Comments on: All atwitter

By: Damon

Damon — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 21:29:28 +0000

I think the sharing aspect is great and it allows for others not at a con to be able to extract some succinct ideas about a given topic. There have been several instances where I’ve been able to pick up on some interesting tidbits due to tweeters in the room (@quine and @security4all come to mind).
Regarding the followers, I may have added in an extra person, but based on the folk that appear to have tweeted I got approximately 6,500 followers. Digging into one of my db’s, that uniques down to 3,880 – still some very nice exposure outside of the con.

By: Marisa

Marisa — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 23:34:18 +0000

I think there’s an assumption made by some that if you go to a talk, you have an obligation to be attentive. I certainly don’t remember signing any such agreement. Attention should be earned.
If tweeting is distracting to the tweeter, I think the pros definitely outweigh the cons. If someone wants to take that moment to disengage and repeat your ideas to the twitterverse, then that is nothing if not a compliment. If Nicko et al. think that the tweeting is distracting to other audience members, then it seems (at a hacker con especially) some adjusting of expectations may be in order. Even if they really are just floating off into the WWW, surfing is not a crime.

By: Nicko

Nicko — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 16:58:27 +0000

Do you have a good way to get people to turn them off when at a conference?
I’ve considered EM Pulse weapons, but they kill other things like pacemakers so they don’t see to be a great plan in public. Failing that, asking nicely and then giving a fascinating talk seems like the best plan.

By: Adam

Adam — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 12:45:18 +0000

Nicko–I fully agree. Do you have a good way to get people to turn them off when at a conference?

By: Nicko

Nicko — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 12:36:30 +0000

I still think that using laptops at all during presentations is a dreadful distraction. Where they really all just tweeting? Where they thinking about typing comments rather than thinking about the talk? Were they getting distracted by other tweets from other sources, clicking on the links therein and floating off into the WWW? I suspect so.
Next time I start a start-up I shall mandate that all meetings are held in the hot-tub. This will ensure (a) a good turn out, (b) no electronic devices and (c) that meetings can’t last more than about half an hour.