I can only see it’s value in advertising things like you said: “I’m writing a blog post at http://www.freakedoutfathers.com/” (sorry, thought I’d sneak that in.

Let’s get back to getting away from screens occasionally and sitting across tables from people, or playing golf or darts with people, or going to events … with people.

I don’t know if they’re getting the most out of the medium though. Instead of “(from staff): Sen. Edwards and his family are in New Hampshire today. 05:58 PM April 02, 2007 from web “, why not do a few tweets (fine!) with specific times and places? Or, if you’re going to have cameras, tweet that too. “Sen. Edwards event in manchester will be CSpan2 Sunday @9pm.”

I have the same problem Laura has with astroturf, but if it’s clearly identified as being from staff, I don’t see a problem. In this case, it is clearly a communication from the campaign, not necessarily the candidate, and is a good and upfront tool for disseminating information.

As far as the tweets that aren’t prefaced by “from staff,” I’m not sure they aren’t from Sen. Edwards. He’s pretty engaged with new media, social networking, technology, etc.

The problem I have with politicians using Twitter is that they think it’s alright to have someone else write their thoughts for them. Having an intern write your press releases is VERY different than having an intern write for your Twitter or blog.

You can’t fake transparency. We’ll notice if you’re supposed to be at a rally and your twitter entries come from the web or IM instead of your phone. That’s why I’m thoroughly unimpressed with John Edwards’ Twitter account. If he isn’t writing it, what’s the point?

Laura

- If you’ve got an active network of stakeholders, Twitter could be used to send out breaking legislative alerts, notify supporters of breaking news, hype/remind people about events, etc. In essence, with a good-sized network, you can build a crowd or initiate a quick e-activism campaign quickly. Of course, the downside is, you’ve got to have enough stakeholders on Twitter to make it worth your while.

- Transparency. Some members of Congress are taking a big step forward in open government by publishing their schedules online. Isn’t Twitter a logical extension of that? John Edwards is doing that, but I think that the campaign could do an even better job of it.