Conference Panels: Now and Then
As I sit here waiting to speak at the National Breast Cancer Coalition conference, I am reminded of a panel I spoke on in London about a year and a half ago for NESTA’s Neighborhood Challenge launch.
As we were settling in to the room, I noticed the event Twitter hashtag was posted on the marquee next to me. I took out my phone, loaded up my Twitter app and searched for the hashtag so I could monitor and respond to comments from the audience.
My fellow panelists were a bit older than me and very traditional. Just as the panel started, I was passed a note from the moderator asking me to put my phone away.
As soon as I did, I became disconnected from the audience in the room.
How could that be? They were right in front of me.
But upon reviewing the hashtag feed after the panel it was apparent how it could be. Throughout the panel, audience members were tweeting how the panelists around me simply were not addressing the audience’s key concerns.
But the panelists were ignorant of this disconnect because they cut off our ability to monitor the audience’s pulse.
Ironically, my role on the panel was to talk about how to use social media to build community organization and mobilize action. I did mention in my comments how I could be using Twitter to do this at that very moment (I was subtle enough not to insult my moderator).
So if you see a panelist on his or her phone on a dais, before you think it’s rude, consider that it may be the exact opposite. It may be they are paying closer attention to you than you think.
Now is definitely different from then. And social media tools like Twitter make it so.
RETWEET!!! We need better #P2 message coordination on Twitter
One of things the Netroots needs to do better is to retweet each other and progressive elected officials in greater, coordinated mass. We need to take a lesson from the right, because they have this nailed.
Take a look at the RT machines that spring into action whenever Eric Cantor tweets via @GOPLeader or @MichelleMalkin tweets. The right on Twitter swing into action to retweet fast and furiously.
We need to beat them at this game.
A few things need to happen to make this work.
1. Unifying hashtag… we already have #p2 out there… keep an eye on it and retweet when you see something good from our side. Set up a column in your Tweetdeck/Hootsuite/Sessmic app for #p2, or just bookmark a search page on Twitter for #p2.
2. Monitor progressive members of Congress and retweet them. Twitter lists already exist here: House Dems, Senate Dems, and House Progressive Caucus. When they tweet something worth retweeting, do it. Add the #p2 hashtag if it isn’t already there.
3. Monitor the right and counter their hashtag and tweet campaigns with counter messaging. Be sure to use their hashtag in order to deny them dominance over it (I call this Denial of Hashtag, or DOH!). If they say, “Government doesn’t belong between a person and their doctor,” ask them if that includes between a woman and her doctor discussing reproductive health issues. Use these ready made lists to follow: House GOP members are here and Senate GOP members are here.
Some examples of things in the recent past explain the importance of this effort:
Leading up to the anniversary of the Stimulus (ARRA), @GOPleader launched a campaign to bad mouth the stimulus using the #stimulus hashtag. We should’ve been all over that with counter messaging. Many progressive activists were, but our elected officials were absent, as were the majority of us. We need to rally the troops.
During the vote for the Ryan Budget, the House Progressive Caucus was promoting their amendment with the #budget4all hashtag. We should’ve pushed that from Natchez to Mobile, from Memphis to St. Joe… and across the country.
If you’ve got a blog, let your readers know to participate if they are also on Twitter.If you are on Facebook or Twitter… start your engines and push out our messaging. But don’t just reinvent the wheel by saying it yourself… RETWEET!!! Build up massive numbers of retweets for our best tweets. The impact will not go unnoticed.
We need to create and sustain a coordinated WALL OF PROGRESSIVE MESSAGING on Twitter… and elsewhere. Unless we are coordinated, we cannot expect to counter coordinated messaging efforts from the right.
If you want cues, follow me at @drdigipol (personal) and @CAPaction (work). I am trying to feed this beast. Help me.
Now, hop to it, my friends. :)
Billy Graham’s daughter (@AFministeries) says we need religion so we can understand fear on @MeetthePress today. But is religion the only way we learn to feel and understand fear? Not for most of us, and probably not for any of us.
Perhaps the most privileged among us are so protected from fear that they need religion to teach them of it. And those of us who are less fortunate might find religion helps us understand and cope with fear. But there are certainly other sources of inspiration and understanding to learn of fear. So is religion necessary to no fear, after all?
“Not a sermon, just a thought,” as the rabbi says on the radio…. Was he a rabbi? Or am I just projecting?
Either way, some grist.
Stopping Wars in Africa
If you liked the Kony 2012 video, check out our video on a conflict-free iPad.
Seperfuntime - ShootItFromTheHip. SoundCloud: http://soundcloud.com/superfuntime/shootitfromh
Source: SoundCloud / superfuntime
Newt's Anatomy is my latest HuffPo post (co-authored w/ Victoria Bassetti & David Norton).
We analyze Newt’s Twitter followers and find them far less useful than the 1.4 million total might suggest.
Next we will be analyzing Rick Santorum’s followers.
I posted this earlier, but wanted to save it here on Tumblr.
If you don’t know Die Antwoord, you should. Definitely don’t judge this act by its cover.
