A few weeks back I wrote about incorporating Twitter into conferences and events as a feature (the Twitter-wall) and as a back-channel. Since then, Iʼve had some interesting conversations with people looking to integrate the micro-blogging service, text messages, and other instant-reporting mediums into events.

The three big concerns are:

1) Disenfranchising those not on Twitter; inclusion of everyone in the “back channel”
2) Fear of hash-tag or Twitter takeovers (ie:  political opponents bombarding a live Twitter conversation)
3) Misrepresentation of others information, thoughts, or ideas

Here is how I have been responding:

1) Spread the “means of digital production.”  Worried about disenfranchising?  Empower.  Have laptops or desktops on-hand with guest accounts and lock down the rest of the programs and files on your computer.  Load up the Common Craft video explanation of Twitter (with headset), the Twitter log in page open in a browse, set up a “Genius Bar” (definition:  stations of experts of specific topics, areas, or sometimes tech generalists which were made popular by Apple Stores), or “Speed-Geek” stations (definition:  groups of participants travel from table to table in “speed dating” style learning about various social media/technical solutions).

2) If you must, moderate.  Particularly in the political arena, there are plenty of case studies showing you shouldnʼt allow unfiltered streams of aggregated tweets to be displayed without review first.  The bigger the event, the more moderation you need.  This is for two reasons:  volume and security.  Volume in the sense that only so many tweets can be displayed and read by an audience.  Security in quite the literal public relations definition; placing a trusted person and a concrete process in place to moderate the live projection means less chance of an errant offensive/vandal/spam tweet making it through to the live event.

3) Nick Charney of Public Service Renewal, an integral part of the team that brought ChangeCamp to Ottawa, gets all the credit for this next innovation; he has provided the context and introduction to tweeting at a recent government event:

Over the course of the Event we will be encouraging participants to use Twitter as a “back channel” to facilitate information sharing and collaboration.  We will be using a Twitterwall during the event using Twitterfall.  Simply put, a Twitterwall is a projection of live tweets during a conference or gathering.  In order to capture your comments on Twitter, please # tag them using the #eventhashtag (no quotes).  Generally speaking, we are using Chatham House Rules to guide our participation via Twitter.  The rules state:  When a meeting, or part thereof, is held under the Chatham House Rule, participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s), nor that of any other participant, may be revealed.

Here is a side by side comparison:

Photo Credit