It’s been two and a half years since I signed up for Twitter.

Since then, this micro-blogging craze has become far more mainstream than when I first wrote about it here in sydneyanglicans.net in 2009.

So much so, in fact, that the next major iPhone and iPad software update has integrated Twitter in the operating system.

One of the things that has taken off since then is the use of Twitter as a means of interacting and debating in live talks and discussions.

For many Australians, this was popularised by the ABC with the integration of a twitter stream into the live debate program, Q and A, with a selection of tweets being displayed on the screen.

For those new to the craze, the way that a discussion or twitter stream can be compartmentalised into one ‘location’ is for each of the short tweets to include in the text what’s known as a ‘hash-tag’. So, for Q and A, the hash-tag is #qanda.

At the recent Oxygen Christian Leaders’ Conference, Twitter featured strongly behind the scenes, with many delegates tweeting summaries of the talk points, as well as discussions of some of the controversial issues.

In many ways, this is just a high-tech way of passing notes to each other during a talk. On the other hand, this technology allows hearers to be active listeners, and sometimes even participants, during talks.

On the second day of Oxygen, I put my body on the line for science, choosing to flood the #oxygen11 hash-tag with my personal talk notes (and some random comments). You can read the #oxygen11 discussion here

So, was it useful? Well, for me it served to help me be a more active listener that I otherwise would have. I listened hard to try and distil the main points, and to record as best I could the quotable quotes.

It was also very interesting to be aware of some of the controversial issues that were raised in real-time, helping me to work harder at measuring up the words of the preacher with the word of God.

During one of the talks, I replied to a tweet with this comment (my bit is after the two //):

“@dmisty: Do tweeters take notes? just curious. #oxygen11” // Think of them as Wiki notes

In a sense, what I and the others were doing was working on one, combined set of interactive sermon notes, or perhaps what could be called Wiki notes.

As a preacher, it encourages me to try and work hard at distilling my main points of my sermon into tweetable bites. If I can make my main points short and punchy, then it will certainly help my online (and offline) note takers to better capture the essence of the talk.

Overall, I found the experience helpful. Others might have found it distracting. What are your thoughts?

Jodie McNeill is the Executive Director of Youthworks Outdoors. You can follow him at @jodiemcneill