Episcopal Church Foundation Vestry Papers - for leading congregations

General Convention is certainly no Arab Spring, but the role of Twitter could be revolutionary for the august gathering. 

Already hundreds (thousands) of Twitter users are posting quick commentary via tweets. At this point, still a day before the official opening, most tweets are benign, about the accommodations, the lovely views, the excitement of seeing old friends.

But as convention commences, Twitter will become a shorthand measure of the barometer of the gathering. Even though deputies aren’t supposed to e-mail, instant message, tweet (or play Words with Friends and Angry Birds), the pervasiveness of smart phones makes this rule almost impossible to enforce. (And, if it might add, even silly and archaic in this day. But that’s for another forum to debate). 

Many of the General Convention hubs – from the official media hub athttp://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/gc2012/ to those run by dioceses, groups, and even congregations – are cognizant of the front-and-center-role of Twitter. Most have given valuable home page real estate to Twitter feeds with the hashtag #GC77. (That means tweets that include the characters #GC77 will automatically feed into this aggregated listing). 

These Twitter feeds make it easier to capture a snapshot of how people are feeling and reacting to the discussions at General Convention. It also means that you don’t have to set up your own Twitter account to be able to follow the conversation. 

I want to highlight one really cool Twitter application that is being used on nearly 40 diocesan websites across the country. These sites, powered by Digital Faith, have deployed an application called “Tweet Beam.” This application gives a visual presentation of the Twitter feeds, in a cool and compelling way. Not sure what I mean? Then go here for a live demonstration: http://www.diosohio.org/digital_faith/gc/twitter 

A caveat: I didn’t set up this application myself – Digital Faith did it for all of the websites they host and support. So I don’t know how easy it is to integrate. But I can say, as a viewer, that it offers a compelling, inviting picture of the church. 

And that’s worth a thousand words (or tweets).