It's election time. We can fully enjoy party leaders verbally attacking each other in all kinds of debates on radio and TV. But we also see debates emerging via Twitter. On Monday 3 September, the #kennisdebat took place, a debate via Twitter about knowledge and innovation in the Netherlands, initiated by a group of knowledge institutions.
Politicians and well-known top people from the business world and sciences gave their vision on the future of the Netherlands as a knowledge economy. Together with a lot of other Twitterers. A good moment to take a closer look at such a debate and see if Twitter is actually suitable for conducting a debate.
Beforehand I wondered how such a debate would develop. In 'live debates', for germany telegram data example, strict attention is paid to the number of rounds to present arguments or to respond to an opponent's positions. Participants must stay on topic. A debate leader monitors the process and summarizes occasionally. In the Twitter debate, this role would be taken on by a moderator. Would that run smoothly or would it become an unclear chaos?