In his Time Magazine piece, Johnson writes about how Twitter (relatively new in 2009, when he wrote the article) will change the nature of academic discussions. What most intrigued me was the way (as he described it) outsiders could join into ongoing discussions. Two scholars were arguing back and forth during a conference presentation (they were on twitter, as a back channel to the conference) and others in the room--and then others outside the room--joined in, creating the type of discussion that would take weeks and weeks to unfold on the editorial page of a newpaper, for example.
But how do we find out about these conversations? How does one tune in to what is being discussed? Sure, if the conversation is trending (with hundreds of hits), it will pop up on Twitter's list of hot feeds. But that seems like a high threshhold to meet.
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