I’ve been playing around with a open source .Net Twitter project appropriately named TwitterVB. It’s a .Net library that you import into your .Net application and start sending status updates, pull twitter mentions, trending topics… just about anything you’d want to do with Twitter.

TwitterVB is one of the better libraries compared to others listed on the Twitter API Wiki page: http://apiwiki.twitter.com/Libraries

Note: Because it’s .Net, you can bring this library into any .Net language. I built a quick command line app in C#.

Example code:

static void Main(string[] args)
{

var tw = new TwitterVB2.TwitterAPI();
tw.AuthenticateAs(“twitteraccount”, “twitterpassword”);
string text = “”;

while (!text.Equals(“x”))
{
Console.Clear();
Console.Write(“Send Tweet: “);
text = Console.ReadLine().ToString();
if(!text.Equals(“x”)){
tw.Update(text);
Console.WriteLine(“Tweet Sent – Enter to continue”);
Console.ReadLine();
}
}

}

Be it as it may that the Illinois Times probably still thinks us bloggers and Twitters are shut-ins living in our parents’ basement, a group of 15 showed up last week at Brewhaus for some brews and chatting.

I even convince Mrs. Shoo to come out. She was convinced after all the talk about Twitter to create her own account @mrsshoo.

A few people were unable to make it, so I think we’ll be putting another together in the fall.

“If we don’t Twitter, we don’t exist.”

http://www.chicagotribune.com/community/chi-ct-twitter-masthead-090319-photo,0,3324189.photo

Mark this up there with the printing press, the first telephone call, the first txt message.

This says a lot of the current state of newspapers and publishing.

I get a lot of my news through SJRBreaking

“Faces of people not on the internet right now; just let me grab my iPhone.” – photo by Jeremy Wilburn

All kinds of history has been made in Springfield, Obama announces his presidential run from downtown, Abe celebrates #200, and J. P. Kelley’s hosts the first Tweetup. For those un-initiated, a tweetup is a meeting of people connected through the micro blogging site Twitter.com.

A group from Elgin Illinois headed by Sarah Evans, aka @prsarahevans, declared the meeting as a way to teach legislators the ways of the internet, specifically Twitter and the uses of Twitter. Obama made heavy use out of Twitter when running for president. I didn’t recognize any legislators but was told about a half dozen showed up.

I did meet some familiar and new faces from the Springfield blogging / tweeting community including Mocha Momma,  a newly added blog to the spfldbloggers.com collection. Also @scott217 who after recognizing me declared, You’re Chris, you have two dogs, just got married a year ago, and biked a century. Scott is the only guy that reads my blog. Everyone else just looks at the dog photos. Follow the link on the photo for a list of who’s who.

It was a great time, a great excuse to grab a beer in the middle of the week, hope to connect again in “real life”.

I might as well come out and say it, intertubes I’m addicted. To Twitter that is. 140 characters of pure luv.

For those who are not in the ‘know’ let me fill you in about Twitter, tweets, followers and retweets. Think of Twitter like text messaging, except on a larger scale. Every text, aka tweet, is sent out to your Followers.  These are people that find you interesting for one reason or another. You tweet can be as simple as a status message, “Off to the grocery store” or a cry for help, “Anyone know a good mechanic?”

Twitter is informal enough system that you can just follow someone. Your online relationship doesn’t have to be mutual like that of buddy lists for IM or Facebook. So a whole conversation can happen one sided.

Perfect example. I’ve been following Lance Armstrong. Yes, the real Lance. Right now I can tell you a whole slew of info: he’s in Austin training for the Tour de France, he’s addicted to his crackberry, and was just tested for the 10th time for performance enhancing drugs.

http://twitter.com/lancearmstrong

When replying to someone on Twitter you specify their name by first putting an ‘@’ in front of their name. If someone wanted to send a reply or question to me they would start the message out with @gotshoo.

Who is Twitter for? Twitter is best for those looking to connect with other people either by distributing information or going out requesting information. Consider it the adult version of instant messaging.

Quick cheat sheet:

Tweet – A message on Twitter.

140 Characters – The max amount of characters a tweet can be.

Followers – Other people following you.

RT or reTweet – Reiterating a tweet from someone else so your followers can see it.

You can follow me @gotshoo and you can also follow Spfldbloggers @spfldbloggers

Tomorrow is the big Century. Still got a few butterflies in my stomach, but it should be a good day.

Per suggestion of Matt Penning, I will be Twittering / live blogging tomorrow. Don’t know what Twitter is? Don’t worry. Just hit the root of the domain to see updates from me. http://gotshoo.com or http://twitter.com/gotshoo