#CNMAC12 Live Tweet-Wall

As someone who has actively promoted live-tweeting at conferences, gets a huge amount out of it (hearing others talk at same time as the speaker), and takes much of my notes (which are then Storified) - very interesting article:

Live tweeting at academic conferences and at talks on campus is now commonplace – but should there be limits? Earlier this year, a heated debate broke out on (where else?) Twitter about the ethics of tweeting content from presentations of unpublished research. Some academics argued that there could be serious repercussions should information intended to be kept within four walls make its way into the public domain. Others claimed that any public presentation of information was fair game for the discerning tweeter.

The discussion – christened #Twittergate – unearthed many stories of scholars presenting unpublished ideas to an audience of peers only to find content from their work appearing on Twitter as they spoke. Some were concerned that rival researchers might incorporate the information into their own findings. Others said that such concerns were paranoid, and that discussing research on Twitter was no different from talking about it over a cup of tea after a talk had concluded.

Chris Brauer, founder and co-director of the Centre for Creative and Social Technologies at Goldsmiths, University of London:

Lecturers, he says, “have to come to terms with the idea of losing control in the world of interactive media. You are fighting a losing battle if you want to control it – you have to hope it leads to a constructive debate.”