in which i get a dm from scott simon

canon digital rebel xsi

Really, I was only trying to help get the word out about an amazing story. I am a big fan of NPR, and Weekend Edition, and Scott Simon¹. I am still not sure what exactly happened, or if anything more will come of it. I still love Twitter, and I think it is a very powerful tool. Maybe I need to use this experience to harness it's power a bit better.

Oh, and for those that don't use Twitter, DM stands for direct message. As the name implies, a direct message is a tweet that is only seen by the person you send it to. It's a way to communicate with someone without cluttering up your friends' Twitter stream.

Last night I saw a tweet from Scott Simon, host of NPR's Saturday Weekend Edition, about an group in New York raising money for Thanksgiving dinners for the needy of New York.² Here is the link. I had also seen an earlier tweet by Mark, the head of Invisible People, talking about how we tend to go crazy this time of year feeding the homeless, but forget about what they need even more - housing and jobs.

So I tweeted this, thinking maybe something might happen. And boy did it ever. I think in part because Mark tweeted this. Oh dear.

And suddenly I found myself in Oz. Right around that part where the Scarecrow starts making snide comments about the Apple Trees to get them to give up their fruit. I saw a notification that I had received a direct message. I was shocked to see it was from none other than Scott Simon.

I tried to message Mark, but Tweet Deck was having issues. Instead, I tweeted this, since I couldn't direct message Scott Simon, as he doesn't follow me.

Then I saw a tweet from Mark, asking if I had heard something. I tweeted back that I had, and that his tweet about Scott Simon not being real or engaging got his attention.

I should point out that in between Mark's initial tweet, and the message from Scott Simon, I tweeted this. Of course I made the mistake of not mentioning the actual Twitter account, so it probably wasn't seen by Scott Simon.

There was also a bit of a discussion about how people should use Twitter. I tend to agree that there aren't any rules, and people can use it how they wish. I learned this from following Warren Whitlock, co-author of Twitter Revolution. Mark feels differently, and that's okay too. I honestly can't imagine trying to manage a Twitter account with a million followers.

I ended things with this tweet. My heart was still racing.

As I said, I don't know if anything more will come of this. I would like to point out though that Scott Simon recently gave a speech at TedxMidAtlantic about the art and importance of story telling. You can view it here. Ironically that is exactly what Mark has done with InvisiblePeople.tv - he has allowed homeless people to tell their stories. Mark traveled the country, talking to homeless people, with no more than an iPhone, and about $100 (along with a few sponsors like Ford and Hanes).

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¹And I hope I haven't left a bad impression, because Scott Simon is friends with Daniel Pinkwater, and that would just be awful.
²I later found this tweet from Soraya Darab, of the New York Times, about the NY food drive and retweeted it.

on the night stand :: The Yggyssey by Daniel Pinkwater.