Wednesday Read and Learn: PresbyTweeting

The 219th General Assembly in Minneapolis promises to be the most Twittered GA ever. Of course, that would not be difficult since in 2008 Twitter was just coming on the internet scene.

Presbyblogger Robert Austell has written a very helpful four part series about what Twitter is and why and how you might want to follow tweets of those involved in it. If you read the following posts you will learn all you ever needed to know about using Twitter to follow doings at the GA:

Twitter: An Anology for the Non-Technical
What Is Twitter? an introduction
Why Use Twitter? 8 Potential Uses at GA
How To Use Twitter: step-by-step guide

Tweets are limited to messages of 140 characters, so they are good for recording information and observations on a real-time basis but lack the length needed for in-depth analysis or nuanced observations. The past two GA's have been blogged by commissioners and by non-commissioners alike. With the streaming of GA plenary sessions, it is possible for those who are not there to view the procedings and then comment on them.

It will be interesting to see if there is less blogging and more tweeting at this upcoming GA. What do you think? Are you planning to follow the action via Twitter, blogs, Church and World, Presbyterian edition (formerly Presbyweb), the Presbyterian News Service, The Outlook, The Layman or other online sources?

UPDATE: Robert Austell has also created a very helpful website for commissioners that will answer many questions and gives good information about preparing for GA: GA Help.net. If you are a commissioner, check it out and bookmark it!