A few months ago I started following Ron Sylvester on Twitter because I thought what he was doing was incredibly interesting. What I found so interesting about what he does is that he actually live tweets from various trials and court hearings in Kansas. So even if you cannot be there you can still get almost up to the minute readings of the transcripts of the proceedings.
Up until a few days ago I thought nothing of it. That is until I ran across an article talking about potential legal implications of tweeting from within a court hearing:
The BBC reported that the verdicts in two US trials are being appealed against because of comments about them on social networking sites made by jurors. Jurors are forbidden to discuss anything relating to a case outside the courts, but experts believe that the emergence of new technologies is challenging the rules.
In the two cases, defence lawyers say that postings by jurors on sites such as Twitter and Facebook could be grounds for appeal. In one case in Philadelphia, juror Eric Wuest admitted posting comments about proceedings on Facebook, such as telling people to expect “a big announcement on Monday.” Wuest maintained that they were his private musings, and the judge resisted calls from the defence to remove him from the jury.
You know what? I have no response for this. Reading through a lot of what was stated in that article, it made sense that jurors tweeting about the case they are appraising seems almost not right to an extent. I also got to thinking about Ron Sylvester and the potential implications he could face if his tweets were ever to be called into question on the grounds that they could be steering someone toward an opinion. Of course I dismissed that thought rather quickly when I realized that court hearings are reported on very often and that people will make their own assumptions and develop their own opinions without the need for outside help.
But still, I can’t help but wonder if someone closely related to a case was somehow spilling information about the case, the trial or the deliberations if that couldn’t somehow become grounds for a mistrial or even a complete dismissal. I would hope that would never happen.
But with information being generated and disseminated faster and faster these days, perhaps there is no way to stop it from happening. Perhaps there is a chance that someday the rapid spread of information like this could somehow be used to help try cases or even conduct the hearings? Probably not likely to happen.
If for no other reason than because Twitter will likely crash under the use and call its star witness…
I am a social media hound. I love the social web and all that it encompasses. And as a web developer I love finding new instances of technology in use around the Internet. In the arena of Internet technology no where has there been as exhaustive an explosion of technological advancement and the inventive use of said technology as in the social media space.
It would go without saying then I have a pretty deep place in my internet <3 for social web sites that kick ass when it comes to the use of modern technology (or older technology with a modern, inventive spin on it). Of those sites, my favorites are Twitter, BrightKite and FriendFeed. I am not really sure if I like Plurk and Kwippy just yet, though I do use them. I also have accounts at Utterz, Pownce and Identi.ca, and I tie them all together with Ping.fm. I am not at all a fan of Flickr or Picasa or YouTube or Facebook or MySpace. There is just something so nasty about all of them that I only visit those sites on occassion and, when I do, it is usually only for short amounts of time.
Enough about my fascination with the social web. Today I was asked by Twitter’s own @missmotormouth herself, Michelle Naranjo, to be Interviewed because some of the recent Tweets I have made regarding fuel prices and the effects of said prices on families, outings and the general economy of the home. I have used the social web for a while as a medium to voice some of my discontent with rising fuel prices. I have used this blog to voice a lot more of the discontented feelings I have regarding lots of stuff. A lot of what I feel makes its way into the social circle, including my thoughts on homeschooling, marriage, finances, work, programming and many other issues that I hold dear to me.
In talking with Michelle about fuel prices we also got on the subject of homeschooling. We talked briefly about her daughter’s challenges in public and private schools and her success with homeschooling before being admitted to a magnet school. We talked about the current state of the California education system. We talked about Christianity (mildly) and we talked about the economy.
We also talked about Toyota and the trail they are blazing through the auto manufacturing sector, the experience I had with NUMMI (a GM and Toyota joint venture plant), some of the knowledge I had gained from knowing the Toyota Production System and some of the other things I have experience with, like car sales, design, time to market and customer experience. In the end it was a great hour or so spent talking business, economy, children and experience. Plus I was asked if, in the future some time, I might consider writing a guest blog for an as yet to be named site (not sure how I would do that seeing as I can barely keep up with mine).
But of all that I could take from this experience the one thing that stood out to me the most is that the social web can be used in today’s business world if used properly. Not all socializing on the net is young men stalking young women hoping to “hook up”. It is very possible to find lots of useful information, and to provide lots of useful information, when you use the internet in an appropriate way. It has given everyone an equal voice and a platform by which to project that voice. And I have used that platform, sometimes thinking that I was the only one on the internet, to broadcast my thoughts, rants, feelings and commentary. And lo and behold, someone was listening.
Socializing with me
If you ever want to know what I am up to when I am not totally neglecting this blog…
http://twitter.com/RobertGonzalez/
http://brightkite.com/people/RobertGonzalez/
http://friendfeed.com/robertgonzalez
http://www.plurk.com/user/robertgonzalez
http://www.kwippy.com/RobertGonzalez/
http://www.utterz.com/RobertGonzalez
http://pownce.com/RobertGonzalez/
http://identi.ca/robertgonzalez/
Late on Monday, May 25, something neat and peculiar and romantic and funny happened in the social sphere. A marriage proposal was made.
Ok, I know you are asking “How in the hell is that big news? Actually, how is that news at all?” Let me tell you.
This is the first time I have seen a marriage proposal offered up through the Internet. I know it has been done before but this is the first I have seen.
Another thing that is a little different for me is that it was sent out over Twitter. To follow along with the way it went down, you can read the following Tweets from the timeline of Mark Davidson (AKA @markdavidson):
Naturally, there had to be a response. The future Mrs.@markdavidson, Daisy Avenue (AKA @DaisyAvenue) tweeted the following:
So there you have it. A marriage proposal and an acceptance made entirely in cyberspace. On Twitter no less.
You go intarwebs.
Now I can only wonder if their wedding will be broadcast live on Ustream?