What the Twitter?

Back from UKSG and as usual found it to be a very useful event. The most common question I was asked other than questions about access management was, “this twitter thing, I don’t get it, what are you doing?”.

I spent quite a bit of the conference contributing to the twittering about the event at #UKSG09 and writing up sessions on both this blog and the Live Serials blog (an excellent record of the event by the way). I’m quite lucky in that I find it easy to write up sessions on the hoof, and actually find the need to explain a session to another audience helps me concentrate and focus more on what the speaker is saying. As many of you will know, I was a big twitter sceptic until a short while ago. So…

Why have I changed my mind?

1. It is a great way to be a virtual attendee at an event. I missed the JISC conference this year through illness but got a lot out of both the podcasts of the event and even more by being able to talk to people who were in session.
2. It enhances events as a back channel. The value that was added to each presentation at #uksg09 through twitter was impressive – people sent links, definitions of strange terms used, asked questions they didn’t have the chance to pose to the speakers, evaluated speakers on the fly, compared notes cross parallel sessions, and provided amusement when things were flat. A review of the #uksg09 tweets will probably be a far more useful event evaluation process than a review of the delegate evaluation forms.
3. It is as useful as a news channel as any of my other RSS feeds.
4. It is a good way of making new contacts and keeping in contact with colleagues. I meet several publishers face to face via twitter, and also learn a lot about what is going on in JISC – an almost impossible task normally due to the size and variance of our work.

What have I learnt?

1. Twitter is not e-mail – it is of the moment. You don’t have to and probably shouldn’t try and go back and read all the updates from people you are following if you have been offline for sometime. This is not your in-tray.
2. Use # tags wisely and well. If you want to review an area retrospectively, search # tags, not friends. If you want to be able to review areas retrospectively, use # tags so that you and others can easily find the information.
3. Instead of, not as well as. Blogs and microblogging can replace other types of communication and shouldn’t be seen as just another thing to do. If I’ve written up events on the blog, I don’t then write up separately in a formal report. If I’ve made a point on the blog or via twitter, I don’t send out via mailing lists as well. I don’t use either channel to rehash press releases but try to use as a way of indicating my thoughts on a topic.
4. Practise makes perfect. Everyone uses blogging and microblogging in slightly different ways but unless you give it a go, you won’t find your way of using it. You will make mistakes – tweeting too much of what a speaker is saying, tagging something to a formal event which is irrelevant to that tag, quickly venting and regretting later – but all of these are true of any form or medium of communication.

Finally, if you want to comment on work being carried out on federated access within the UK, please use the tag #ukfed.