If you’ll be watching John McCain and Barack Obama verbally spar in the US Presidential Debate this evening, here are a few techonologically-savvy tips to get the most of out of the experience:
• Don’t just tune in to the tube. Visit etruth tomorrow, click on this story headline and do some “live blogging” of your own — get a discussion going about whichever issues the moderators throw at the candidates. You’ll have to register with our site, but it’s free (you can even create a user profile while you’re at it).
• Don’t watch the debates alone. If you’ve got the time, throw a “DebateWatch” party: The Commission on Presidential Debates recommends gathering your friends, picking a group leader and going over pre-planed discussion questions afterward, i.e. “What topics or issues discussed in the debates were most useful or informative?”
• Embrace Web 2.0 technology. Twitter will feature plenty of 140-character-or-less “tweet” updates on tonight’s debate happenings. If you join the site, you’ll be able to follow journalists, pundits and regular viewers alike as they observe. Notable Twitter users include Time.com blogger Ana Marie Cox and MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann.
• Forget TV. Watch the whole dang thing online, if you want: University of Mississippi is Ground Zero for the debate this year, and will offer live streaming coverage of the event on its web site. Click here to catch “Debatecasts” past and present.