It turns out that there is some academic value in #cdnpoli. Yes, that’s a Twitter hashtag. And a researcher from Mount Allison University – Tamara Small, one of Canada’s premier experts on digital politics – spent several weeks analyzing whether or not that particular hashtag and its contributors are adding any value to the larger Canadian political discussion.

That’s a very serious question that deserves some attention. After all, members of the political class – politicians, journalists, bloggers, engaged voters – are rabid users of the #cdnpoli hashtag. It’s their way of telling everyone else what they like or think is important about Canadian politics. But if everyone is contributing to nothing more than a Twitter cache, then what’s the point?

Tamara set out to answer that question (read her conclusions on her poster, which is hanging up on the 12th floor of H Building).

I’m glad she did. We happened to meet in front of her poster and started to talk about her conclusions. We spoke about all kinds of nerdy things that Twitter geeks talk about: the professionalism of #cdnpoli contributors; their effective and respectful use of the hashtag; and the open membership of the #cdnpoli community and what that means for the resulting dialogue.

Then, we parted ways thinking about where the research could go next. And that’s how it works at Congress.

Tamara and I spent about 15 minutes in front of her poster. As I walked away, it hit me: ours was just one of the many thousands of conversations that will have occurred during the eight days of sessions at Congress. Some were far longer than ours, and many were far larger, but the common denominator throughout was the dialogue.

Everybody who attends Congress is better for it – no exceptions. That’s almost 9,000 people who will leave Montreal better off than they were just a week ago.

That’s an overwhelming thought.