Northern Virginia is a relatively quiet place. Seismically speaking.So when the ground started rumbling violently on Tuesday afternoon, the locals had an idea something was wrong. But what? For the first few minutes, there was no official news except for a series of “Tweets” — mini alerts broadcast by wired locals tapping what they saw, felt and heard into their mobile phones and on to their Twitter web pages. Twitter, a popular micro-blogging site that counts more than a million users, became the only news source on a fast-breaking story in those tense first minutes. About 90 minutes later, a local radio station was able to report what Twitter users had been Tweeting all along — it was a rare earthquake, measuring 1.8 on the Richter scale, that had hit the East Coast. This was not a first. Twitter users used the technology to offer on-the-ground reportage of the San Diego wildfires last autumn and specific detail from the US presidential election trail.
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article3896667.ece
It’s not all just geek talk and texts – phones are first with the news
Northern Virginia is a relatively quiet place. Seismically speaking. So when the ground started rumbling violently on Tuesday afternoon, the locals had an idea something was wrong. But what? For the first few minutes, there was no official news except for a series of “Tweets” — mini alerts broadcast by wired locals tapping what they saw, felt and heard into their mobile phones and on to their Twitter web pages.