Writing and Talking at the Same Time
The Internet in Politics
First I must commend Chris Cannon for doing this. It took guts and he was a good sport. It was challenging and I hope he is still open to doing another event like this. I’m not a supporter (I worked on a campaign for his opponent Wayne Owens), but that doesn’t matter.
I’m here at the first Politic 2.0 event. It’s at the University of Utah. Congressman Chris Cannon is talking in a computer lab about a smattering of subjects. Bloggers are submitting questions in real time. There are about 20 of us. The typing in the room is distracting.
Cannon starts off the “discussion” asking us to “be irreverent”. At one point, he says it’s getting a little boring. It’s a little uncomfortable. He’s doing all the talking. We’re all participating, except we’re not talking, we’re writing. It’s a little challenging to participate in both ways.
I try to engage him about his internet policy but he doesn’t seem to have a real plan. He says it’s too new and that most people aren’t using the internet in politics yet (excuse). I point out Pete Ashdown in the audience, who is very web savvy. Chris responds, “yes, and he LOST.” Funny!
This is the beta model of the system, so of course there are some kinks. I’m impressed that they got this much done (none of them spoke). For one thing, asking questions in real time is difficult. Especially with amateurs. We’re covering too much ground too fast.
I propose that the voting and questions happen BEFORE the event. Then at the event, have a section for bloggers and one for everyone else. Everyone else can talk and engage the Congressman in a real dialog. It’s just too difficult to both write and talk at the same time.
4 Responses to “Writing and Talking at the Same Time”
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April 11th, 2007 at 12:44 pm
Janet…
I’m back again as one of your GREATEST and BEST supportors as you know, and girl, you’re getting better at this blogging every week! I’d just like to add that I agree with you here, “It’s too dificult to write and talk at the same time.” As for me I can’t even talk and chew gum at the same time without spitting the gum out, so writing and talking at once is OUT OF THE QUESTION!!!
April 11th, 2007 at 2:17 pm
I’ve always been against writing in meetings. Electronics should be off. People are just too important.
I hope people will grow weary of the white noise created by the flow of concious blogging, and will soon get back to desiring deliberate, researched dialog.
Rather than trying to merge all media into the same hypermedia circus, I think we are better off having different levels and scopes of dialog.
While I find it interesting to note the instant reaction that I have to a speaker, I find that dwelling too much on my reactions to others makes my writing less deliberative and more reactionary.
April 12th, 2007 at 1:04 pm
I observed the event from DC via the video feed and wrote about it on my company’s blog at http://www.bivingsreport.com/2007/politic20-connecting-politicians-and-citizens/. Please feel free to provide some feed back in the comment section. It would be nice to have the view of someone who actually was there.
Thanks for sharing your experience!
April 12th, 2007 at 1:33 pm
None of my questions got asked.. blast! The event needed to be longer. Oh well, I look forward to round 2. I’m hoping they get Hatch to come do this. Now *that* would be entertaining.