Twitter: Better than taking notes at a conference

I knew from today I’d write about the Schuneman Symposium at Ohio University today. I was excited to attend the panels featuring some bright minds in new media and journalism. I was especially excited to hear from Ana Marie Cox, the founder of Wonkette, and Ron McManus, creator of Gradethenews.org. I wasn’t disappointed.

As I left my office this morning to attend the first panel presentation, I almost grabbed a notepad. There’s nothing wrong with that, of course. I was planning to take notes so I’d have something to write about and something to refer to later. I knew I’d get a bunch of great tips for my classes. I made the fateful choice instead of grabbing my iPod Touch, and it made all the difference. Instead of taking notes on my own, I had the collective wisdom of many of the conference attendees to draw upon.

Today’s conference solidified in my mind some of the lessons I’ve tried to teach about citizen journalism. The power of the crowd is much greater than any one person, and the more we ask of them the more we will provide. Don’t believe me? Imagine my feeble notes in my almost illegible handwriting and compare them to this, all the Twitter posts with the official conference hashtag #smitty10.

A couple of principles jump out at me. First, it was gratifying to see other posts validate my thoughts and opinions. I love that sometimes I posted the same quotes as someone else. It told me I’m on the right track. It also made me feel connected to other people.

Second, I realized I missed a lot of what was going on as I was busily trying to type my tweets, but in the end, it didn’t matter. My peers caught up for me, and I could even ask the speakers themselves to clarify what they had said or add links to their presentations. In a couple of cases, I backed them up by finding links they were discussing.

Finally, at the end of the day, it was clear to me that Twitter isn’t just about self promotion. It’s an effective way to share information and form connections when those using it have sharing in mind. Sure, a couple of bozos resurrected the CNN-iReport-Justin-Bieber-is-dead rumor and threw in a couple of dirty words for good measure. But they were easy to ignore.

The speakers themselves made the difference. Cox humbly shared her career, and in turn, clearly explained the way to use social media and the Internet effectively. I especially appreciated that she encouraged the audience to be fans, to let people know when they were doing something right. That’s something I need to do more.

I also enjoyed hearing from Jen Nedeau, a feminist blogger and social media consultant. She dispelled the idea that Twitter is merely for self promotion by encouraging posters to consider their audience and encourage the audience to really listen. She also urged journalists to “spend as much time responding to comments as it took to write them.” In other words, the jerks who write four-letter words in all caps don’t deserve more than 10 seconds, but the thoughtful responses need to start conversations.

This conference couldn’t have happened at a better time because next week I’m introducing my online journalism class to covering news and events on Twitter, and now I know what to talk about.

PhotoCredit: Cox shot this photo herself of the audience before speaking. Thanks for sharing on YFrog.

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