Being trapped in the bunker that is the Xcel Center's press filing center, I'm not too sure how much, if at all, it's being covered on the prime time news out in the real world, but as I type there's a tremendously tense situation happening just a few blocks away from where the Republican National Convention is taking place. Hundreds of protesters are being held on a bridge near the intersections of John Ireland and Kellogg Boulevards. (See picture.)

But if you're not seeing that news on your teevee screens, no worries -- the protests are being Twittered to an extraordinary degree. In fact, protesters are making good use of mobile and flexible social tools that are empowering them to organize and stay one step ahead of police.

One of the central organizers Twittering the protests goes by the name of notq. One of his most successful techniques he's using is to retweet -- or republish -- the tweets of fellow protesters and observers. News passed along the Twitter channel is helping protesters to stay informed on-the-fly, at a time when hard information is difficult to come by. Take this report, from about an hour ago: "Arrest teams are approaching seated protesters on Marion bridge. Resisters are told they'll be met with force."

I was somewhat surprised to find my own Twittered reporting being pulled into the mix, but it's really quite a clever use of all available information. Down investigating the protests at about 5 p.m. central time, I thumb-typed this on my iPhone: "Police blocking access to Capitol, hunkered down as if for onslaught. Say protesters have passed time on permit and can't pass." My intended audience was my friends and followers who might reading from home, whether in New York or California. But that tweet was repurposed, picked up and passed along as logistical guidance for the protesters.

The direct-dial hotline that connects arrested protesters to Cold Snap Legal, a local legal collective established to, in its own words, "support the radical community," has been passed along through Twitter dozens of times this week. Perhaps most useful for first-time protesters, also passed along was the directive to ink 651.356.8635, the hotline number, on their arms in indelible ink. That tried-and-true protest tip became even more useful as as reports came in that, once detained, police were taking away any paper that arrestees happened to have on them.

notq also notified fellow protesters that the 3G cellular network downtown had gone down earlier this evening. The network had been used to do live streaming video feeds from the protests grounds by the local citizen media organization The Uptake, among others. And Twitter is also being used in the to keep tabs on fellow protestors: "Oliver still unaccounted for. If you see tall blonde guy in blue uptake shirt please tweet. Retweet plz." Indeed, that note on Oliver was retweeted a least three more times.

That said, notq at least, sees the need to do more in the future. "Next time we really need to be more prepared. List of phone numbers. A wiki for updates. This is a good lesson." We've been been witnessing police use age old crowd control techniques all week in St. Paul. For their part, the protesters are using brand new ones.