This past week, I spent two days in Tiburon supporting my former colleague and bootcamper, Dana Reynolds, who was facilitating the Code for America staff retreat. Any time spent with the good folks at Code for America is going to be inspiring time, and I couldn’t help expressing this sentiment on Twitter after the retreat was over:
Got to spend the past two days with the @codeforamerica staff. They are extraordinary people doing amazing, important work. Inspired.
— Eugene Eric Kim (@eekim) December 6, 2013
Total time spent tweeting this: Maybe 30 seconds.
Then a funny thing happened. Someone named Jang from Korea responded to my tweet with a question:
@eekim can you help to start code for Korea or some other partership with code for america?
— 이장 (@Ejang) December 6, 2013
I didn’t know Jang, so I glanced at his Twitter profile, and I saw that my friends, June Kim and SeungBum Kim, followed him. That was a good sign, so I responded, resulting in the following exchange, each message less than 140 characters:
@Ejang How can I help?
— Eugene Eric Kim (@eekim) December 6, 2013
@eekim C4A has any international open government network? It's hard to reach out to C4A. so let us make an introduce
— 이장 (@Ejang) December 6, 2013
@Ejang They're trying to start one, but I don't know how mature it is right now. I'll try to find the right person with whom to connect you.
— Eugene Eric Kim (@eekim) December 6, 2013
@eekim 코드나무 Codenamu is an open community formed by citizens interested Open GOV. Most of our members are volunteer http://t.co/iZQ0TfQpLd
— 이장 (@Ejang) December 6, 2013
@eekim Thanks a lot. someday, we would invite you to come over here to share your expereicne about civic tech and C4A
— 이장 (@Ejang) December 6, 2013
@Ejang Thank you! I would like that. If I'm ever in Seoul, I will let you know. Please do the same if you're ever in San Francisco.
— Eugene Eric Kim (@eekim) December 6, 2013
I was planning to send an email to some folks at Code for America to follow up, but it wasn’t necessary. Conversations on Twitter happen out in the open, and Cyd Harrell, Code for America’s UX evangelist, saw the thread and responded. This is what happened:
@Ejang very cool!! You should talk to @cbracy and Lynn Fine – great to see what's going on in South Korea! /@eekim
— Cyd Harrell (@cydharrell) December 7, 2013
@cydharrell Thanks for following up with @Ejang so quickly! 🙂 Great meeting you this past week!
— Eugene Eric Kim (@eekim) December 7, 2013
@eekim likewise!!
— Cyd Harrell (@cydharrell) December 7, 2013
@cydharrell @cbracy @eekim Thank u all 4 your assistance in this. i could make a introduce our member of codenamu now in SF /cc @iwillbe99
— 이장 (@Ejang) December 7, 2013
@cydharrell @cbracy @eekim I'm Jay. nice to know you. Now I'm in Mountain View to attend the board meeting of CC. Going to LA sunday @Ejang
— Jay Yoon (@iwillbe99) December 7, 2013
@cydharrell @cbracy @eekim good to have a conversation during my stay. Maybe can change the departure time a bit, if needed. @Ejang
— Jay Yoon (@iwillbe99) December 7, 2013
@iwillbe99 @Ejang Send me an email and we'll work something out. Bracy at codeforamerica dot org.
— Catherine Bracy (@cbracy) December 7, 2013
I don’t know what’s going to emerge from this whole interaction, but something good will. At worst:
- I learned something new about an issue I care about in a country I care about
- I made some new connections
- I facilitated some new connections
- I strengthened some old connections
All from simply tweeting how I was feeling one evening.
This is what can happen when you have ways to communicate with lots of people transparently and with very little friction. But it’s also critical to recognize what underlies the technology that makes this sort of thing possible: people, trust, relationships, and literacy.
Bottom line: This sort of thing makes me very, very happy.