We’re very sorry to report that Barack Obama has never used Twitter. No, I didn’t expect that he personally composed *all* of the Barack Obama account Twitter updates, but some – surely!

In my heart of hearts I always suspected that some of those campaign tweets were from the Blackberry of the great man himself.

And when he followed me back all those months ago it was always possible that it had been Barack himself who had happened to log in that evening and check the new followers section.

But no, Barack has not been on Twitter. His Twitter account is all the work of minions. At a Q&A session with Chinese students in Shanghai, a student asked him : “Do you know about the great firewall and should we be able to use Twitter?” His reply: “I have never used Twitter but I’m an advocate of technology and not restricting internet access.” (via Breaking News Online)

He does have a large country to run, so I suppose he’s busy, but this must be a disappointment to at least some of his 2.6 million followers…

So if you’re reading this Mr President uh, um… Twitter is good, you should try it. Can I have an autograph?

ReadWriteWeb took the opportunity to make a wider point about change and global politics:
“Got that? The President went to China, was asked about Twitter and it was streamed live on his Facebook page. How the world has changed.”

I still want Barack Obama’s autograph. That’s all.

Plenty more about Twitter from us tomorrow when we’re covering the 140 character conference #140conf.

Related: Why Pointless Babble is the Point of Twitter

Nikon S1000pj: World’s First Projector Camera

Editor’s Note: Third paragraph changed to take out previously incorrect mention involving a person who was laid off from Forbes. We regret the error.

Here’s something you don’t see very often: the Social Media Insider staring at a blinking cursor, with no freakin’ clue as to what the column should be about, five hours into the work day. I’ve trolled all of the usual sources looking for something to write about: Mediapost’s OnlineMediaDaily, Twitter, Facebook, Twitter, Mashable, the keyword “social media” on Google, Ad Age, Twitter again.

And all I discovered is that I’m not the only one finding that Facebook is suggesting I follow dead people, which might be some cool Halloween meme except for the fact that it’s actually happening. Which is scary. Perhaps that’s why there are so many social media ghosts floating around my brain looking for a place to anchor themselves.

But you know and I know that my lack of a topic was generated by something else: the information overload engine. It’s absolutely impossible not to find social media news, or not to find out news by using social media, just as it’s impossible to breathe without oxygen. In fact, today, using social media, I discovered tha a “kickass” writer specializing in fashion, retail, and lifestyle just got laid off from Forbes; that ABC thankfully cancelled a plan to promote its series “V” by mysteriously skywriting the letter “V” in the sky over major cities because it would be too scary; that Carrot Creative’s Mike Germano is looking for new office space; that 59% of all visits in the social network category happened on Facebook; and that the site of the Norwegian Royal Family has a lot of broken links.

Which is to say I learned everything, and nothing, all in five hours’ time. And that brings me back to the dead people. According to one of the posts about the dead Facebook people that I read on Mashable, the reason Facebook might be, um, trying to resurrect its members’ relationships (really, with live people — the dead people suggestions were an unintended, if holiday-themed, mistake) is because its growth is slowing. If that’s the case — and it will be soon if it isn’t already — the best thing to do is expand usage among people who’ve already joined. Suggesting ways for people to reconnect is one way to do that. It’s no longer about quantity, but about online quality time.

It’s becoming a similar challenge with the information that social media generates.

Certainly, most of us will continue to find new Facebook friends and Twitter followers, but we’re rapidly getting to the point where it is becoming at least as important to figure out what to do with the content we all generate, as it is to create it. Last week’s column, in in which I pooh-poohed the value of real-time search, touched on that idea; we haven’t necessarily found great ways to use real-time search for either commercial or noncommercial purposes. (Not that we won’t, mind you, but it’s a work in progress.)

Apparently — and I learned this on Twitter, naturally — this was part of what was discussed at today’s #140conf. Robert Scoble (@scobleizer) said “curation” and “search-discovery” are two of five trends on Twitter.

I know this isn’t news to you guys exactly, but at least it gives this overloaded Social Media Insider a direction to point to for the next column, which will be on ways people are starting to make sense out of all this content. Perhaps it will even stem future cases of writer’s block caused by the information overload engine. For next week’s column idea, I thank a certain very much alive Facebook friend who helped me see the information forest for the trees today. Just too late for the purposes of fleshing out the idea for this column. Cobwebs, be gone!

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Twitter isn’t the only social media/web-based tool to “democratize” the flow of information, but it has certainly sped up the way that news—not to mention rumors, scams and other potentially discreditable info—is disseminated. At the 140Conf, Arianna Huffington, Peter Hirshberg, Al Seckel, KCDL’s Caprice Young and CNN’s Jon Kline discussed the hurdles that media and educational organizations face in dealing with an ever-increasing stream of information without validation or context. They also talked about how companies can try to profit from it.

—Using the stream wisely: “Companies are finding ways to harness this info; The Hourly Press lets editors take lists and links of news that’s resonating in different areas, and get updated hourly on how and where it’s moving across the web,” Hirshberg said. “There’s a company called Social Compact that looks at 30 sources of real-time data to help drive investment in under-served urban areas. The AMAs used Twitter visualizations during the live broadcast to make sure that the show reflected what was important to the viewers.”

—Crowd-sourcing better news stories: “The best way to make sure you’re telling the right story is to have as many inputs as possible,” said Kline. “It takes more time because you have more info to vet; it can also create more confusion. But with input from multiple journalists and viewers—because we can’t be everywhere, but our viewers can—we can paint a 3D picture instead of a 2D one.”

—A non-stop flow of information needs human moderation: “You can’t do away with traditional human fact-checking, in the same way you can’t do away with human comment moderation,” Huffington said. “We have 30 comment moderators working 24/7. I insisted on it from the start, because if we were going have civil discourse and criticism—and get people to write for free—then we needed to curb the trolls and anonymous violence [that they can incite].”

—Prepping the next generation of news consumers—and creators: “Kids today are tech-savvy, but not informationally-savvy,” said Young, CEO of KC Distance Learning, and formerly CEO of the California Charter (NSDQ: CHTR) Schools Association. “They have no ability to distinguish the credibility of the content they see on the net, but they’re extremely good at spreading it. They’re some of the most active creators of this real-time information, so we need to make sure that we’re teaching them how to vet it, first.”

Posted In: Media & Publishing, Online News, Social Media, arianna huffington, cnn, twitter

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Greetings to those of you finding your way here by way of the 140 Characters Conference (#140conf) at the Kodak Theatre, home of the Oscars, in Los Angeles. I’m speaking today, Oct. 27, at 3:35PM PT on the panel Hollywood Politics: The Making of a Twitter Cause Celeb. My co-panelists are Wendy Cohen from Participant Media and Ted Johnson from Variety, and it’s being moderated by blogger Maegan Carberry.

First things first, I hope you’re already interacting with me via AMC News on Twitter. If you’re not, please start now.

For those of you that have no idea what the 140conf is, here are some details from the conference itself:

At the #140conf events, we look at twitter as a platformand as a language we speak. Over time it will neither be the onlyplatform nor the only language. #140conf is not an event aboutmicroblogging or the place where people share twitter “tips andtechniques” but rather where we explore the effects of the emergingreal-time Internet on Business.

The original scope of #140confwas to explore “the effects of twitter on: Celebrity, “The Media”,Advertising and (maybe) Politics.” Over time the scope expanded toinclude Sports, Music, The Arts, Sciences and more. Given the locationof #140conf:LA, this event will have a special focus on the use oftwitter in the Entertainment Industry.

AMC News launched in September of last year, since then we’ve madeit a point to continue what we do, and produce original and uniquecontent once we’re off-air. On-air you can find me reporting Thursdaynights for AMC News at the latest movie premieres and in one-on-one sitdown conversations with actors and filmmakers for Opening Night, and during our half-hour AMC News Specials from film festivals; last year we were at Sundance and Tribeca. Online you can find extended versions of nearly every piece of content that goes online, whether it’s my interview with Larry David and Woody Allen or Mayor Bloomberg at Tribeca, our coverage of SXSW 2009, or exclusive Emmy-night access with the cast of Mad Men. We use frequent on-air throws to Twitter(and link after every AMC News update), so that we can continue ourconversations, take suggestions or curate our own version ofentertainment news online, whether it’s a primary source tweet, articlefrom a major newspaper, or video.

We keep trying new things. On Emmy night last month, I camped out inthe Emmy press conference room where I live-tweeted results of theawards show. The results, some who were following along with me onTwitter said, came in a split second before the TV broadcast. Thatnight, like I often do from premieres, I uploaded photos. For the first time, we experimented with video on Twitter. And we’re continuing to explore many ideas for what our coverage can be.