This Internet contraption is clever and swell, no? I made my first website back in 1999 (and lo, it was ugly), intermittently kept online journals, and even worked as a software engineer for a few venture-funded dotcom bombs. So it's not like I think of the Internet as a curious, pulsing mystery. I mean, I have a slightly better than basic understanding of how it works. And yet, it still manages to amaze me.

Really, I guess the "it" that amazes me isn't really the technology at all. Rather, it's the people. There was a time when the technology presented a much higher barrier to entry than it does today. So if you made "friends" online, they were mostly fellow nerds who were willing to stay up all night reading the CIA World Fact Book or futzing with hex codes or javascript to get their sites looking just right. And that was cool (or whatever passes for cool among the preternaturally unhip). But for people like me whose nerdiness goes so, so much deeper than mere computers, the democratization of the Internet (by which I mean the ever-increasing ease of entry as a user, generally, and to blogging and twittering, particularly) has meant that nerd communities (I think marketers call these "affinity groups," but I've been a nerd long enough to know that I yam what I yam) of every subtle stripe can form and gather without regard to technical ability or geographical boundary.

And the way it works, especially with twitter, is so nifty I think. It's like the whole internet is a cocktail party: you walk in, and there are conversations happening all around you. You can walk around, picking up on snippets, throwing out a bon mot here and there (whether you know the other guests or not)--if you hit your target the circle of conversation widens a bit to let you in, and suddenly you're making friends. The best part? There are no high heels!

Of the many geek clusters I have found, inserted myself into, and been welcomed by, there is no doubt that my favorite has been the entrepreneurial, designing women I have met through twitter. They are talented, knowledgeable, and gracious. They offer feedback, encouragement, and a hearty dose of sardonic humor in real time at all hours of the day and night. (For a hopeless insomniac, having online friends 3 or 4 time zones ahead and behind me has been an unbelevable boon.)

Stay tuned—in my next post I will feature the work of three of my favorite twitter friends. They will rock you!

P.S. Thanks to everybody who gave me feedback on my "favor" post--you guys rock, and I am taking all of your ideas/advice to heart. Two posts in one day? Can you dig it?!