Do we have liftoff?

Ask Danielle Bass, office manager for Rep. Ryan Yamane!

Danielle will be covering the liftoff of the space shuttle Discovery via Twitter. Bass was selected by NASA to participate at the “NASA Tweetup” to cover the events 24 hours prior to the launch and the launch itself, targeted to take place at 4:40 p.m. EDT on November 1, 2010.

NASA is hosting 150 people from around the world and will provide them with a behind-the-scenes perspective to share with their followers via the social networking service Twitter. Bass is the only “tweep” from Hawaii going to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. According to NASA, attendees will be coming from 38 states, the District of Columbia, Australia, Canada, Chile, England, Japan, Latvia, New Zealand and the Philippines; all were selected randomly from more than 2,700 online registrations. Attendees are responsible for their own travel.

Twitter users can follow Bass’s tweets at www.twitter.com/dani_bass.

In addition, Bass created her own website at http://www.imuanahoku.com/, especially for schools and classrooms to follow the launch, and for those who are not on Twitter.

“I’m excited and honored to be representing Hawaii at this historic event,” said Bass. “This will be the last launch and flight of the space shuttle Discovery, the oldest orbiter of the shuttle fleet. I’ve always been interested in flying and in the NASA program, and I’m grateful for this incredible opportunity. I’ll be tweeting and updating my website all weekend.”

Reporters interested in interviewing Tweetup attendees should contact Stephanie Schierholz at 202-358-4997 or Stephanie.schierholz@nasa.gov.

Link to NASA Media Advisory: http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2010/oct/HQ_M10-146_Tweet_Credentials.html

Lawmakers and Twitter: A match made in Twitterville?

Representative Della Au Belatti posted a question on Twitter yesterday asking her followers what they thought of a Yahoo! article criticizing tweeting politicians who use 140-character tweets to communicate with the public.

The article references Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's unintelligible tweets, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's TwitVids (Twitter videos) – specifically, the one of him wielding a large knife, and other national lawmakers who write about ballet, golf and other commonplace occurrences.

Rep. Belatti proposed this discussion topic:

DAuBelatti: Thoughts on politicians & twitter - do you agree w/Yahoo article? http://tiny.cc/A71tB DAB: I admit to tweeting about daily activities.

I was able to find responses from four of her followers. Here is what they had to say:

Susan Jaworowski, an assistant professor and program director of the Legal Education Department at Kapiolani Community College, opined on the ways lawmakers should tweet, sans faux pas.

lavasusan: To @DAuBelatti Ways to do it right: make decisions transparent to public, keep them informed. Even human touches good if not the majority.

lavasusan: To @georgettedeemer @DAuBelatti: legislators can be as stupid or wise on Twitter as any other medium. Tweetcongress.org mostly gets it right.

Gene Park, a former Star-Bulletin reporter, complimented Rep. Belatti on her 140-character tweeting skills and gave her the green light on tweeting personal commentary – as long as knife-wielding isn't part of the package.

genepark: @DAuBelatti I think you do a fine mix of personal and work related tweets. Mundane tweets humanizes the personality.

genepark: @DAuBelatti And tweeting on the job is not much of a timesink. The Arnold knifeholding thing is pretty weird though. Don't do that. :-)

The voice behind Makiki Talks, an on-line gathering place for everything Makiki, tweeted views that are shared amongst many social media critics. He/she suggests that elected officials are too careless when using new media.

MakikiTalks: @DAuBelatti I don't understand y elected officials who use trad [traditional] media so carefully, so strategically forget themselves in SoMe-social media.

MakikiTalks: @DAuBelatti People still scrutinize DECISION MAKING, & ultimately PERSON making decision. Don't want to see lack of judgment or inattention

MakikiTalks: @DAuBelatti ..to the big decisions the people trust & give responsibility to make. Twitter is still earning credibility as a com tool.

A handful of Hawaii's elected officials, including Reps. Della Au Belatti, Jon Riki Karamatsu, Angus McKelvey, Cindy Evans and other capitol tweeps, are posting their thoughts and activities on the social-networking phenomenon that has recently found its way into the mainstream.

What are your thoughts on the Twitter etiquette of elected officials? Should they tweet about the mundane? Should they be tweeting at all? Is Twitter the appropriate medium to respond and discuss serious issues?

Capitol Tweeps

It's Follow Friday in Twitterville. Here's a list of elected officials and other State Capitol related folks on Twitter who you may be interested in following. A few have "protected" accounts, which means that you'll need to send them a request to start following. If I've missed someone, or if you work at the Capitol and want to be included, please let me know. (I did not include the "personal" twitter accounts of capitol staffers.) Also, I'm not aware of the Governor or Lt. Governor's offices on Twitter. If they are, send us a tweet.


Representatives:


Gil Keith Agaran - twitter.com/gilkeithagaran


Della Au Belatti - twitter.com/daubelatti


Mele Carroll - twitter.com/carrolloffice1


Cindy Evans - twitter.com/rep_cindy_evans


Jon Riki Karamatsu - twitter.com/jonriki


Chris Lee - twitter.com/repclee


Marilyn Lee - twitter.com/marilynblee


Angus McKelvey - twitter.com/angusmckelvey


John Mizuno - twitter.com/forthepeople808

Marcus Oshiro - twitter.com/marcusoshiro


Mark Nakashima - twitter.com/marknakashima


Kymberly Pine - twitter.com/kympine


Gene Ward - twitter.com/geneward


Glenn Wakai - twitter.com/glennwakai





House Staff:



Thelma Dreyer - twitter.com/thelmadreyer


Georgette Deemer - twitter.com/georgettedeemer





Senators:

Rosalyn Baker - twitter.com/rozbaker

Kalani English - twitter.com/jkalanienglish


Will Espero - twitter.com/willespero


Carol Fukunaga - twitter.com/carol808


Mike Gabbard - twitter.com/senmikegabbard


Colleen Hanabusa - twitter.com/colleenhanabusa


Gary Hooser - twitter.com/garyhooser


Les Ihara Jr. - twitter.com/lesiharajr


Jill Tokuda - twitter.com/jilltokuda





Senate Staff:



Hawaii Senate Majority - twitter.com/hawaiisenate





Legislative Agencies:



House Sergeant at Arms - twitter.com/housesaa


Legislative Reference Bureau Library - twitter.com/LRBlibrary





Capitol Media:



Honolulu Advertiser Capitol Notebook - twitter.com/ddepledge


Honolulu Star Bulletin Politics - twitter.com/hsbpolitics

Lege? Leg? Ledge?

On the Twitter stream this morning...

@iloomis Wondering: is it Lege or Leg?

@lanceIagena @iloomis I vote Leg. Lege lends itself more to mispronounciation. Within context, Leg should work. I guess.

@georgettedeemer @iloomis I'm wondering the same thing! "Lege" or "Leg"? There is also "Ledge". Twitterverse, what say you?

@lavasusan @georgettedeemer @iloomis Twitter defaults to the brief, so I say Leg. "Lege" looks like "liege" & we don't want to promote that POV. :)

@danseto @georgettedeemer I spell it "Leg" but pronounce it as "Ledge". FWIW

@lanceIagena @georgettedeemer @iloomis Actually, Webster's has "leg." as abbreviation for legislature. So "Leg."?

@georgettedeemer @lanceIagena Interesting about Webster's. I guess the period is critical in this case, huh?

@lanceIagena @georgettedeemer Officially, the period makes it an abbreviation and so grammatically correct. You can pronounce whatever way you wish.

@invcondemnation @georgettedeemer - I write "lege" but I like @lavasusan's solution of "Leg." and will now switch to that.

@georgettedeemer @invcondemnation I was hoping you'd weigh in. OK then, the consensus seems to be spell it as Leg. and pronounce it as Ledge.

@iloomis @georgettedeemer Ha. That's funny, because I was doing Leg but now I like Lege. I look at Leg and think, "body part."

@georgettedeemer @iloomis I think it looks funny too, but makes sense if you add the period to Leg. Then it's definitely an "abbreviation."

I'm Addicted to Twitter

Not yet sure if you want to jump on the Twitter bandwagon? Many of our colleagues at the Hawaii State Capitol are already hopping on board to one of social media's most contagious addictions. Even more public relations and communications pros are tweeting it up as well. Are you a Twitter newbie getting your beak damp by pecking along the tweep (slang: twitter + peeps) profiles? Are you reading this post thinking "what the heck is Twitter!?" If so, then take a look at The Twitter Manual, a helpful user guide/ebook by David Risley. Again, Georgette and I can be found on twitter @georgettedeemer and @ThelmaDreyer

One of my favorite parts of the manual is the Top 10 Signs Youʼre Addicted to Twitter:

1. Youʼre on the Twitter website and find yourself refreshing the page rather than waiting for the auto-refresh. F5
is worn out.
2. You realize you need to turn off Twitter to get any work done. Problem is, you “realized” that an hour ago, too.
3. You get overly excited when you get a new follower.
4. You find yourself typing “@” to reply to people, even if its in an email.
5. You are bored and confused whenever there is another Twitter outage.
6. You have a Twitter client set to start automatically on boot up.
7. Your blog hasnʼt been updated in awhile, but youʼve been Twittering like crazy.
8. You feel the strong need to check up on Twitter before going to bed at night. Or perhaps on your laptop IN
bed.
9. First thing you do when you get home from date night with the wife is check Twitter.
10.You put your Twitter handle on your business card.

Sound like you?

(Thanks @HIBorg for the manual link!)

Layout, links and tweets

I'm sure that you all have noticed the new layout to the Hawaii House Blog. In addition to the three column layout, we have created several websites to help keep the public better informed. At the top right corner of the blog, below the search bar, you will find four links that will connect you to press releases, news articles, community newsletters and a photo gallery. We will be updating these websites daily.


The House Blog Team hopes to utilize as many pertinent avenues through new media and social media next session to help create a more transparent and interactive legislature. As we have mentioned before, you can connect directly to Georgette and me in real time on Twitter to receive updates about what's going on at the state capitol. Our contact information can be found at the top left corner of the blog. See you on the "tweet" side!

How 'Tweet' It Is

It's been a few months now that Thelma and I have been on Twitter, and speaking for myself, I've found it an interesting and effective way to communicate with a wide range of people. Today, the 13th floor, Governing magazine's blog, writes about Twitter and the number of high level government officials using the application. The US House and Senate are twittering, including sending out up to date 'tweets' on floor votes. For example, I found out about the failure of the bailout bill this morning via Twitter, not the mainstream media, and I suspect a lot of young folks are getting their news primarily from Twitter.

What is Twitter? For starters, it's hundreds of thousands of people answering the simple question: "What are you doing?" in 140 characters or less, and sharing that information to those who are following them on Twitter.

To me, it's an uber social networking and communications tool. It's the modern day equivalent of what used to be the networking mixer when people gathered after work to meet others with similar interests and who develop connections so that they might be able to help and support each other in various ways. Twitter is that but much more. It's partly about business marketing, but it's mainly about just connecting with other people.

Chris Brogan, the social marketing guru of our times, calls it "marinating". You develop relationships with people before your ask them to receive and consider your message. You marinate when you follow and contribute news about what you're doing, what you're thinking, and what's important to you. The result is all the "tastier".

Here's what I like about Twitter:

+You are limited to 140 characters. Yes, characters, not words. It's amazing what you are able to communicate in what is basically a sentence, and a short one at that. It forces you to edit yourself, and not fall in love with your own verbosity.

+You 'meet' all kinds of new Twitter friends, of all ages, of all backgrounds, living or traveling in different locations.

+You get a really good sense of what's on people's minds, even if it's whatever people are having for lunch that day.

+Sprinkled in amidst the twittering is serious stuff. Can't watch the presidential debate? Several people will be twittering the major points. Want to follow Hawaii election results when you're on the mainland? KGMB9 and The Honolulu Advertiser were twittering that night with up to date results.

The only thing I don't like about Twitter: Social marketing is one thing, but I'm not crazy about using Twitter strictly as a sales tool. When every tweet is strictly about promoting a certain product or organization.

I'm excited about the possibilities of using Twitter during the next legislative session. If you decide to try it out, go to Twitter.com and sign up. You can then follow us here:

http://twitter.com/georgettedeemer and http://twitter.com/ThelmaDreyer

We're all a Twitter!

The Hawaii House Blog is now on Twitter for all you folks who need to be in the know of all that is going on at the Hawaii State Capitol.

Twitter is a fairly new social network that many call microblogging or moblogging. Members must keep it short, 140 characters to be exact, when answering the perpetual question, "What are you doing?" The mini blogs can be sent to the mobile phones of your "followers" - that's friends in Twittalk for you newbies - via text messages.

We'll be using Twitter to provide interested folks with breaking news from the Capitol that anyone with a cell phone or Internet connection can get in real time. The great thing about Twitter is that it would be like a mini-HHB. You'll get the facts right when we get them in short blitzes of information even if you're not at your desk. Hey, we may not be at our desks either!

Let's start some chatter on Twitter! Join us at http://twitter.com/hawaiihouseblog.

Photo: Keep an eye out for our thumbnail on Twitter!