Twitter

[Kevin D. Jones]

Is anyone using Twitter? I am using it on a personal level: @KevinDJones. I have seen some good uses for spontaneous and collaborative learning. Has anyone seen any others?

[Sean Harry]

I use it all the time and LOVE it. Not sure if it has opportunity for "spontaneous and collaborative learning." I think it's more like "crack." I find it VERY addictive. I can't live without my tweets!
Sean

[JHarlan]

I am using Twitter as well. Have been pondering how it and other social media tools are going to change the face of training within organizations.

[Kevin D. Jones]

I have been in some meetings where a few of us go back and forth about the meeting on twitter and/or texting. It is usually while someone is being way too verbose and we keep going with the real meeting. Other times we ask questions and get answers from each other. Very handy.

[Lori Silverman]

Hi Kevin,
I have never replied to an online forum in my life, but here goes. Your comment about using Twitter during a meeting while someone else is trying to make their point is amazing to me. I don't think our office culture would ever allow for that behavior, from the observer who is not twittering or talking I would think it seems rude, for the person talking it seems like they would feel like they were being ignored or undermined.
How does your office culture manage to respect each other's thoughts and contributions, while still allowing multitasking?
Lori

[Kevin D. Jones]

Admittedly, it does not happen often because of the culture - which is the biggest barrier or catalyst for social learning, BTW. When I was at Intel it happened all the time and it is perfectly acceptable to be in a meeting and, when it the topic is not directly related to you, continue to work on something different on your phone, laptop or other.

At this company it is acceptable only if it is quick and unobtrusive and not constant. If kept to this level it is not rude, but just part of getting business done.

It is really up to the culture.

[Lori Silverman]

So, have you had any open discussions about it at your organization - or is it all trial and error, and non-verbal communication while someone is twittering?

I can imagine that similar to a culturally insensitive remark in a meeting, Twittering is received differently by each person.

I would love to see it in action like a mouse in a corner - thanks for opening the door to this for me. . . maybe they will Twitter at the next ASTD meeting and I can watch.

[Kevin D. Jones]

Oddly enough, I have been leading the 'culture change' here at the company and one of my first trainings was on proper meeting etiquette. In there we said that we didn't want to see cell phones out of pockets (not something I agreed with but went along with). But, then, after a few months the reality of a quick phone popping up was not only considered not rude, but necessary. So it evolved to that. Twitter, text messaging, as long as it is quick and not distracting or constant.

I was at the ASTD's TK08 this year and tried to blog the sessions. It was horrible. Connection issues were close to non-existent and power was infrequent. For this year I suggested that they promote this. They liked the idea, but we will see if they really do...

[Ralph Hall]

So what kinds of things really do you spend the bulk of your time on on Twitter? I have read all the posts thus far and I wonder how much rationalizing we do to justify the time and attention we give to these tools. I started up on Facebook some months ago and found it such a gift to be able to reconnect with friends in Finland and around our great country. It is addicting to some degree, but I would never say that checking it during work hours adds value to what I do at work. It might be great to connect with others, but what is the return for my company to encouraging me to twitter or otherwise connect with people outside the meeting I am in for example.

Some organizations seem to be addicted to meetings as well, so I can see it maybe in that sense. However, I am heading out on a week-long trip to a client site that could have been avoided if the clients had shut down their computers when I was there last time and stayed off their email. They had burning questions last time and while I was answering one of them all 4 or 5 people in the room checked out to respond to email. I had to wait and then repeat it since none of them even engaged enough to listen.

So, if I am in a meeting with an "expensive" consultant, for example, is it really smart for me to only partially "be there" and to take care of some of the perhaps less mundane issues that fly at me in my email? If I could go to what they were addressing I would bet, and I am not a betting kind of guy, that some portion of their emails were not critical and probably some chunk not even work related.

Today I was in a meeting where what we were working on was boring and tedious, but critical to our "rescue" trip next week. If I had brought my laptop and even partially checked out, how would that have helped me?

That said, I use the tools, but Lori's comment below I think has some real value and requires some evaluation.

Great discussion! Thanks for doing all of this!! rlh

[Christine Martell]

I'm on Twitter @cmartell I find great links and get heads up on things going on there. Just the other day I saw a tweet on a live feed from a conference. I clicked over and saw an online colleague, Beth Kanter presenting on a fundraising project she did using social media. A few minutes later, she was talking about my first screencast that I did to support the cause. I never would have known about it, you know one of those little ways we touch people as trainers that ripple out in unexpected ways.

I also attended a workshop at the Summer Institute for Intercultural Communication on Culture, Technology, and Communication in the Global Workplace. Most of the class had their laptops open all day, and we all were checking email and doing other things while in class. At first it seemed very strange, but as our faculty Terry Brake pointed out, continuous partial attention is the reality of working across technology. Our audiences are doing these things when they can't be seen, so accepting it was the way we went.

I have to say, being able to attend to things in email instead of being hit with the backlog when I got back to the office was really helpful to me. I didn't feel the need to call the office every break, or run to a place to check email during the day. Overall, I feel I was more present to the class and especially the conversations "in the hall" which added to my overall experience.

[Kelly Orehovec]

Hi Kevin,

I am trying to understand exactly what Twitter is. How does it differ from text messaging on my Treo? I am gathering alot of knowledge reading the posts that people are posting in response to your question however, I would love to know the basics. Can you help?

Kelly

P.S. I love the conversation about how work culture supports this. Let's keep talking about it!

[Kevin D. Jones]

IM is 1:1. Twitter is 1:many - I would say that this is the main difference.

I uploaded, to this site, the best video explanation of what Twitter is: Common Craft's "Twitter in Plain English." As I have heard over and over and over again, someone can explain it to you, but until you try it (and stick with it) you won't understand the value.

The first time I tried, I lost interest quickly. I didn't care. Later I decided to give it another whirl. Now I am checking it all day. With some people, this is how I communicate - not through email. Also, I learn a decent amount of valuable stuff I would not have learned otherwise.

[Christine Martell]

It took me a couple of tries also, and I still struggle with what to say. Big key to it for me is using a twitter client (rather than their website). I use twirl, which requires downloading Adobe Air (and may not be possible depending on company IT). This way twitter is running on one side of my desktop, so I can get quick glances, and reply easily if something is interesting.