Tweet your way out of the slammer

I heard recently that anyone joining Twitter now is officially no longer an early adopter, yet when I ask people if they Twitter the response is usually no, followed by “what’s that then?” When I explain what it is people often question the point of it and simply fob it off as a gimmicky “waste of time”. Well, I wonder if they’ll think the same way after they’ve heard the story of a journo named James Cark Buck.

James was in Egypt covering an anti-government protest when he was arrested along with his translator and shipped off to the local police station. En route he took out his cell phone and sent a tweet stating one word only - “arrested”. Back I cyberspace his followers on Twitter were immediately alerted to his predicament and started to rally the troops to come to his rescue. Throughout his incarceration, James continued to Tweet to keep his network updated. Eventually his was released and sent another one word tweet “free”.

CNN.com reported that: ”Although the Twitter message helped him find contacts to get out of prison, he says it was more the power of the network he had as an American that enabled him to be released so quickly.” And James himself stated "The most important thing on my mind was to let someone know where we were so that there would be some record of it ... so we couldn't [disappear]…. as long as someone knew where we were, I felt like they couldn't do their worst [to us] because someone, at some point, would be checking in on them."

MyTake: Wow……Now I admit that I was a doubter when I first came across Twitter, but once I started using it I soon released its potential. In my own twitter group I see some amazing insights shared on a daily basis and often think that the journalists of the world should all be on Twitter to watch-out for early leads and commentary. In this instance a virtual network did more that just share insights and ideas, it helped keep this guy safe. So in conclusion, you might not be an early adopter anymore, but this could just be your “get out of jail free card” – some come and join the Twitter revolution http://twitter.com/digiwedo