Tweet tweet

One of today's sessions shed light on the nearly inexplicable phenomenon that is Twitter.

I get the self-indulgence part, but how -- exactly -- can it be effectively used by a newsroom?

* Speed: A fellow fellow from Kentucky described how one of her reporters tweeted updates from a big trial. When a major claim was staked, there came a tweet. And, of course, they tweeted the verdict in near real time, too. This is particularly valuable in courtrooms where cameras are non grata.

* Entourage: Twitter's also good for networking. Do a quick search for the "Top 10" whoevers you want to find: journalists, PR agents, Internet marketers, bloggers, etc. Follow them, follow their followers. They'll follow you. Watch and learn. Try search.twitter, too, to find people.

* Portability: It's cake to set up your phone to Tweet. Hook it up under Devices in your Settings.

* Honesty: They don't make any money, so I trust 'em. For now.

* Brevity: I'm not a total antisocial jerk, but sometimes I wish I could limit face-to-face conversations to 140 characters. They're on to something there.

I'm only sipping the Twitter Kool-Aid at this point. There's just too much chaff to sort though, but today's session was a good start.