Tweet #afcpconf for the Myrtle Beach Conference!
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Twitter is a great tool for keeping up on so many things, and it's actually a good way to get a live news feed as to what's going on at a conference. I've been at other events where the attendees actually "tweeted" about what's going on & being said in the sessions they were attending. It can serve as a great collective note archive, or as a way to share ideas and links with other attendees and even those who couldn't attend the conference.
As we approach the Myrtle Beach conference, we can all start sharing thoughts and notes on Twitter by the use of hashtags. (No, that's not something from a Cheech & Chong movie.) A hastag is simply a word or phrase prefixed with a #.
Hashtags enable tweets on a specific subject to be found by simply searching for their common hashtag (provided that the user has tagged their tweet). Hashtags can be for an event, a person, a specific topic, etc. If you're on Twitter, you have probably already seen them but may not have known what they were.
The hashtag for the AFCP conference is #afcpconf.
When you tweet about something related to the conference, please remember to include the #afcpconf hashtag in your tweets. (Remember to include the # in front of the afcpconf).
Some sample tweets using this hashtag would be:
- "Listening to a great presentation on social media #afcpconf"
- "The session on Overcoming Objections is filling up so hurry up to get a seat #afcpconf"
- "Speaker from Google shared a great link on blogs http://tinyurl.com/blogspot #afcpconf"
When you go to search for conference related tweets later, simply use the hastag #afcpconf in your search whether you use http://search.twitter.com or some other Twitter client such as Tweet Deck. Try searching now; we have some sample conference tweets up there already.
Also, if you're on Twitter, please remember to follow AFCP on Twitter for other updates at the conference and throughout the year. Go to http://twitter.com/afcp to check it out.
For those of you not on Twitter or without your laptop or PDA, we will have displays at the conference where you'll be able to view live Twitter feeds around the conference area.
Marc
Marc Mandt is an expert in all things electronic and a great friend of the industry. Thanks, Marc!
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TweetDeck is a great help
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In the previous article, Marc mentioned a software package called, "TweetDeck." I downloaded it on my Mac (it runs on Linux and Windows, too) and love it.
You can automate Twitter, keep separate stuff separate and generally keep up to date on stuff, including #afcpconf!
Best of all, it's free!
Just Google TweetDeck and follow the links to install it.
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Maryland Ruling Supports Anonymous Postings
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by Wendy Davis, 2 hours ago
Maryland has joined the growing roster of states requiring courts to safeguard people's right to post anonymously online.
In a ruling issued late last week, Maryland's highest court ruled against unmasking commenters who allegedly defamed the owner of a local Dunkin' Donuts. The court wrote that the plaintiff in the case, a local businessman, had not presented enough evidence to show that he would be able to prevail in a libel claim at trial.
"On the one hand, posters have a First Amendment right to retain their anonymity and not to be subject to frivolous suits for defamation brought solely to unmask their identity," the court wrote. "On the other, viable causes of actions for defamation should not be barred in the Internet context."
With the decision, Maryland joins courts in Arizona, California, Delaware, New Jersey, New York and Texas, as well as the District of Columbia, that have ruled that anonymous commenters are entitled to legal safeguards before being unmasked, said Sam Bayard, assistant director of the digital rights group Citizen Media Law Project.
Bayard, who has been tracking these cases nationwide, warned that without such legal protections, people might sue to unmask bloggers simply to intimidate them or take other action against them outside of court.
"We need some protection for anonymity because it contributes to public debate," said Bayard. "There is a real risk that people will use the legal process to discover a person's identity, not because they want to pursue a claim, but because they want to retaliate."
The Maryland case stemmed from comments posted to the Independent Newspapers-owned site NewsZap.com about a Centreville, Md. Dunkin' Donuts owned by local entrepreneur Zebulon Brodie. One commenter called the store "one of the most dirty and unsanitary-looking food-service places I have seen," according to court papers. Another post complained about conditions outside the shop.
Brodie filed a lawsuit against Independent Newspapers for defamation on a NewsZap site and also sought to subpoena identifying information about individual commenters.
Brodie's allegations against the site were dismissed under the Communications Decency Act, which immunizes Web sites from libel for comments posted by users. But the trial judge ordered the news company, which collects registration information, to disclose data that would reveal the commenters' identities.
The Maryland Court of Appeals reversed that on the ground that Brodie would not be able to prove that the commenters libeled him. That determination hinged on a technicality: Brodie did not specifically file against the two pseudonymous commenters who wrote about the shop's conditions within the statute of limitations.
Public Citizen, which argued against the subpoena, had urged the court to rule that plaintiffs in defamation must show that the allegedly libelous statements were not true as a condition of unmasking commenters.
Maryland's highest court did not directly state that in its opinion, but did set out actions that courts must take before ordering sites to reveal commenters' identities. The court ruled that commenters must be notified about the proceeding and given an opportunity to respond. Also, courts must examine the allegedly libelous statements, determine whether the plaintiffs have alleged sufficient facts to potentially prove libel, and then balance the commenters' free speech rights against the strength of the libel claim.
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Cheers,
Craig McMullin
AFCP
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Visit Our Sponsor
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Or, give us an article to run as the bottom article on a future issue of Cheers for only $75!
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Follow AFCP on Twitter
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If you have a Twitter account, you can follow AFCP. Just enter
"f afcp"
in the update field on your Twitter page.
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AFCP Goes Social
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Now you can connect with industry associates by joining the AFCP groups.
AFCP has created groups at each of the major social networking sites (LinkedIn and Facebook).
Just click here for instructions on how you can join the AFCP groups. |
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