We’re sitting at the Oshawa train station, barely outside of Toronto and it’s been a little over an hour since I checked-in on Foursquare, broadcasting to those who follow me on Twitter and Facebook that I was heading to Ottawa. Thanks to such modern conveniences as free Wi-Fi, I’ve been able to check my email and get a bit of work done. When I logged into Facebook, I noticed a couple of messages linked to my original post. One, from an old college friend who warned me that it’s only 13ºC and rainy in Ottawa, hoping I’d brought a jacket. Another from a friend who asked if I was visiting for business or pleasure.
I explained I was in town to help out family and wouldn’t have time to get out. It was then that he asked what time my train was arriving and offered to pick me up. Here we are again, serendipity, much as I discussed in my last post that was oh, so long ago. A few minutes later I got a call from my Mum, telling me someone would be picking me up. I told her not to bother; that was already taken care of.
June 2010 Archive
Tweetindipity
I love Twitter.
Like everyone else, it took me a period of adjustment to “get it” but once I did, I fell in love with Twitter wholeheartedly. Why? In part because of it’s immediacy. It can also lead you to so many different places; down the rabbit hole, as it were. If you’ve ever spent an evening at home clickling your way through “if you like this artist, you’ll like…” links in iTunes, you’ll know what I mean. But mostly, I love Twitter because of serendipity. In my opinion, it is by far the most serendipitous social network out there. Let me give you an example.
This morning I was scanning through my Twitter list when I came upon this tweet from C.C. Chapman: “One of my favorite views…”. Naturally curious,
I clicked through to see a picture taken from his perspective in the back of a canoe. His son is paddling in front of him, his daughter sits squarely in the centre and his wife is at the front. The canoe floats quietly on a lake covered in lily pads and the scene is very peaceful. As an outdoorsy guy myself, it inspired me to look into canoes at Mountain Equipment Coop (MEC).
Upon landing on their home page, I spied a link to MEC Paddlefest, an annual celebration of canoeing and kayaking. I clicked through to discover that the event will be in Toronto, in our neck of the woods, in two weeks. I called to check the availability for the Canoeing for Parents and Kids program and $11.30 later, we were booked.
I then returned to my Twitter client—Hootsuite—and tweeted: “Inspired by cc_chapman’s photo, I’ve signed up for Canoeing for Parents and Kids as part of MEC’s #paddlefest. Can’t wait!” He responded with: “Awesome! It is a great family activity and SO peaceful. Hope you guys enjoy it.” and then re-tweeted my original post adding “This made my morning.” Indeed, and my morning too.
How has Twitter opened up the world for you?
