Where’s the Conversation in Tech Comm? (Poll)

This is an interesting topic that I haven’t really thought long and hard about. Now that I have stood back, well for about five minutes anyway, I can see why you’ve picked up on this. Personally I think a lot of my chat is on LinkedIn, people’s blogs (including my own) and at industry events / conferences. Perhaps the issue here is that to have a dialog, requires people the option to talk / type more than short messages. Whilst there are Twitter Chats that use different hash tags and can provide a useful forum, most do not. Media like LinkedIn do not suffer from these restrictions.

Let’s face it: a lot of social networking is broadcasting, not discussion.
People tend not to express themselves, sometimes for fear of misinterpretation (or judgment on their writing). Commenting on LinkedIN “Open groups” means your discussions, points of view, and, yes, sometimes your mistakes will be publicly available to the entire industry and putative employers. Twitter is seemingly more volatile and friendlier, but it’s still difficult to engage in discussions on the media. However, it is a good lead to deeper discussions… I came to this post from Twitter!

10 minutes? That’s a lot of deep thinking for a Sunday afternoon. I hope you had a nice long nap afterward.

Although many of us do it now and again, it’s very hard to have a meaningful discussion on Twitter given its 140-character limit. But as Nolwenn says, Twitter often leads me to where the good discussions are taking place. In fact, along with emails from my LinkedIn groups, Twitter is one of the two primary means by which I stay tuned in to the action.

What about a tool like Nestify – http://techwritertoday.nestivity.com/public – it looks like a forum for Twitter

I’ve tried to start conversations with some of my blog posts on TechCommGeekMom, but I don’t often get any bites! Granted, I give my opinion, but I often ask if others would like to have a discussion about a given topic, and as long as they do it respectfully, I’m good. Alas…I guess I have to encourage participation more.

Additionally, it’s summer right now…most people are on vacation or busy these days, so it could be that it’s just bad timing to be participating. Nonetheless, you do outline some excellent forums, so it’s not like they don’t exist!