It's conference season and it seems that over the last few months and over the next few months Melinda or I (or Eric, or Katie, or Ari) have been or will be attending quite a few of these events focused on public radio, non-profits, or web development. Sometimes exhausting, sometimes exhilarating, these conferences -- like Beyond Broadcast and Netsquared -- are a great place to meet people and track developing trends.

That Twitter is huge should be of no surprise to anyone. That Twitter has become the hip way of documenting and communicating during conference panels was, in the least, a huge surprise to me. It seems counter-intuitive to see so many communications professionals embrace en masse such a fractured mode of dialogue.

That being said, micro-blogging and text messaging start to make sense once you consider the un-ending stream of information and media and conversation that take place on the Internet. With such a deluge of content the smaller, tighter and pithier a contribution, the more likely that that content will be fished out of the river and comprehended. On the flip side of that, though, the more content that is being offered the harder it will be for your content to stand out, especially in the context rich world of a conference. For examples of both, check out how this madness was pefromed at the Beyond Broadcast and Netsquared conferences.

With these experiences and thoughts fresh on my mind, I am excited to announce that Ask Your Lawmaker is now stepping into the deep Twitter sea. Today, Ari and posted an answer to an extremely popular question about the complicated subject of windfall provisions for federal employees and social security. The more  cautious among you can check out that Q&A here, while I recommend that the bold and brave head over to AYL's Twitter page and sign up and start following our tweets.