[LINK] Forum on high speed bandwidth in Australia - this Thursday

[Tom Koltai]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: link-bounces at mailman1.anu.edu.au 
> [mailto:link-bounces at mailman1.anu.edu.au] On Behalf Of Pia Waugh
> Sent: Tuesday, 5 May 2009 2:56 AM
> To: Brenda Aynsley
> Cc: Link at mailman1.anu.edu.au
> Subject: Re: [LINK] Forum on high speed bandwidth in 
> Australia - this Thursday
> 
> 
> Hi Brenda,
> 
> <quote who="Brenda Aynsley">
> 
> > would someone explain to me how you can have a 'discussion' that is
> > comprised of 140 characters?
> 
> The good thing about 140 characters is it that is gets people 
> to link off to longer thoughts (blogs and the like) but 
> actually talk on the day about what is being presented as it 
> is being presented. People can add their blog links, papers, 
> and the like to the comments for reading prior to the event, 
> but the "discussion" happening on the day is concise, 
> realtime responses online. We may move to IRC if it doesn't 
> work out with Twitter, but apparently it worked really nicely 
> at another recent conf, so we'll see :)
<snip>


The word "apparently" doesn't bode well and sources for the other recent
conference would be interesting.

A search of Google "twitter as a conference tool" returns nothing of
substance.

> 
> Heh :) We can all experiment together. 

That's the problem. Experimentaiton is fine when it is in a small closed
user group. 
Not so fine when the venue is advertised as Open Government with nice
warm fuzzies like "public sphere" 

There is nothing meaningful that can be said in 140 characters.

But imagine if question time in the house was mandated to be run using
only twitter?

I consider this misuse of technology to be unfrotunately a blatantly
obvious censorship exercise.

For the event to be meaningful, by all means include twitter together
with a purpose built chat forum that is also available on the day.

For Open Government to work - the Government has to be able to listen as
well as speak.

I maintain that Twitter is not a tool that allows constructive
meaningful feedback.

>Discussions are easily 
> followed by everyone using the same tag, and following the 
> tag #publicsphere, so they'll see what other twitter and be 
> able to comment on what is being presented while also 
> responding to other's comments. It ends up being a lot better 
> for broad participation (synchronous if you will), and 
> certainly better for remote participation than face to face 
> discussions.
















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