Twittering in Congress

As a former Congressional staff person, I never thought of the U.S. Congress as a technology savvy institution.  Our computers were old, the transition to email was slow, and the paging system was finally replaced by Blackberry’s a few years ago (after I left of course!).  So imagine my surprise when I read a recent AP story about Congressman Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich) using Twitter during a GOP protest on the Democrats' energy policy.  The article was really focused on the Presidential campaigns and Democratic Candidate Barack Obama’s innovative use of text messaging in the impending announcement of his Vice Presidential Candidate.  Well, we’ve know for awhile that the Presidential campaigns, Obama’s campaign in particular, have been pretty savvy in their use of technology and social media.   What really struck me in the article is that Congress is getting in the act too!  Wow, this signals change for sure! Getting Congress to embrace a new way of doing things is not an easy feat.  You go Twitter!