Get Out of Jail With Twitter!

It’s taken me a while, but I’ve finally jumped on the Twitter bandwagon. Actually, I jumped on a while ago, but I didn’t actually use my account till some of the other Dot Com Crew started twittering back. If you like, you can follow me and find out what I’m up to. Now some people are annoyed with Twitter already. I know that my smartphone hasn’t stopped alerting me since I turned the mobile Twitter function on. However, this story might convince you to switch it on.

Originally posted at TechCrunch, a UC Berkeley Journalism Student, James Carl Buck, was arrested in Egypt for photographing a demonstration. He was thrown in jail without any charges, but before they locked the door and threw away the key, he was able to Twitter off one last message…

As a result of his message, his concerned Twitter followers (all 48 of them at the time, but probably thousands now) contacted the US Embassy and a number of press organizations to help a brother out. As a result of the efforts of his Twitter friends, he was released the next day without harm. Crazy huh?

So folks, if you start following me, make sure you turn on mobile updates. You never know when I might get myself in trouble and need to make that emergency Twitter. Or you can just Twitter back laughing at my misfortune.