Bloggers Robert Scoble via the aid of Andrew Feinberg contribute to the breaking of a NYT piece today on the usage and issues around the usage os microblogging and life streaming tools Twitter and Qik. The controversy is around whether or not members of congress should be allowed to use these new social lifestreaming tools. The focus of the piece is on Representative John Culberson, Republican of Texas, who is an avid Twitizen and wrote on his Twitter.com profile, “I just learned the Dems are trying to censor Congressmen’s ability to use Twitter Qik YouTube Utterz etc — outrageous and I will fight them,” The way the article is written one would have to believe that the democrats are in favor of regulating the usage while the Republicans are all over Twitter! However Nancy Pelosi came back with a ‘friend me’ type response, and replies, “I have a blog, use YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, Digg, and other new media to communicate with constituents” and that the Dems proposal would “relax rules that prohibit members from posting on sites other than the House.gov domain.”
One of the best and promising parts of the article is the involvement of Culberson’s followers. NYT says,
But Mr. Culberson, after taking suggestions from hundreds of online “followers” on his Twitter site, drew up a counterproposal on Friday, calling on House leaders to lift nearly all restrictions on external content.
Qik Video by Feinberg with Culberson
The KeyInfluencer 