Inspired!
First of all, I'm now among the twitterati. You can find me @kquimbyjohnson. I'm a newbie.
Why now? All because of David Dobbs, whose presentation to the League of Vermont Writer's meeting on Saturday was persuasive. He talked about the difference between books and social media and made a convincing argument for both, rather than one replacing the other. If you want an analogy, books allow you to dive deep, while social media let you swim across the surface. Two different experiences, two different purposes. --It was the first time I'd met David, who is a science writer (but was an English major who got into writing because he loved Virginia Woolf!), who is now working on a fascinating book about behavioral genetics. If you want to be tempted, check out his article on the Atlantic Monthly's website.
But he wasn't the only inspiration on the program--Tim Brookes, who is also my boss at Champlain College, shared his experience with new publishing technologies (and their role in the education of college-age writers). Here's information about the Champlain Publishing Initiative. Those who remember Tim's voice from his many years of essays on "Sunday Edition" on npr, can find not his voice, but the same sort of essay, posted Sunday mornings at 10 am.
As useful as their talks were, and as much as I enjoyed them, Ron Powers was The Man of the Day. He spoke about the necessity of taking "that terrifying step," and going where you don't really want to go (emotionally as much as anything else), and he was so eloquent, so heart-felt, that when he stopped talking there was one of those magical moments of silence--and then he received a standing ovation.
So now I am inspired to dig deeper--but also, to swim with the school on twitter.