DENIZENS of the Twitter-verse, please be advised: Whether you are a Libyan celebrating the demise of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, a New Zealand office worker sleepily starting your day or a California teenager trying out the latest slang, your words are being analyzed.Twitter is many things to many people, but lately it has been a gold mine for scholars in fields like linguistics, sociology and psychology who are looking for real-time language data to analyze... Read more

There is a strong technological strain running through Occupy Wall Street, and software developers have been gathering at events in several cities to develop such tools for the demonstrators. One mobile app being developed, Shouty, would allow people to use their phones as radios, amplifying the human microphone at meetings in Zuccotti Park.But the app that has gained the most attention is called I’m Getting Arrested. It allows users to write a message and identify recipients — friends, family, a lawyer — in advance. Then, if they are about to be taken into custody, they can push a button to send a text message blast. Its developer, Jason Van Anden, created it in two days after an acquaintance narrowly avoided an arrest at a demonstration several weeks ago... Read more