No other expression best applies to what happened to me while I was  reading one of this week’s class readings: Social Media Can Open Door to Philantropy’s Future, by Larry Blumenthal.

In his Op-Ed, Larry Blumenthal describes a workshop he led for staff from a variety of foundations to convince them that there were no such thing as Social Media. To him, engaging with Social media is tantamount to fostering collaboration, openness, transparency, timeliness, sharing work in progress, embracing and learning from failure. In this respect, the author believes, any person claiming that Social Media does not seem relevant to his or her work is–to say the least– totally wrong!

Little by little, Blumenthal’s arguments started to convince me…I was seduced. Actually, I believe i wanted to be convinced.

Such an easy thing:all I had to do was to  keep reading his piece to the end and say to myself “He is so right! I should not be concerned anymore with spending hours a day on facebook/twitter/flickr and youtube while studying at the same time, that is actually good for me! This is a better way to stay informed! This is a tool that can help me do what I am already doing, only more effectively”

But that couldn’t unfold this way and that is exactly what happened: It didn’t unfold this way…Just like rain brought itself to a week-end that had started with the sun, my friend Yoel’s message had to distract my attention from Blumenthal’s mess.And not in a insignificant way.

I open Yoel message. It was entitled “Reda, you’ll love that!”. Let’s have a look at the message’s body. Nothing but a link.

Ok, I click on the link. “The Top Ten Ways Workers Waste Time Online”. Funny coincidence, isn’t it?

I scroll down and discover a list of ten things allegedly making people waste time online and lose productivity, especially when they are working. All that Blulmenthal’s Social Media Improvement Thing was supposed to avoid.

The website looks really serious.After quickly scrolling down to have a general sense of what that page was all about, I started to read it from the beginning. The verdict just killed my enthusiasm:

Number 1: Social Networks – 1.24 hr/week

“Social networking has come to dominate Internet use.  Nucleus Research, an IT research firm, found that 77% of employees who have access to Facebook from work check it at least once a day.  Of course, other large and fast-growing social media sites such as Twitter also contribute to the loss in productivity.”

I’ve read this article from the Times a few times now and don’t know whether it’s because the writing’s so muddled, the premise so absurd or my four hours of sleep is blocking some necessary synaptic connection needed to understand why this actually happened, but what most definitely happened is that a man was arrested.

Apparently for Tweeting.

Or, in the parlance of the Times, 41-year-old Elliot Madison was “charged with hindering apprehension or prosecution, criminal use of a communication facility and possession of instruments of crime.”

I think — if I read this right — Elliot camped out in his hotel with a police scanner, a nom de guerre and favorite Twitter app and basically sent out updates on where the police were heading at any one time. Sort of like, wait for it, Iranian protesters did to much global fanfare just a few months back.

According to the Times:

A criminal complaint in Pennsylvania accuses him of “directing others, specifically protesters of the G-20 summit, in order to avoid apprehension after a lawful order to disperse.”

That’s about as helpful as the Times is in explaining the infraction. Are the police claiming that one cannot monitor their position and activity through scanners and then broadcast that information (via sms, Twitter or otherwise)? Are they saying that Elliot was aiding and abetting by sending information directly to people engaged in criminal conduct?

And is this a free speech issue where a) one should be able to report on the whereabouts of public servants, and b) make that information available in the time, manner and means one chooses? The Times doesn’t say. Maybe they don’t have any idea either.

What did happen though is that FBI agents spent 16 hours searching Elliot’s Jackson Heights, Queens home.

Just strange.

UPDATE 01: The Electronic Frontier Foundation posted Madison’s motion and his lawyer’s supporting declaration.

UPDATE 02:: As Russ notes in the comments below, BuzzNews fills in some blanks and from there we get a first hand report from Birds Before the Storm via Steampunk Magazine.