Twitter to tour the world teaching developers how to build apps

Flock, as Twitter calls it, is the company's inaugural worldwide tour for its mobile development platform, Fabric, which was announced late last year. Fabric includes a range of tools for developing and monetizing mobile software, such as tools for app logins and crash reporting, and mechanisms for developers to weave Twitter content into their apps. It's Twitter's effort to get more outside developers into its ecosystem -- developers who might also become paying advertisers. Facebook and Amazon offer their own development kits.

Twitter's tour includes events and technical sessions to teach developers how to use Fabric's kits, and let them meet with Twitter's developer team. All sessions and events will be free to attend, Twitter says.

One new tool which might draw attention, or questions, from attendees is Digits, which lets people log in to apps with a phone number instead of a password.

The tour kicks off with a U.S. road trip, starting with Los Angeles next week, followed by Las Vegas, then Boulder and Denver in Colorado, with plans to arrive in Detroit by mid-February. Twitter will host hacks, workshops and meetups in a few cities, the company said. Details for events in each city have been posted to the tour's website.

It's not all about Twitter though. In Los Angeles, there will be a session on "breathing new life into apps with Tinder," with top product and engineering leads present from the Los Angeles-based dating service. In Las Vegas, attendees will hear from developers at Zappos, the online shoe and clothing company.

After the U.S. leg, the Flock tour will go international, hitting London and Berlin in February, along with Tokyo, Hong Kong and Bangalore in the spring.

Since launching Fabric, Twitter has made some updates to it, including an upgraded distribution tool for sending out beta builds of apps, Twitter said Wednesday.

Zach Miners covers social networking, search and general technology news for IDG News Service. Follow Zach on Twitter at @zachminers. Zach's e-mail address is zach_miners@idg.com