#storylab

After reading about the Washington Post's Coffee House Newsroom experiment this morning, I decided to stop by and give J. Freedom duLac a visit. We chatted for a while about the university and journalism, and of course, Twitter came up.

I've had a love-hate relationship with the social media tool ever since I left last year's NewsVision conference feeling like not having a Twitter account doomed me to journalistic failure. (I caved and joined the next day.)

I agree that's Twitter's great for connecting people, finding cool links and breaking down the lines of corporate communication to, for example, unload on someone about the lack of power in your house.

I followed the #storylab tweets all day but felt like I was eavesdropping. Yes, people post this information publicly, so an expectation of privacy is absurd. But it was odd and surreal to see reporters joking back and forth and editors counting down the hours to deadline. I felt like I was in the newsroom with them, which is ironic considering none of the reporters were even in the newsroom.

Nevertheless, my inner pendulum is slowly swinging toward online re-engagement. I might give Twitter another shot. This evening I told my brother I'm thinking about getting an iPhone soon.

At least it's not an äppärät.