David Jakes has written a post on his blog entitled Tragedy of the Commons. In it, he claims:

At its best, Twitter is a place to share a resource, a link to a new blog post, or an insight, and even a place to have a little fun. It’s a place that could be about learning. At its very worst, Twitter is a self-indulgent exercise in self-promotion and pettiness.

Right now, I think we are watching Twitter change right before our digital eyes. Be the first with the tool (Diigo, for example), be the first with a post, be the first with the wiki, be the first to uStream, stake your claim in a never-ending game of name building and recognition. Take advantage of the commons, go ahead.

While the post is definitely about more than Twitter itself - it's also about personal growth, extending oneself beyond the echochamber, getting involved as an educator, and becoming a catalyst for change - the comments to the post have sparked an interesting discussion about etiquette that demands attention.


A few questions to consider:

• When do a person's advertisements (on various social networks) for activities they may be promoting become an undesirable display of self-promotion?
• What are the rules of etiquette - if any - that might apply to the combination of educational blogging and Twitter use?
  

In the Interesting Side-note Department: Partly because of Jakes' push (and mostly because I have always thought this would be an important discussion), I have decided to take this topic to NECC in the form of a facilitated discussion at the first-ever Fringe Festival (Concurrent Session 10). If you would be interested in participating with me, I would love to have you join me.

Image Source: This image is a tag cloud that I created from the text of the 93 comments to Jakes' post.

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