Back in June, I was informed I was part of a social experiment. Topher DeRosia of X-Team sent me a tweet, that simply stated:
@cklosowski you have become part of an experiment.
— topher1kenobe (@topher1kenobe) June 26, 2014
I was very intrigued by this, and when I questioned it, he said I was the only one in it. This lead to more intrigue. Over the next few months, Topher and I had many conversations on Twitter, surrounding WordPress, Geek Culture, and just downright fun topics. He’s an organizer of WordCamp Grand Rapids, which I just wrapped up speaking at. During foundation day we ended up at lunch together, sitting directly across from each other. It wasn’t until that day, on August 15th, nearly 6 weeks later, he told me what “experiment” I was a part of.
Simply put, he wanted to grow connections in the community, by picking one person on Twitter, following them, and focusing on getting to know them by interacting, reading, and including them in conversations. I was blown away. Without knowing it, someone I had really gotten to know over the last 6 weeks, had planned it. In no truer words, I was honored he choose me to start that.
After lunch, the remaining Friday, speaker dinner, and drive home, I thought about this new relationship we’ve built and want to take part in it. So here’s my plan…
Starting Today, I’m going to create a Twitter list, and each month put a single person in it. I could just follow them, but by putting them in a list, it gives me a great outlet to see all of their content, without the distractions of my regular timeline. I’m going to do this for the next 6 months, each month swapping out the 1 follower for a different one. My goal will be to interact with that person for the month (and hopefully after) to grow the connections we build as a WordPress community.
Image used under creative commons – By Jason A Howie
