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'Twestival' comes to Toon

Users of the web-based messaging service Twitter - which has built up over three million followers since it launched in 2006 - will gather in Newcastle next month as part of an international event where they can socialise and raise money for charity.

On Thursday 12 February, more than 175 cites worldwide - including Berlin, Madrid, Los Angeles, Sydney and New York - are taking part in ‘Twestival’, a festival giving communities of Twitter users the opportunity to meet one another in the ‘real world’ and to raise money for Charity:Water, a non-profit organisation that is helping to bring clean, safe drinking water to people in developing nations.

Twitter is a web-based social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read other users’ updates (known as ‘tweets’), which are text-based notes of up to 140 characters in length. Over the past year it has seen user numbers skyrocket, and is widely expected to be the technology success story of 2009.

The Newcastle Twestival (which anyone can follow at twitter.com/tynetwestival) will take place from 7.30pm at The Other Rooms in Newcastle, and is being organised by a number of Twitter enthusiasts from around the North East.

Aoife Ross, one of the volunteers organising the event, said: “The Tyne Twestival should be a great way for like-minded Twitterers to meet one another in person and build upon their existing relationships, and it should also help raise a lot of money for Charity:Water.”

The event is being sponsored by a several local organisations, including spam protection system Email Cloud, and the Thinking Digital and GameHorizon Conferences.

Newcastle Twestival is open to anyone who is interested. Attendees are asked to contribute £3 online at newcastle.twestival.com which will go directly to Charity:Water.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .