Layover Loacation via Twitter
 

Just throwing this out there as an idea/concept. I'm sure we've all been on layovers where you run into somebody you know towards the end of your layover only to realize you were both there at the same time and missed the opportunity to go out for dinner/drinks. At FedEx there is no efficient way to know who is on a layover except possibly perusing the hotel sign-in sheet for familiar names.

I recently saw a demo on "Twitter" which is a social networking site for staying in touch with friends and co-workers. Many major corporations are now using Twitter. I am not currently a Twitter user but it seems like it would have great potential as a way to see who is in a particular layover city and would like to get together. Twitter can be used from your PC or cell phone and is free of charge. Twitter messages are short (140 characters or less) and posted in real time. Potentially other crewmembers on same network could read messages such as "Just arrived in KIX" or "I'm at the Jet Lag in NRT" and respond.

Maybe someone on this forum is a Twitter user and could offer some advice for how to set up a social network on Twitter for airline crews to stay in touch. Again this is just an idea I had running through my head that would probably be awesome if enough people started actively using it.

I signed up for twitter but have no idea what I'm doing with it yet. It kind of freaked me out that it asks for your mail password so it can send out invites to the contacts you select. There is an app for the iPhone that takes twitter a step further. Check it out:

Loopt: iPhone app keeps track of friends | The Apple Core | ZDNet.com

I decided to sign up for Twitter last night since I'm on a long layover. I was a little concerned with the contacts and password thing also so I used one of my alternate emails and all Twitter does over a secure channel is see if any of your contacts already use Twitter and allows you to "follow" them if desired. It also allows you to send invites to join Twitter to your contacts. When you leave that screen the contacts are gone and if you want to see them again you have to do the password thing all over again so Twitter doesn't save the contact list.

I would like to know if there is a way to have an airline crew open channel twitter going so any crewmember can make inputs and see others.