I hear your point somewhat. I think that there will always be that hatred and confusion, and I think that limiting people to 140 characters is going to make communications difficult in how to possibly erode that hatred. Today’s event was great, but afterward, I followed up with Shel Israel who essentially admitted it was a “failure” because nobody was swayed either way. My thought is that it’s really hard to use press conferences in GENERAL to sway the opinion, and really, the only people truly involved (from my observations, and I watched the conference pretty intensely throughout) were either pro-Israel or pro-Palestine and nothing in between. As far as the involvement in the project, I think it was incredibly successful – the goal wasn’t to sway opinion but simply for Israel to give its view.

Perhaps direct contact really is the best way to fix this problem. Unfortunately, I’m not sure if Twitter will be able to achieve that goal. But in any instance, I think people need to go into it with an open mind.

What I found interesting about his idea was the thought that real, individual human voices connecting on platforms like Twitter might erode the hatred and misunderstandings that provide the petri dish in which violence incubates. I feel much violence grows from an unfounded and genetically programmed fear of “the other” that can be much eroded by direct and indirect human contact.

But thanks for pointing out the potential for eroding my own point by treading too close to controversial political ground. Definitely not my intention to take sides in any way about the tragic events going on in Gaza today.

In any event, I just wrapped up an interview about the actual press conference and I think it would be awesome for the entire world to connect on one single broadcast medium. If I could choose which one it should be, I’d say Twitter. That said, I wouldn’t want to ostracize any person or culture or anyone from using it.

I’m certain that Israel is not ostracizing anyone either. I think Bennett’s Tweet and the fact that it’s highlighted is somewhat extremist.

I can also add that social media has been my school this past year. I have been able to attend free webinars and other events that I other wise wouldn’t have even heard about. My learning process has moved light years ahead because of all the wonderful people in social media that just want to share their knowledge. Getting marginalized populations into using social media tools may just be the critical difference for them. Now if we can just figure out a way to keep those who use social media to abuse these marginalized folks publicly, we’d have a winner on our hands.

Here’s her tweet:
“please retweet: raising funds to help CityTeam care for & rehabilitate PDX’s homeless, donations matched 1:1: http://tinyurl.com/83jv8r”

There was also another news article about how people in Vancouver, Canada who were arranging a meet-up. However they decided to gather their old warm clothes and hand them out to the homeless. Here’s the link: http://bit.ly/N7ZU

Hope you find this interesting.

“What could mobile social networking become one day for the homeless, migrant laborers, at-risk teens, sex workers, refugees…”

… minus the “sex workers.”

I appreciate the Twitter fundraising campaigns that @Pistachio has made me aware of. Those of us at http://4Grants.Net are planning to offer tele-fundraising events in 2009.

So, we’re not that far … here in Nevada … from making this a reality … perhaps even with SW’s if Hugh Heffner wanted to help us with a tele-fundraising event. Is Hugh on Twitter?

Thanks!

Phil Johncock
http://twitter.com/PhilJohncock