[Web4lib] The value of Twitter as back channel

[Traub, Adam]

I throw my hat in the ring since one of my tweets (probably more) got
called out as some of less useful IDS tweets.

Personally, I don't really use Twitter all that much as my "Bio" on
there may suggest.  I tried to use it during ACRL in Seattle, but found
it really isn't a good medium for me - at least for professional
reasons.  That being said, it does provide an opportunity to share one
of the aspects that the IDS Conference is about:  a sense of community.
As Bill said, it brings a little humanity to the conference between all
the notes.  And, to be frank, when I'm packing my bags, as unimportant
as a chore that may be, it does drum up excitement around the
conference.  What's that saying..."[droll] press is better than no
press?"

Ultimately, I'm not trying to sell anyone on Twitter.  If you're looking
for a chuckle, google "twouble with twitters;" if memory serves it may
contain strong language and might be NSFW...but it is a good laugh,
especially if Twitter isn't your thing.

Cheers,
Adam Traub


Adam Traub  |  Systems Librarian  |  St. John Fisher College  |
atraub at sjfc.edu  |  (585)385-8382  


-----Original Message-----
From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org
[mailto:web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of John Fereira
Sent: Saturday, August 07, 2010 8:31 AM
To: C Ward Price; web4lib at webjunction.org
Subject: Re: [Web4lib] The value of Twitter as back channel

Just to add my own story about twitter at conferences, I'll describe a
bit about my conference twitter experience for the Internet Librarian
2009 conference.

First, the hashtag for the conference was created well before the
conference attended and I started following it a couple of weeks before
I left.  There were a few that were more active than others and having
attended techie conferences for 20 years or so I realize that one of the
most beneficial aspects of these conferences is not the one hour
sessions one my attend but all the networking opportunities that are
available.  By following the twitter stream prior to the conference I
was able to start that networking before the conference and identify a
couple of people that I wanted to meet face to face before I left.
Since I my arrival at the conference was almost a full day early I was
free for dinner the night before and rather than eat alone I shared a
table with someone else that was posting to the twitter stream, and
because the location was shared on the twitter stream there were others
that showed up later.  Due to the use of twitter the face-to-face
networking started
 
  before the conference.

I know that I saw at least one or two tweets for coordinated ride
sharing from the airport to the hotel.

During the conference, the person that was providing computer/networking
support was following the twitter feed.  He'd frequently send a tweet
asking about wireless access in the various locations and would respond
quickly if there was a problem. At one point a couple of people
complained about the temperature on one of the rooms and within minutes
someone from the hotel was in the room to adjust the thermostat.  

While attending a session, whenever someone showed a slide with a URL
someone would post a tweet about it.  I never had to try and write down
a URL before the slide changed.   Sometimes someone would post a url to
a related site that the speaker didn't even mention.  Despite modern
technology we still don't have the ability to attend concurrent sessions
physically, but by following the tweets I could not only see what was
going on in the session that I was attending but could also follow what
was going on in the others.  On the second day, I was chatting with
someone just before the lunch break and when I was done I found that
everyone had scattered so I went off looking for someplace to eat by
myself.  I checked the twitter stream and someone posted that he was at
a certain restaurant and welcomed anyone to join him, so I did.  I still
follow that person on twitter.

I started following 20 or so new people at that conference and although
I'm no longer following some of them, there are others that I'm reading
every day.  The entire twitter stream, tagged with #IL2009 was archived
onto twapperkeeper.  When I got back home I had to give a presentation
about what I learned at the conference ant the twapperkeeper was an
invaluable resource for looking up sites that were mentioned during the
presentations I attended.

The IL2009 was a really too conference that was made a *lot* better due
to use of twitter before, during, and after the conference.



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