6.20.2008

late breaking politics on twitter.

Obama and McCain reps go tech on twitter.

debates around technology for the future ensue this evening with Ana Marie Cox (@anamariecox) mediating between "two officially sanctioned stand-ins for the rival campaigns -- Mike Nelson [(@MikeNelson)], who's advising the Obama campaign on tech issues, and Liz Mair [(@LizMair)], online communications [sic] director for the Republican National Committee."

you can follow all three participants via twitter or you can search for them on Summize, using the #pdfdebate hashtag. more on this here. i will likely respond with my thoughts after their debates conclude in a few days.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Agree with one sentiment there: Good idea in theory but lousy execution. What’s appealing is the idea of connecting with someone in real time, to be able to ask them something. That’s cool. But it’s overshadowed by the limitations of Twitter. Like a bad host , when the app starts getting in the way of the debate? Not cool.

Other issues:

1)The nature of twitter forces answers to become not only soundbytes, but omg, chat shorthand. And chat sessions on other platforms are better anyway because they allow a more in-depth Q&A.

2) Not getting the first question answered before bringing up another. (If millions in an IM session know how to stay focused, well then...)

3) Too much attempt at adding witty banter by host. Just because twitter’s a new form of communicating doesn’t mean you step away from conventional moderator format/duty. It's bad enough following two people going back and forth.

the girl Riot™ said...

yeah, it's interesting, to say the least. not to mention i stopped Following and now only use Summize. it got a little ridiculous in my feed. looking forward to your thoughts.