Living on Twitter and Other Thoughts on Social Media

I've been living on the 140 character micro-blogging world of Twitter more than ever lately - it's easy given my mobile lifestyle and I've become quite enthralled by the community and immediate nature of it all. But eventually it can become too much. Sunday night, we had the #fem2 (Fem 2.0 conference follow-up) live chat, then Monday began the #p2 (new progressive aggregate hashtag) talk. Tuesday, we had a presidential joint address to congress and #pvow (The Political Voices of Women) participated in a life chat. Wedndesday night, #women2follow began (courtesy Alysson Kapin, @womenwhotech) and all of the sudden, it's #followfriday now. Busy busy. Follow @sairy to see what I'm up to there.

The rest of the time, I've been speaking at conferences - Fem 2.0 at the beginning of February and South by Southwest coming up in a few weeks. I'm working on a new major project helping WomenCount online as their Director of New Media. I'm also working with some startups and small organizations through FutureCampaigns. Through these activities, I'm learning new things and thinking a lot about the implications of social media in advocacy, outreach, activism and of course politics.

It's all about social media these days, so I'm trying to stay on top of the technology behind whatever I'm writing about here, there, wherever. Watching Twitter become mainstream with members of congress, moms, artists, and others not part of the usual tech early adopter crowd has been a lot of fun so far. I'll try to update this blog more often, reflecting my thoughts on related topics. Thanks for reading.

My Afternoon at the White House

Me behind the podium in the White House press briefing room today.

I arrived late to the press briefing, but luckily the Press Secretary was behind schedule as well. After I settled next to the wall (where apparently CNN would catch me on TV anyway), I tweeted the press briefing. Then I spoke with press staffers about some stories I'm working on, talked with some other reporters including Katie Couric, who was there with other major anchors to interview President Obama. After that, on my request, someone from CNN took my picture and convinced me to stand behind the podium for the shot. It was a fun afternoon.

Fem 2.0

The question of where to go in terms of the feminist movement in the future with new media and the new millennium is a big one, and several people got together to plan a conference and brainstorming session around this concept. Feminism encompasses a broad range of ideals including gender equity, equal rights, pay equity, reproductive choice, and much more.

The challenge of the original feminist organizations as well as some of the newer ones is: where do we go now? The Fem 2.0 conference and online dialogue will hopefully provide some direction in this area.

I'll be speaking on one of the panels about feminism in the media and how to help women's organizations expand their outreach online. The conference is being held Monday, February 2nd at George Washington University in Washington, D.C..