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How To Use Twitter To Land An Interview With David Frost

A few months ago, I flew into London to give a talk at the Handheld Learning Conference, which had put me up at the Hoxton Hotel. I'd arrived late at night, and when I woke up, I realized that, for the first time in my life, I was waking up in London with no clear idea what neighborhood I was in. That seemed like precisely the kind of observation/query to share with the Twittersphere, and so I jotted down this tweet before heading out to find a coffee:


Waking up at the Hoxton Hotel in London --- strangely unclear as to what neighborhood I'm actually in...

When I came back from coffee, I discovered, first, from a batch of Twitter replies that I was apparently in the neighborhood where half my London friends lived and worked. And then I noticed the envelope that had been placed on my desk. I opened it up, and it turned out to be a note from a producer who worked with Sir David Frost. They had noticed on Twitter that I was in London, and said they were very interested in having me talk with Sir David about Everything Bad Is Good For You for his show on English-language Al Jazeera.

This was cool for a number of reasons, not the least of which was that it has given me to the opportunity to tell people, ad nauseum, that David Frost is following me on Twitter. (Even if it's not exactly true.)

Anyhow, we ended up having to do the interview by satellite, unfortunately, but the good news was that we got to talk about the new book instead (with a bit at the end about pop culture.) It aired over the weekend, and is now on the YouTubes. You can see it for yourself in the clip below -- I come on about halfway through. I look a little pained at the outset because I was straining to hear him on the earpiece, but I think it worked out all right, and he was very flattering in the intro. Talk about baptism by fire: the very first interview I did for Invention of Air was with David Frost. And I have Twitter to thank for it!

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Comments

Great story on the utility of Twitter. I don't have quite as many followers so I'm not sure my response to a query would be so robust. Loved Ghost Maps.

Serendipity doesn't quite cover it! Thanks for a great example of real-world implications. Oddly enough, I'm in a running conversation right now championing usage. Lots of people still out there scratching their heads and wondering just what this thing is all about.

That is a lovely example of Twitterization. I'll admit I'm still at the learning stage - the doubting stage. I'm basically at the *Twit* stage. But the geo-logic of that is pretty amazing.

If you're ever in Longsight, Manchester... well, if you're ever there: leave.

love the books, obviously (I'll add as this is my first comment)

I eagerly await the award winning film of 2020 Frost/Johnson

Mr. Johnson. There is a typo on page 20 of Invention of Air.

A reference to Priestly saying it occurred in 1850

mbandel@optonline.net

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SBJ via Twitter

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    The Basics

    • I'm a father of three boys, husband of one wife, and author of five books. In early 2007 I went and foolishly got myself a day job running the hyperlocal community site, outside.in that I co-founded the year before. We spend most of the year in Park Slope, Brooklyn, though I'm on the road a lot giving talks. (You can see the full story here.) Personal correspondence should go to sbj6668 at earthlink dot net. Media requests should go to Matthew.Venzon at us.penguingroup dot com. If you're interested in having me speak at an event, drop a line to Wesley Neff at the Leigh Bureau (WesN at Leighbureau dot com.)

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    • : The Ghost Map

      The Ghost Map
      The latest: the story of a terrifying outbreak of cholera in 1854 London 1854 that ended up changing the world. An idea book wrapped around a page-turner. I like to think of it as a sequel to Emergence if Emergence had been a disease thriller. You can see a trailer for the book here.

    • : Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter

      Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter
      The title says it all. This one sparked a slightly insane international conversation about the state of pop culture -- and particularly games. There were more than a few dissenters, but the response was more positive than I had expected. And it got me on The Daily Show, which made it all worthwhile.

    • : Mind Wide Open : Your Brain and the Neuroscience of Everyday Life

      Mind Wide Open : Your Brain and the Neuroscience of Everyday Life
      My first best-seller, and the only book I've written in which I appear as a recurring character, subjecting myself to a battery of humiliating brain scans. The last chapter on Freud and the neuroscientific model of the mind is one of my personal favorites.

    • : Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software

      Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software
      The story of bottom-up intelligence, from slime mold to Slashdot. Probably the most critically well-received all my books, and the one that has influenced the most eclectic mix of fields: political campaigns, web business models, urban planning, the war on terror.

    • : Interface Culture : How New Technology Transforms the Way We Create and Communicate

      Interface Culture : How New Technology Transforms the Way We Create and Communicate
      My first. The book I wrote instead of finishing my dissertation. Still in print almost a decade later, and still relevant, I think. But I haven't read it in a while, so who knows what's in there!

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