Last year I tweeted and blogged the Australian Historical Association Conference in Adelaide (you can read my posts here). I have found twitter invaluable for putting me in touch with people and historical resources I would never have known otherwise.

In a conference session many people take notes. Tweeps go one step further – they share their notes as they are writing them with the world. People who cannot attend the conference can then ‘listen in’ and participate in conference discussions. This is a boon to historians in more remote parts of the world like Australia as we can share the work we do with others much easier. American and English historians were following the Australian conference through twitter last year.

Likewise we can listen in to conferences that we cannot attend. This post
which I wrote about following the American Historical Association conference last year addresses many of the questions you have. The conversation at the conference continued through twitter, into this post and the comments. The post was then tweeted, not only by historians, but by researchers in public health and education around the world.

Thanks for your questions Caroline. If you do decide to join twitter, make sure you follow PHA NSW – @pha_nsw.