What is twitter fight club? It is a tournament style competition (akin to the March Madness of American college basketball) where 64 folks who tweet on international security issues compete in a series of head to head matches until there is just one left. Last year was my first year as a participant, and I would have been the Cinderalla story except for this guy:
@stcolumbia, the precocious undergrad whose soul has not yet been crushed by the working world, the 12 seed who has sneak-attacked a series of higher seeds on the way up.I was also seeded twelfth, defeating a prominent yet ABD scholar on Yemen, a journalist, and the big name at Wired's Danger Room who had no time to tweet/compete before falling to the Patron Saint of the Terrorism Cottage Industry (tm), Will McCants, after making it into the elite eight.
How was this productive?
- Mostly because following the event over the past couple of years pointed me towards the twitter-ing of some really interesting people all around the world. Thanks to TFC, I now follow folks who work in Australia, Indonesia, and other points similarly distant as well as many DC folks.
- Partly because it raised my twitter profile so that I know have more followers, including some opinion leaders.
- Partly because I can know contact some of these folks and ask them pesky questions.
- Partly to hone my snark. You only improve by learning from the best. And given that I got bested, there are definitely folks from which to learn.
So, expect more tweets over the next couple of weeks, more blog posts to give my tweets content, and more posts tracking the competition.
May the Snark Be In Your Favor.
good luck this year!
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