Announcing the First #Biometric Tweet Chat Hosted by @M2SYS Technology

When:  October 6, 2011

11:00 am EST, 8:00 am PST, 16:00 pm BST, 17:00 pm (CEST), 23:00 pm (SGT), 0:00 (JST)

Where: Tweetchat.com

What: The First tweet chat about biometric technology

                                                         Topic: Biometrics and Privacy

October the 6th, 2011 will mark the first tweet chat on biometric technology of its kind.  After running a couple of polls and talking with some industry professionals, we thought it was a good time to start a chat that helps educate, promotes communication and openly discusses challenges and issues that the biometrics industry faces.  Plus, it will also provide an opportunity to take a look into the future and ponder what changes may lay ahead and how they can affect the many different vertical markets that biometric technology touches.

Not familiar with a tweet chat?  A Twitter tweet chat is a  pre-scheduled chat on Twitter where participants can discuss and learn in real time through the use of updates (tweets) about topics of interest with other industry professionals and anyone else who wishes to participate.  Formal Twitter tweet chats are arranged in advance and occur at a specific time.  The biometric tweet chat will include a formal agenda with a specific leader or “speaker”, and involve a free flowing discussion between all participants.

To make tweet chats easier to follow, a Twitter hashtag is used for each chat so you can easily follow the conversation by creating a separate search within your favorite Twitter platform.  The hashtag that will be used for the first chat is #biometricchat  Although it is possible to participate in a tweet chat through a platform such as Hootsuite or Tweetdeck, we recommend using an online platform like Tweetchat which makes it very easy to follow the discussion, add in your own tweets and ask questions to the guest or other participants.  Simply click on “Sign In” on the top right hand corner and authorize the application (if you are already signed into Twitter) or enter your Twitter handle and password.  You will then see a hashtag symbol at the top of the page (#) and an open field directly next to it.  Type in “biometricchat” and the stream will then begin to list all of the tweets that are marked with the hash tag #biometricchat.  If you want to contribute to the conversation, type your tweet into the box below “Message to #biometricchat” and then hit your “enter” key or click on “update.”  You can also @reply to tweets, or retweet (RT) using the symbols on the right hand side of each tweet in the stream.

The format of the first chat will be single question, topic based Q&A which means that the chat will be on a general topic (privacy and biometrics), that asks specific, numbered questions to a guest throughout the chat within that topic. Each question gets roughly 15 minutes, and the chat lasts one hour. Participants can follow along the chat stream, and add any answers of their own to the questions, plus add opinions, additional questions and any other thoughts.  We expect that everyone understands there is a level of respect, decency and courtesy which is expected from participants and this is not an opportunity to castigate, berate or intentionally demean any guest or participant in the chat.

Our first guest for the inaugural biomteric tweet chat will be James Baker who will be representing the NO2ID campaign in the UK. James has previously written a guest blog post about biometrics and privacy for M2SYS in which he articulates his viewpoint on the perception of biometrics from privacy advocates and suggestions on how the industry can improve the technology to work towards privacy enhancement. James (and possibly some additional colleagues from the campaign TBD) will share; thoughts about biometrics and privacy to help everyone understand the issues that they see, the reasoning behind their views and the fundamentals of their interpretations.  We are grateful that they will be our guests for the first biometric tweet chat.  This discussion is not meant to be biased, but rather a free flow of conversation and open communication about biometric technology and privacy.

If there is a question that you would like us to include during the chat, please submit it to: john@m2sys.com and we will do our best to include it during the chat.  If the first biometric tweet chat goes well, we will continue to schedule the chat for the first Thursday of every month at the same time.

We look forward to seeing everyone on the 6th of October, and hope that you will spread the message to any colleagues or friends that you feel would benefit from the chat.  Please feel free to leave any comments below.