My #FollowFriday for March 27th, 2009

March 27, 2009 By Tommy 3 Comments

So, before I get to this week’s suggestions, I need to do a little catching up. I’ve been known to forget #FollowFriday regularly, so I’ve only got a few, but here they are – along with date and reason:

February 20th: @markfox – I’ve only met Mark once, though we’ve said we’re going to arrange another meeting soon. I gave him my first reccomendation for two reasons: A) He’d recently lost his job and thought I could make him smile with it, and B) Though he doesn’t blog regulary, he DOES have a “bowling” category… Which rocks. It also helped that he was local.

February 27th (Ok, 28th): @kingstonist – Harvey and I had been working like crazy on the new Kingstonist site, and he’d held out from joining Twitter for so long that I HAD to give him the plug once he singed up. If you haven’t checked out the K’ist yet, you should.

March 20th: @sarahamil and @gongshowj – My first DOUBLE reccomendation! Not something you’ll see often, I’d imagine. Sara and Jeremy regularly make the trip in for the monthly LNMG meetups. Sara drives – Jeremy drinks. It seems to work. It’s great to see them make the trip in, even through snow and ice, for a drink and some chat. I threatened Sara that I’d start a #unfollowsara meme. Sorry Sara – I lied.

So – that brings me to this week’s picks… And I’m back to a single – but with a twist! My wife’s been sick the last week or so, and I thought it might be nice to let her do the picking… So this week’s choice is:

March 27th: @lilyjmills – The story of my wife, Lily and I is actually pretty “small world”-ish. At PAB08, I was talking with someone about my wife and how she grew up in Simcoe, Ontario. Lily, at the next table over, asked me to repeat what I’d said as she grew up there too. Well, moments later, we discover that Lily actually grew up practically next door to my wife, knew her (and her family) and was close friends with my sister-in-law. It was surreal.

So that’s it! Follow all five of them to complete the collection!

Filed Under: Twitter

Meet @limestonetweets

March 23, 2009 By Tommy 3 Comments

So, slowly but surely, new online media stuff in Kingston is starting to grab hold. There are still [mostly] monthly meetups taking place to talk web technology and social networking, there are radio stations, newspapers and hockey teams on Twitter, and there’s a killer blog that’s starting to gain momentum. The last, oh, 6 months or so have seen an EXPLOSIVE amount of locals on Twitter, likely in a growth rate that rival’s the main site, and I thought it was time to do something with it.

So about 2 months ago, sitting alone in a hotel room, I created @limestonetweets. It’s a twitter account devoted entirely to the local Tweet scene and those involved in it. Beyond that, though, it’s been an experiment for me on multiple fronts:

  1. @limestonetweets is a directory, more than it is a soap box. The account follows(*) only people in (and around) Kingston, making it a perfect “first stop” for people in the city to find, and connect with, other locals. Sure, I use it occasionally to gather feedback, or announce a meetup, but it’s “following” list is a directory first and foremost.
  2. It’s also a chat room. Any DM sent to the account is broadcasted to the world – giving locals a chance to announce where they are to the whole community at once, and allowing for completely impromptu meetups to happen. Yes, similar COULD happen using something like BrightKite… but that’s not where the masses are.
  3. The account has also served as the test of my own abilities to manage multiple accounts. Verdict? Still out. For a while, I was really good at followbacks – that’s been tricky recently, but doable.
  4. It’s also been interesting to watch how the account has shifted from me working like mad to find locals, to other people finding it through friends. I spent hours combing the Twitterverse in serach of people from Kingston Ontario – as apposed to the Kingstons in Nova Scotia, Jamaica or the UK – to follow. These days? Not so much.
It’s a fun little experiment, though, and I think it’s proving useful.  I’m hopeful that in time, it’ll connect more people together and help the community in Kingston grow. That said, if you know someone I’m not yet following with it (I just cleared out a backlog) send me a personal @ or DM – or send a message @limestonetweets.
* More specifically, the software I’m using for the DM chat room stuff auto-follows, and I periodically go in and pull anyone not in the area. It’s toally a judgement call, but I err, usually, on the side of acceptance. I do, though, sometimes go through it’s list of followers, and see who they’re following, and who’s following them, to find other locals.
As an aside, hello blogosphere – It’s been too long.
Filed Under: Local, Projects, Twitter