The post above, tweeted around 7 pm last night, set off a tweetstorm of LOLs, sarcastic advice, witty patois, and outright disbelief both inside the venue for the McCain dinner to honor Obama on the eve of the inauguration and outside across the twitter network of @ev. Some of @ev's twitter followers joined the fun within seconds:

"don't you just love it that politicians are so "with it" : - ) "

 "Very jealous of @gmc @konatbone @ev and @sacca right now... "
   
"LOL! tell him you have a great mid range system! "

"Tweeter is a much better name. Of course Stat.us was even better."

"You should've asked if he was excited about being Secretary of the Anterior in response."

@ev responded by tweeting: "Travis (@konatbone) is signing up Senator Wicker to Twitter via sms: @magnolia09," followed by a question about which senators are on Twitter. The responses came quickly: Clinton, Biden, Dodd, Franken, OBAMA and  countless links to congressional twitterer aggregators. With so many thousands of emails sorting the silos of political and technology knowledge bases, a few folks might have missed a really cool pic of @zappos in a tux, also attending the dinner.

It seems likely that Obama will keep his Blackberry, and for good reason. With CEOs of major technology companies all in a room electronically high-fiving their tweeps - while simultaneously mobilizing a just-in-time research force consisting of tech savvy and interested followers around the world - the movement of information through social networks has never been speedier and more able to transform the dynamics of a given space at a given time. 

Twitter followers of dinner participants were put in the place, albeit through the eyes of tech movers and shakers. Yet older established politicos and tech elite alike were exposed for the breathtaking quality of the information silos that shape their decision making worlds. The dinner space was subtly altered by the tweet heard round the tech-crunched world, even if only adding a bit of snarky levity to the milieu.  Yet through the digital footprint of the event, we gain yet another reminder of the profound ways in which social media are reshaping the creation of knowledge far beyond the boundaries of that room.

Michele Masucci
Director, ITSRG
Temple University

BITS student Ken Sprull designed the logo above in the summer of 2007 as part of his experience to engage in actions to improve local environmental quality in North Philadelphia.  He, along with other students in his group, strongly articulated the viewpoint that North Philadelphia environmental concerns are deeply connected to social ones. Their perspective was that those include the need to foster racial harmony and reduce violence in their daily lives. His logo and the group's sponsorship of community-building  events to raise local environmental awareness captured this sentiment.

With this, and many other similar exchanges in our experiences implementing the BITS Program during the past four years in mind, we followed with great interest the events of the presidential election campaign throughout last year. Our staff, the students and  families with whom we work, and Temple students have found the campaign season and Obama's story of community organizer to President-elect to be fascinating as well as inspirational. Our attention has been on the use of information technologies by the candidates, the shocking media attention paid to one of our own staff who was at the center of a national debate on journalistic ethics in a web 2.0 era, and Obama's visit to historic Progress Plaza in October, a site that students in the BITS Program have been depicting as part of our community geographic information systems (GIS) initiative during the past four years.

The logistical juggernaut of the upcoming historic Presidential Inauguration has been the topic of lively conversation during the past few weeks at ITSRG. We spent considerable time debating whether or not to attend, and if so how. We ultimately decided to follow events from the ITSRG Workroom, the spot that has been our vantage point throughout the past year.

We are pleased to share the news that the Office of the Provost of Temple University recently announced that classes in session on the first day of the semester - Inauguration Day - Tuesday,  January 20th may be canceled at the discretion of the instructor from 10:10 am through 1:00 pm so that students and faculty can watch the Inauguration Ceremony. Events will be shown on large screen TVs at five locations across campus:

Howard Gittis Student Center, Room 200, Main Campus
Mitten Hall, Great Court, Main Campus
Bright Hall Lounge, Ambler
Learning Center Auditorium, Ambler
Student Faculty Center, Health Science Campus

ITSRG will share perspectives throughout the day via our blogs and Twitter feed, including those of BITS students with whom we have worked over the years.

Michele Masucci, Director
ITSRG

During the last four years, ITSRG has sponsored the BITS Program, an after school and summer intensive program aimed at increasing information technology skills among students enrolled in local public high schools. The program has involved over 400 high school students and reached out to their families across North Philadelphia to raise community technology skills and improve preparedness of students to pursue their educational aims. We focus particularly on broadening participation among underrepresented youth in science, technology, engineering and math - so called STEM fields of study.

Today, Barack Obama’s campaign held a rally at Progress Plaza, located in North Philadelphia - next door to ITSRG’s location on Temple University’s Main Campus. Our recent opening of the ITSRG Workroom, a community-university computer technology learning space located in University Services Building at the corner of Broad and Oxford Streets, is the culmination of our long effort to situate our community outreach and collaborative programs in a dedicated lab on Temple University’s campus. We have aimed to create a spot where students from the surrounding neighborhoods can join with Temple students and faculty in the exploration of the local community, gain an appreciation of the geographer’s eye for learning about people and places, and build information technology and geographic analysis skills through hands on learning activities that are fun to engage.

Our students have been studying Progress Plaza throughout these past four years. They have examined it in the context of the Charles Blockson-inspired program to demarkate sites of importance in the African American experience throughout Philadelphia. They have examined it in terms of its role in supporting community health because of the dental and chiropractic community services that are located at the shopping center. They have considered the magnitude of the loss of the neighborhood’s only supermarket ten years ago and its long term impacts on community nutritional needs and food security concerns. They have anticipated, along with the whole ITSRG staff, the promise of the return of a new grocery store. They have examined the use of Progress Plaza’s ramps to provide accessibility for wheelchair users to the shops and services and thus fostered an understanding of how built environments can shape social inclusion in the local economy. They have tested the availability of wireless Internet services through Philadelphia’s free wi-fi available through Wireless Philadelphia at Progess Plaza, concluding that the wall along Broad Street is not a bad spot from which to use an Ipod Touch!

As ITSRG begins recruitment for BITS 2008, we observe the dramatic changes that are occuring at this historic hub of local economic development in North Philadelphia. Who could have imagined when we began teaching students from the community how to take digital photos, create blogs, make maps using web applications, and use collaborative technologies to share their work with each other that this spot would be a backdrop in a presidential election of unprecidented historic proportions four years later? The event may be momentary, but the symbolism at this historic site founded by Leon Sullivan forty years ago will resonate in this community’s memories for years to come. Maybe that is why people stood in a half-mile long line beginning at 6:00 am this morning to catch a glimpse and be a part of the moment.

Michele Masucci, Director - ITSRG
Temple University

Are you interested in how web interactive social media is impacting the presidential election primary season?  The staff of ITSRG has completed a cursory examination of the candidates' use of Twitter.  Here is what we found as of 10:59 pm on Tuesday, April 8, 2008.

Fact: Barack Obama's official campaign has 21731 followers on Twitter.

Fact: Hillary Clinton's official campaign  has 2820 followers on Twitter.

John McCain's official campaign does not Twitter.

Fact: Barack Obama's official campaign follows 22042 on Twitter.

Fact: Hillary Clinton's official campaign does not follow anyone on Twitter.

John McCain's official campaign does not Twitter.

Facts: Barack Obama's Twitter feed receives nudges and messages, while Hillary Clinton's does not. John McCain's official campaign does not Twitter.

Facts: Barack Obama's official campaign began twittering on April 29, 2007. The site has been updated 96 times. Hillary Clinton's official campaign began twittering on January 13, 2008. Her Twitter feed has been updated 101 times.

ITSRG will be posting updated Twitter statistics through the Pennsylvania primaries for those of you who need to know!

Hillary's Twitter Feed
Barack's Twitter Feed
McCain doesn't Twitter.
________________________
UPDATE 4-11-08, 9:38 am

Hillary Clinton - Followers: 2901, Following: 0, Updates: 106
Barack Obama - Followers: 22560, Following: 22794, Updates: 97
McCain doesn't Twitter.
_________________________
UPDATE 4-13-08: 11:11 am

Hillary Clinton - Followers:  2924, Following: 0, Updates: 107
Barack Obama - Followers:  22791, Following: 22924, Updates: 97

Hillary 5-day increase: Plus 104 followers, following plus 0, plus 6 updates
Obama 5-day increase: Following plus 882 , followers plus 970, plus 1 update
________________________
UPDATE 4-22-08: 7:28 pm
Hillary Clinton - Followers:  3175, Following: 0, Updates: 123
Barack Obama - Followers:   24903, Following: 25042, Updates: 106

Hillary 9-day increase: Plus 251 followers, following plus 0, plus 16 updates
Obama 9-day increase: Plus 2112  followers, following plus 2118, plus 9 updates
_________________________
UPDATE 5-5-08

Barack Obama is following 28,808 people on Twitter.  He has 28,363 followers. Barack Obama has updated 113 times.  Hillary Clinton  is not following anyone. She now has 3,680 followers. She has updated her feed 137 times.  John McCain does not have an official Twitter feed.
_________________________
UPDATE 5-22-08

Barak Obama continues his lead in the Twitter wars. He is Following 33,320 and has 32,461 followers. Hillary Clinton has 3,987 followers. John McCain is not using Twitter.  We'll be sharing our thoughts on how Twitter is being used by the candidates soon. 
________________________
UPDATE 6-4-08

Obama: Following = 36430; Followers = 35,390, Updates = 129
Clinton: Followers = 4,195; Updates = 173
McCain: Still does not Twitter

Caroline Guigar and Michele Masucci
Temple University

Posts began April 8, 2008; Final Tally posted 6/04/08.