Twitter crashes the ArabNet party

**(okay, I haven't written anything in a month and should probably be flogged for it or something... Been travelling and/or working. But currently working on an entry or two, so that should be up soon.. In the meantime, I wrote that a while ago for publication but it ultimately wasn't, so here it is...)**

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Live, uncensored, constant feedback to speakers via Twitter: it could change public speaking forever.

At the ArabNet Internet Business Conference, held in Beirut, Lebanon on 25-26 March, Twitter was poised to widely disseminate the conference events, panels discussions and even the bloopers, word slips of the panelists, as the audience - in the vast majority Arab internet professionals - live-tweeted the eight panels and presentations.

With more than 600 participants in the conference hall and up to 200 simultaneous viewers of the live stream, Tweets were flying around, creating a meta-discussion in parallel to the conference proceedings - incomparably more public but nevertheless as discreet as a whisper between two persons.

It all changed on day Two of the conference, when ArabNet organizers put up two giant screens on the sides of the conference room displaying a live stream of all Tweets including the hashtag #ArabNetME; in two columns, one in English, the other in Arabic.

A complete game changer.

Instantaneously Twitter had become the merciless, talkative, blabbering, sometimes petty and rude live commentator, literally looking down at the audience and standing above the panelists and lecturers’ heads, commenting on their every word and move. The day’s first session, for example, had a panelist keeping his sunglasses on stage - and it was a collective lynch by way of 140-character missives.

Most interestingly is how the panelists and presenters reacted. Throughout the day they became more savvy, keeping a - sometimes frightened - eye on the Twitter stream and responding in real time to the micro-blogged comments and questions that could come from the audience - or from someone’s living room. Perhaps for the first time then, Twitter had created a two-way constant feedback mechanism which didn’t have to wait for the Q & A time at the end of the session - and which, most importantly, did not require physical presence to interact with the panelists. It is exciting to think that we have witnessed a paradigm shift in Internet technology conferences - and ultimately a change in the way public conferences are managed.

Will the day ever come, when live public twitter feeds, literally and figuratively hanging above the head of speakers, become the norm? When a conference whose Tweets are not broadcast live back in the very room will be akin to, and as frowned upon as a speaker taking only pre-approved questions from the audience?

Most attendees did however highlight that the Twitter feed was at times an unwelcome distraction, particularly when comments veered off-topic - and often they did - but aside from a few interjections coming from panelists that began with “I must respond to a comment being made repeatedly on Twitter here...” they failed at any time to derail the discussion and the conference was hailed by all as being a success.

When, by the end of the second day north of 10,000 tweets had been generated, some assuredly encouraged by the tactless crashing of Twitter to the party, it had become clear that Twitter had become both the extra man on the panel - and the loud, unstoppable heckler in the back of the room.