts for standard-style retweets (those using Twitter’s retweet feature or those starting with RT @) made by other local users. I hope to improve this over time.

State of the Victoria Twittersphere – April 2010

By Mack D. Male · May 27, 2010 at 11:30am

Welcome to the fourth State of the Victoria Twittersphere, my look at the intersection of Twitter and Victoria, BC. You can see last month’s stats here.

For information on the data, definitions, and other background, click here.

For April 2010:

# of local users: 2755 (an increase of 289 over March)
# of tweets by local users: 112561
# of tweets by local users containing #yyj: 8561 (7.6%)
# of tweets by local users that were replies: 35218 (31.3%)
# of tweets by local users containing links: 36733 (32.6%)
# of tweets by local users that were retweets: 8783 (7.8%)
# of tweets by local users that were twooshes: 3645 (3.2%)

Here are the numbers above in graphic form:

Here are the top clients used by local users for posting updates:

Some other interesting stats for the month:

Just over 52% of all local tweets were posted between 9 AM and 5 PM.
Local users posted roughly 2.6 tweets per minute in April (compared with 1.8 tweets per minute in March).
The day with the most local tweets posted was April 19 at 5740. On average, 3752 local tweets were posted each day (compared with 2634 in March).
Of the 35218 replies posted by local users this month, 11865 or 33.7% were to other local users.
A total of 526 users posted 50 times or more in March. In comparison, 241 users posted just once.

Here are the top ten most followed local users:

Here are the top ten most listed local users:

Here are the top ten most active local users:

Here are the top ten most active local users using #yyj:

Here are the top ten most replied to local users:

Here are the top ten most retweeted local users (by other local users):

Final Thoughts

I did some additional work on my algorithm for identifying local users, which accounts for the smaller increase in the number of users from last month. I think the “most retweeted” list is useful for measuring influence, though it alone doesn’t tell the whole story.

Just to clarify, the most retweeted list only accounts for standard-style retweets (those using Twitter’s retweet feature or those starting with RT @) made by other local users. I hope to improve this over time.