Just when I thought that our so called "conversation" on Twitter was more or less a bunch of people talking and not listening, a wonderful thing happened this evening...
David Armano, the VP of Experience Design at Critical Mass and well-known in the "Twitterverse" made a post asking for donations to help a friend whom, with her three children, fell victim to domestic abuse and most recently, without a home. His post suggested that he would like to find an apartment for the family and raise enough money so that they wouldn't have to worry about rent for at least a few months. His actual Twitter post:
His plea did not go unnoticed, with over 8,069 followers on Twitter (a number that is growing by the minute) and a huge number of "retweets" he was able to raise over $5k in the first hour for his friend Daniela and her children.
Within three hours of the post, the social community had banded together to raise more than $8k and the story itself was the top trending topic on Twitter (higher than Apple on Macworld's opening day).
The people that know me well can tell you that I am a big sap and this story was immediately touching. I found myself refreshing Tweetdeck faster than the updates were coming in just to see what was going to happen next. This outpouring of support is one of the most wonderful examples coming out of the social networks, microblogging sites etc. I am sure there are other stories like this one but I was just lucky enough to be on Twitter while this was happening.
Even as I write this, I am wondering what is happening now...
I am sure it will be a nice night's sleep for Daniela and her family. As for David, I can only imagine what he must be feeling after what he experienced in the last few hours.
Thank goodness for tools like Paypal, Twitter, FriendFeed, Chip In etc. Technology and people working together.
