Twitter Saves the Decade

New Years Eve, Charlotte, NC. Plaza-Midwood neighborhood, to be exact. It was 10 minutes to midnight, and a dozen adults, and even more children, were in an unfurnished home that our friends had closed on that morning. There was no cable or Internet access. In a rare moment of sobriety, it dawns on the adults that we don't have a way to know when the exact countdown begins in Times Square. Everyone panics. I turned to Twitter. With only about 7 minutes to go before the ball dropped in NYC, I stepped onto the porch to grab a couple extra bars and sent a Tweet out: "Help. At a party in a house with no internet/tv. Is there a link to watch the ball drop on the phone? Thanks." I nearly ran out of API hitting refresh on Tweetdeck, but the links starting pouring in and iphone.livestream.com was the ticket. So I called for everyone to join me outside, and 20-30 something people gathered around me with cups of champaign and sparkling cider and counted down with the rest of the world from the front porch of an unfurnished home in Charlotte, NC – on an iPhone screen.

Thanks to Twitter, livestream and AT&T – we were able to connect with the rest of the world, and feel connected as well. Happy 2010. Amazing.