How James Neal and my interest in DH prompted me to sign on to twitter

I heard about and visited twitter on a regular prior to actively engaging the site in January 2010. I figured I would eventually sign on. But for some reason, I was slow about becoming really active on the site.

Then, on December 30, 2009, I published a post on my site about digital humanities at MLA. Shortly after that, I received an email from this guy James Neal. He thanked me for the write-up and then advised me to get on twitter if I was interested in participating in more conversations about DH.

Who was James Neal, I wondered at the time? And why was he encouraging me to sign up for twitter in order to keep up with the developing DH conversations? I was fascinated in what was unfolding with DH at MLA and the larger profession, so it turned out that Neal's suggestion was just the nudge I needed.

My first tweet, which appeared on January 7, 2010, went as follows: "We wish to tweet our own cause; too long have others tweeted for us. [remixing Freedom's Journal http://bit.ly/4xh417]"

Almost immediately, Neal, the first person I followed and the first to follow me, sent a tweet: "Welcome to Twitter @blackstudies. Black Studies Program at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Wish you success here. Share & learn."

I responded: "@james3neal 'preciate it. Can't begin to tell you how inspiring you've been for what we want to become. So thanks and thanks again."

So here we are.

Related:
• Digital Humanities at CLA 2013  
• How Alondra Nelson & Don Share helped transform an occasional poetry blogger into an active one
• One way blogging has shifted my engagements with poetry