To the point: chirping
Last week, I attended the Swiss Media Forum in Lucerne. At this event, held at the KKL Lucerne, there was—as it should be—free Wi-Fi access for everyone, with a personal access code.
That was great, because I still haven't figured out why you have WLAN access via Swisscom in practically every major hotel or conference center in Switzerland, but have to log in again every estimated two minutes after receiving a new SMS with the code. This is annoying. I have never had this problem abroad.
What the heck, there was permanent access at the Mediaforum and it was also heavily used. In front and behind, on the left and right, smartphone and iPad screens were lit up and hundreds of fingers were busy pressing real or virtual keys. In between, every now and then a pling or other sound could be heard, even creative ringtones à la Mozart's "Little Night Music". That's understandable, because with so many participants, not all people can know how to set their cell phones or iPads to silent.
For the Twitterers among the participants, there was a so-called hashtag for the event. (If you don't know what that is, ask a digital native or look it up yourself on the Internet). So there was a lot of tweeting. The quality of the individual tweets was naturally very different. There was everything from funny to stupid sayings to lighten things up, from key sentences that someone liked to links to further information.
You could not only read the individual tweets privately on your own device, so to speak, but also publicly, because there was a Twitterwall on stage where you could follow the ongoing twittering. This is a double-edged issue. On the one hand, there's the danger of distraction because you're staring at the big screen. On the other hand, it can also provide clear proof of what social media can effectively do today.
The Swiss CEO on stage was certainly prepared in the most precise way by his PR professionals. But this preparation is becoming increasingly difficult today. And so the misfortune took its course. In response to a question from the floor regarding future WLAN on Swiss aircraft, he gave an answer that seemed plausible at first glance, but which was immediately nullified by a corresponding tweet on the Wall. But it got worse, because after his statement that Swiss would be ready in five years at the earliest, a link to an article appeared on the screen that pretty much put his statement into perspective. So collective twittering can very well contribute to transparency.
Pierre C. Meier, Editor-in-Chief
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