Disruptive Conversations

Yesterday I noticed that my Twitter account was at 599 followers and I got to wondering... who would be the 600th? Would it be someone I knew? Some random stranger? Some "service"?

So I was both surprised and delighted to see an email notification come in today that my latest follower was none other than... Betsy Weber! Betsy's the chief evangelist over at TechSmith and maintains their excellent "Visual Lounge" blog where she writes about TechSmith's products like Camtasia, SnagIT, Jing, etc. and, of course, shows how to use them in videos and screencasts.

The funny thing is that Betsy and I have come to know each fairly well. She contacted me back in July 2007 after I wrote about screen capture tools and I pointed to a SnagIT plugin for Windows Live Writer (she later blogged about that). Subsequently we both wound up in Robert Sanzalone's "pacific IT" Skype groupchat where a whole bunch of us "emerging technology" types chat about whatever bright shiny objects we happen to be chasing. She connected a bunch of us with Jing, which we were glad to write about. (And I still use often.) We're both Northerners (she in Michigan, me in Vermont) so we had that commonality to talk about. We also both travel a good bit and could share our joys and frustrations. We've become "friends" in that odd kind of social media way.

Unlike a lot of people I know online, Betsy and I have also actually met in person, which seems like an increasing rarity these days. She does the trade show/conference circuit for TechSmith and I wind up going to (or speaking at) those kind of shows, so we got to meet out at the Podcast/New Media Expo last fall in Ontario, California.

I was "surprised" by the notification because I thought I was already following Betsy on Twitter. (I wasn't, but am now.) I thought I was before... if I was, I'm not sure how I got disconnected, but I've had strange things like that happen a couple of times with Twitter.

Anyway... welcome, Betsy, to my twitterstream! (And for those of you reading this blog, you can check out Betsy on Twitter as well.)

P.S. And welcome to all the others who have joined recently as well... I'm seriously not entirely sure why you all are following me but welcome to the conversation! Let's see what happens with this grand experiment that we're all in...

Technorati Tags: twitter, dan york, betsy weber