Capstrat recently hosted Triangle Tweetup 2.0, a gathering of Triangle residents who use the popular social networking service, Twitter. Twitter is a service that allows users to stay in contact with one another by sending short answers to the question, “What are you doing?” Nearly seventy people attended the event and highlights included a demo of the video conversation network, Seesmic (http://www.seesmic.com ), a demo of Twitter Movie Reviews (http://jazzychad.com/twitter/movies ), and a happy hour at Capstrat’s media bar. Here’s a photo of the assembly, but there’s many more available Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/triangletweetup).
Since joining Twitter back in March and gaining some insightful, and sometimes entertaining, conversation from it, I’ve noticed a change. I now think in 140 characters or less. At random times throughout the day, usually during transitions, I think of short comments to post on twitter. Many of them don’t make it past my “think twice” editing process and others come too quickly that I ignore them to keep the latest message in tact. In either case, Twitter is more than a short messaging service, it is a way of thinking. Every accomplishment, epiphany, or occurrence is Twitter worthy, but you have to draft a nicely packaged, 140-character post to describe it completely. It takes talent and possibly abbreviations or at worst, multiple updates. In the end, it’s the search for the perfect Tweet, rich with context and content, but sparse in characters, and hopefully praised with responses, favorites, and re-tweets.
This morning, while on my way to spend time with family here in Chapel Hill, I checked my mail to discover an acceptance letter to the MSIS program at UNC. That envelope had the potential to ruin my graduation weekend, but instead it made this occasion much brighter. It’s not quite as bittersweet. Tomorrow I won’t leave this place which I hold so dear; I’ll only be celebrating my accomplishments here and looking forward to the future. My new job is going to allow me to pursue this degree while continuing to work. I have to say that this is the best of both worlds and I am quite humbled to have such grandiose plans work out so seamlessly. I honestly feel that this opportunity is the direct result of gaining valuable real-world experience while in school and establishing close relationships with a few professors. This experience and its documentation, in the form of recommendations and resume materials is simply invaluable. So tomorrow when my degree is conferred, the book is not finished: it’s only the start of a new chapter.
