The Israel Consulate now has a twitter account and has been offering updates to the conflict and holding "tweet" news conferences. As many of you know, I am a fan of Twitter and of 12second.TV (and of current tv as well), and feel that the next new communication breakout will be via twitter. This new development, Israel Citizen's "press Conference," helps solidify my case.

Reading the New York Times, Noam Cohen wrote a nice piece on the twitter press conference titled "The Toughest Q's Answered in the Briefest Tweets." Noting the trend of moving from traditional news sources to the new social media/new media sources that presents an interactive element with the audience, Cohen notes the Military Channel on YouTube that offers the illusion of transparency in military action.

There are, I believe, some interesting consequences in this move to social media (A move that the Obama team in making in mass considering the number of "Obama" folks following me on twitter). First, getting a message in 140 characters or less offers a feeling of intimacy but also limits firm attempts at communication. You can sell a brand in 140 characters, but can you explain a military action in deeper terms other than "they deserved it" or as soon to be president Bush might have said, "its us against them."

Judging from the conference tweets, yes and no. What helps, of course, is the ability to link to other sources including traditional news articles, YouTube videos and central blogs. What also helps again is the idea that the "Israel Consulate" will DM (Direct Message) you back, again creating the feeling of both transparency and intimacy which is so terribly lacking in traditional news forums.

Yet as I write this, I do note that Twitter, like other innovative devices before it, is falling to the same "devils" of destruction. Advertisers are tweeting like crazy and using the search functions to find out who is tweeting their product names and why. The good folks at Splitweet allows you to tweet from multiple twitter accounts while keeping track of how many of your tweets utilize branding (I am happy to say I am at 0 brands!).

Also, as has been reported widely, there are now serious efforts to hijack people's twitter accounts and send DMs directing those you follow to a virus loaded site. . . . is there anything that can be kept pure? Doubt it.