Dr Sue Black from the University of Westminster delivered a very interesting lecture about her use of Twitter to spread the Save Bletchley Park campaign (part of the BCS Women Lovelace Colloquium, Cardiff, April 8, 2010). She indicated how Twitter brought together a diverse set of individuals who wanted to "contribute something back" to the history of computing by fund raising for this campaign -- and contributing their own skills. Her talk provided an interesting insight into how Twitter and social media provided the foundation for raising public and political awareness about a cause. After producing a publication about her experiences in using Twitter in the Bletchley Park campaigh, Dr Black was able to raise over 2000 UK pounds through the JustGiving Web site -- to present the paper at a conference in the US.

On the other hand, in the current heat towards the next UK election, a Labour party candidate (standing for the East Scotland seat of Moray) was removed from the party after describing old people as `coffin dodgers' on Twitter. According to a story in the Independent newspaper (April 10, 2010), he was also found to make "an ill-advised quip about bananas", writing: `God this fair-trade, organic banana is shit. Can I have a slave-`grown, chemically enhanced, genetically modified one please?' According to the same story, the Labour party now has it's very own "Twitter tsar", who mentioned that "most MPs were still too cautious in their tweets, rather than too forward". She mentioned that "... the greater problem is getting MPs to engage and communicate with the public on the site, rather than simply tweeting that they are out campaigning."

Both of these stories indicate an interesting new trend in on-line now being the published word. Perhaps, what we generate on-line (even though it may not have a persistent publication identifier), can now generate equivalent, or more, impact than the printed word. Dr Black's effort in making very effective use of social media, and the Labour candidate's ineffective use of it, shows how important size-limited, context sensitive twitter feeds have become in changing public perception, debate and fund raising.

Picture taken by Omer Rana @ BCS Colloqium in Cardiff, April 8, 2010