

The perl script that powered the Alan Turing petition - jgrahamc
http://blog.jgc.org/2012/07/perl-script-powered-alan-turing.html

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bazzargh
Nice idea. I guess you could still do something similar by looking for
verified accounts tweeting with your campaign hashtag(s). Or accounts that are
otherwise 'known' to be a celeb - there must be a directory out there.

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rmc
_'known' to be a celeb - there must be a directory out there_

This is essentially what they did. Use Wikipedia as that directory. If you
have the real name, you can check it.

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bazzargh
No, I mean, with twitter you have ids and you can map those to real people.
You often won't have a name other than the id, and the id won't normally be in
wikipedia. For example, '@antanddec' is the twitter account for two UK tv
presenters, but the account doesn't have their full names spelled out. It is
verified though, which is usually a clue that they're someone (relatively)
famous.

Also, unlike wikipedia, it is unambiguous - you can easily check that it is
the celeb and not someone else with the same name (eg @warrenellis, who isn't
the musician)

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pavel_lishin
> You often won't have a name other than the id, and the id won't normally be
> in wikipedia

I wonder how long before this stops being the case. (e.g.,
<http://i.imgur.com/Eiq5h.png>)

