A few weeks ago I made a visit to the New York Times newsroom. Walking past a cubicle, I was introduced to Bill Keller, the Editor-in-Chief. Upon learning I work at Twitter, he said back, “I’m actually writing a piece about Twitter right now.”

“Go easy on us,” I joked.

His piece,  The Twitter Trap, came out yesterday.

Here is my response, which I wrote personally and not on behalf of Twitter.

I enjoyed the thoughtfulness in Bill Keller’s piece, The Twitter Trap. But more than that, I found parts of it to be distracting indications that the Editor is still debating what value social media brings to his disoriented industry.

For journalism and news, social media, especially Twitter, has turned traditional media consumers into real-time informants. Their conversations have become real-time data points. And as we saw two weeks ago on the night of Osama bin Laden’s death, Twitter is filling the gap of the traditional wires. It has become the unintentional platform that supports sources in breaking news and disaster settings.

While Keller no doubt has an awareness of what goes on in his newsroom, I wonder why he left this out. It was Twitter’s perceived shortcoming, complexity and context, that actually helped to power newsrooms the day after bin Laden’s death with stats and verification around how the conversation bubbled up – and how users, based on the luck of location and the curiosity of cause, became the newsrooms most valuable assets.

It became known that Twitter’s perceived weakness: context – might actually be its strength.

The thing I always come back to, in thinking about the future of journalism is its past. Journalism, as pointed out by PEW’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, is grounded in the concept that “democracy depends on citizens having reliable, accurate facts put in a meaningful context.” In this moment, news organizations have the chance to learn from Twitter’s inimitable utility and with it renew their commitment to values of the old by accepting that they can work with tools of the new.

As Keller pointed out, Twitter is not just an ambient presence. It demands attention and response. And this is exactly why Twitter matters to the reconstruction of news.

All things considered, this seems like a reasonable price to pay.

“Show New Vets You’ve Got Their Back” is a social media campaign put on by the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA).  IAVA was named one of the top non-profits by Mashable for their use of social tools to foster community. They are a non-profit, non partisan organization with one mission: to improve the lives of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and their families.

Today on Veteran’s Day, IAVA is inviting you to support the March and if you can’t be there, to support it online. So far about 2,000 people have joined, including me. Here is my message: “My most sincere gratitude goes out to all of our Veterans today, especially those who I have been lucky enough to get to know. Thank you for allowing me to learn about your personal journeys as members of our military service: Dan Choi, Adam Kokesh, Paul Mueller, Scott Henrichsen, and many more.”

The Facebook application that IAVA is using gives them the right to access my basic information (name, profile pic, networks, list of friends), post to my wall (which I was able to select and choose which ones to post) and to access my data at any time. (Um, scary. But I’m taking the risk for our Veterans.)

Also, I just want to give a shout out to the @IAVA Twitter handle. It’s got a great way of communicating with a friendly, military flavor.

TWITTER TALK from @IAVA:

• Fall in line! March online with @IAVA & me on Vets Day. 1 minute of your time could send 2 vets to the Super Bowl! http://ow.ly/33gNF
• Atten-tion! Tomorrow is Vets Day. Show vets in your state that you’ve got their back! Join @IAVA‘s online march: http://ow.ly/33gNF
• Exciting news! Mayor Bloomberg will be joining @IAVA for our Heroes Gala in NYC tomorrow night: http://ow.ly/374nrFAST FACTS: There are an est. 2 million Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans in America.
  
  For the first time since it began in 1919, NBC will broadcast and livestream the annual Veteran’s Day Parade @ 11AM.

  “The invisible injuries (of the Iraq/Afghanistan wars) especially are having a dramatic effect on this population….from a mild traumatic brain injury to severe post traumatic stress often leading to things like substance abuse and suicide,” Tom Tarantino, IAVA.

  SOURCE VIDEO: NBC NY // Timecode: 2:57

A few months back a journalist friend in Washington, D.C. suggested that I get to know one of his friends who works in Communications at CBS.  It was more a networking opportunity than anything else. We tried and missed each other a couple of times and then, a few weeks ago, from the seat of my $19 bus ticket from DC to NYC, I powered up my Mac, connected to wifi and tried again. This time it worked – and the next day I was off to CBS News for an impromptu conversation that turned into something much more.

Four weeks after that bus ride, here I am looking around my apartment at an unsightly stack of boxes. A pile of stamped thank you notes waiting to be mailed to friends. And of course, my trusty Mac – powered up, connected, and ready to make another move. This time to let you all know that on Monday, I’ll be reporting for my new gig with CBS News.com and @katiecouric – the long form web show Katie kicked off a year ago.

And as I look ahead to Monday, I can’t help but think this opportunity with CBS News and @katiecouric is my chance to meld my past experiences – moonlighting as a citizen journalist for MTV News and CNN iReport and working in digital communications. The exciting thing is with @katiecouric, I have the chance to apply myself full time in a field I am incredibly passionate about: journalism.

So with that, I think it’s time I get back to those boxes. Once I am settled I look forward to getting back to you all. If luck has it, maybe it will be to share with you the chances CBSNews.com and @katiecouric are set to take. Who knows – it seemed to have worked for me.

Here are two videos to document two very different parts of it the record breaking snow fall that hit Washington, D.C. starting on Friday, February 5th and coming to a standstill on Thursday, February 11th.

The first video is from Nathan Golon and Jordan Gantz and is an uplifting reminder that the snow brings out the kid in (almost) all of us. I found it at Washington Post’s Capital Weather Gang blog.

Washington, DC Snow Storm from Es Video! on Vimeo.

The second video is from me – and I captured it tonight,  right after I uploaded a mobile photo to Facebook of a snow plow I came across in Northwest D.C.

My caption read: “Finally. Thanks, D.C.” I meant it with sincerity.

Naturally, I thought it would be interesting if I were to find out who was inside of the elusive snow plow we had all been waiting so long to see.

John Mayer Offers His Idea for a Better SOTU

Originally uploaded by ericaamerica08

The State of the Union streamed faster online than any of the networks could achieve on Television.  In the world of Twitter, conversation around the hash tag #SOTU soared, accounting for thousands upon thousands of updates on the aggregating machine. On sites like the New York Times and The Washington Times, live bloggers updated, updated, and updated. People gravitated to the pixels on computer screens and smart phones like citizen zombies, edging in a comment, a critique, a joke, to see if anyone was listening.

But was anyone listening to the President?

Social media consultant, Jen Nedeau, was part of an effort with New York media consultant, Dan Gerstein, to organize a group of live bloggers and spur a substantive online discussion around the State of the Union. Her answer to the question above – was anyone actually listening? Most likely, would be a resounding yes.

“Social media allows the conversation that used to happen in the family living room, over the dinner table or within the knitting circle expand into a global dialogue. As the President gives his speech tonight, we will all be tuned in – not only to what he is saying – but to what those around us are saying.”

Nedeau, who earned her social media chops as a digital strategist in Washington, D.C. and New York City, went on to say that the online conversation in-stream with the President’s speech, “creates the unique ability for political thought to expand and explode beyond the television broadcast.”

Could she be right? In the last decade, technology has soared to new heights – at the turn of the century, words like Kindle, Android, Tablet and Geotargeting were hardly in our language. But in a short period of time, boundaries have disappeared and with it, unspeakable progress has occurred. But have all the channels for talk brought about setbacks, too?

Gerstein, founder of Gotham Ghostwriters and a columnist at Forbes, takes the question above and colors in a different point of view. With Gotham’s live blogging effort, he says, average political junkies are given an alternative to the talking heads found on network TV.

“Before these tools were available, people had to listen to talking heads yak at them.  Now they can directly engage political pros and experts in a two-way conversation, ask them questions, and quite possibly enlighten them.”

Gerstein makes a point – and with it, speaks to perhaps the biggest success the President didn’t address in the State of the Union: WhiteHouse.Gov. A web site that has made press briefings available live, visitor records downloadable, daily photos accessible, and Q&A’s with Administration officials a mouse click away. Tonight WhiteHouse.gov live streamed the address (yes, faster than the networks could), held a live video Q&A afterward, and uploaded the official remarks and two blog posts (one, two) after.

My point – which is not to ignore the fact that I, like Nedeau and Gerstein, use social media to engage others and to tap into a larger conversation – is that we are all in this pixilated society together. But what does it mean for moving a President’s political agenda forward – any President for that matter, post-social media? Can either side build up enough strength, enough collaboration, enough bipartisanship, to tug the social media rope hard enough and bring over to the other side?

To see a Flickr feed of the social media story from the State of the Union, click here.

Scott Brown: 92,964 Fans on Facebook

Originally uploaded by ericaamerica08

2008 was a year for Democrats. Led by President Obama, Obama for America utilized social networks, text messages and online organization to get a record number of people out to vote. But today, it looks like the Republicans are about the pull out the social media win. The real question is: will the Senate seat come with it too? Contestants in today’s special election race for the late Sen. Edward Kennedy’s seat, Republican Scott Brown and Democrat Martha Coakley, are about to find out.

CNN’s Audience Interaction Producer, Eric Kuhn, wrote a post Monday morning “GOP Candidate Dominates Social Networking in Massachusetts,” and pulled numbers of Brown’s Facebook and Twitter accounts to make the GOP case. Kuhn was right, and today Brown’s numbers continued to grow. (Below are the most up to-date stats).

At this moment, more than 110,078 people on Facebook have taken sides and more than 15,338 people on Twitter are tuned in. Brown leads Facebook with 92,964 fans compared to Coakley’s 17,114. He also has a clear lead on Twitter with over 7,000 more followers and listed nearly 600 times. Brown’s approach to social media is also more effective, especially in his use of Facebook. His campaign staff uses the page to funnels news, information, and behind-the-scenes campaign photos. Coakley’s Facebook Page reads more like a resume.

I left a comparison of YouTube out, but I should make one quick point. Brown is burying Coakley. Search for “Martha Coakley,” and you are likely to find, top fold, clips that Brown’s campaign have uploaded about her. Fatal flaw for Coakley’s campaign - to not play offense on one of the most searched web sites in the world.

The gamble is just as dire for the Democrats, who have 60 votes and health care reform at stake with today’s election.

Side-By-Side (As of 2:10AM Tuesday)

Scott Brown (Republican)
Facebook: 92,964 Fans
Twitter: 11,472 Followers

Martha Coakley (Democrat)
Facebook: 17,114 Fans
Twitter: 3,866 Followers
ActBlue (Fundraising): Raised $1,276,289 from 14,668 supporters