An audio version of this blogpost is here (10 minutes) 

Last Friday night I got an idea.  Just as I was hoping to slip off to sleep without excitement, I thought about Twitter.  I thought about how good it was to be connected to people all over the globe via such a brilliant tool.

This pleasant thought led to another - more questioning - thought : how well connected am I really?  How many counties in Ireland do I have contact with via Twitter?  Where are my contacts based?

I went to sleep with a new project forming

- I would like to have at least one engaging Twitter contact in each county of Ireland…

Usually those sort of ideas fade in the sleep.  So often I wake & move on to something else -  the idea goes off to haunt somebody else…

On Saturday morning, it was different - the idea rose with me.  Within a couple of hours I found myself formulating a plan to seek out someone from each of the 26 counties of RoI.  The idea had taken root.  And I’d begun to say to myself - "if the idea has survived the night, there must be legs in it…"

I’d like to tell you what happened next.

The first thing I did was tweet my intention to find at least one engaging tweeter in each county.

"Last night’s big idea: get at least one engaging Twitter contact in all 26 counties of RoI #project26"

I simply announced that via Twitter - I didn’t poke the plan at anyone, at first.  (I soon sent a few tweets like "@Paraic @dogfoodlady You are fine engaging people#omaniCork #project26 - Co Limerick next".

You can imagine how thrilled I was when @SundayTwist responded with enthusiasm for the idea.

That’s how our collaboration began.  We exchanged a few tweets about it,  agreed to spend 48 hours seeing what we could come up with.  

I live in Cork & know plenty of engaging tweeters there.  She lives in Dublin - and I was sure she would know many engaging tweeters there.  But I didn’t know much about the network of @SundayTwist.  This felt like a great advantage  - because together we might dovetail well. 

By the end of Sunday, we’d cracked the job of finding two per county.  We had a few blank counties - Offaly, Roscommon & Monaghan proved to be the toughest for us.  But we got great help.

Boy did we get great help from the following people :

(1) @eirepreneur introduced me to @giftedkidsie & @harrypig in Co Clare 

(2) @bobgreenmonster introduced @lawlorchiro @golfchiro @DIBayliss @Laois_offaly @unlaoised @cebyrne in Co Laois

(3) @susankilkenny helped with Co Kilkenny

(4) @aoifep helped with Co Sligo

(5) @elaineLarkin with Co Wexford & "sunnysoutheast list"

(6) @topgold helped with intro to @manaboutcouch in Co Donegal

(7)  @CliffHouseHotel introduced @tanneryDungarva in Co Waterford

(8) @sineadniriain helped with Co Tipperary

(9) @IvanSantry introduced @PaulaCoMayo from Co Mayo

(10) @dannifromdublin helped by RT - as did @NaughtyNikKit

(11) @jonathangrimes introduced @adam_melvin from Co Donegal

(12) @cotisgal helped with RT  - as did @siobhancoyle & @susanalustiza

(13) @scottyccfc helped by asking why this wasn’t a 32 county project

(14) @mimistores appeared and helped with Co Meath

(15) @primaryposition helped with RT of our quest re Co Galway & introduced @antonmannering

(16) @domybooks popped up from Co Galway

(17) @celav from Co Cork recommended @allancavanagh from Co Galway

(18) @danmorris63 disqualified himself from Co Kerry

(19) @diarmuidcogan Co Cork offered to help & introduced @paddyjkelly from Co Kerry + @debz from Co Offaly

(20) @Ritchhh helped by RT re Co Offaly 

(21) @cotisgal recommended @donegalabu from Co Donegal

(22) Roddy Jenkins helped, recommended @oconnellbrian in Co Cork + @alisonwells from Co Wicklow + @janetravers Co Kildare

(23) I can’t remember who recommended @kieranmurphy & @dinglesurf from Co Kerry

(24) @johnpeavoy helped by clarifying that he was no longer living in Co Offaly

(25) @suzybie  & @conor_pope helped by RT of search for Co Offaly tweeter

(26) @trevorvaugh & @siobhancoyle  helped us on the Co Offaly search 

(27) @CJohnson103 helped on Co Roscommon 

(28) @burbage1 recommended @mduffywriter from Co Dublin

(29) @sandrahennessy RT’ed our search for particularly engaging tweeters

(30) @misIJenkins helped us with Co Offaly

(31) @donegalabu helped us with thanks in an RT

(32) @allisonwells helped us with encouraging comments

(33) @berniequinn helped us use the correct #project26 hashtag

(34) @adrianBarry98FM helped by asking what this was all about + suggested we hold a vote on Twitter

(35) @scarie recommended @mammyskitchen from Co Westmeath

(36) @angevf helped by recommending @john_mcguirk from Co Monaghan

(37) @berniequinn recommended @monaghanpenguin from Co Monaghan

(38) @dinglesurf helped by chipping in a bit of humour from Co Kerry

(39) @doogarry helped us from Co Monaghan 

(40) @ladydotty from Co Sligo helped by asking what #project26 was all about

(41) @reddav14 & @angevf helped by questioning why we kept to 26 counties 

(42) @monaghanpenguin helped by asking what #project26 was 

(43) @reddave14 helped by questioning the decision-making process to pick engaging tweeters

(44) @aloliver + @martineCork + @FinbarrWilson @thickeytom also helped.

If I’ve left anyone out of this list, I’d be happy to edit them in - so that the historical record will be accurate. I suspect there are contacts of @sundaytwist who’ve helped without me being aware of their role.

Audio helped on the way: 

I made two audios on the way.  One was early on and the second was later - those links on AudioBoo were useful & enriching  - they gave us an easy way to fill people in on what this was all about.  [I must remember to make an audio version of this blogpost.]

This began with a simple idea - one person per county.  But it spawned more complex ideas - and a new collaborative team.  @SundayTwist & I stumbled into the idea of going the same for the counties of UK and the States of USA.

It’s been a wonderful way to realise the value of location-specific connections.  It’s opened up fresh prospects.  It’s enabled us to offer a suggestion to others - that they do the same for themselves…

Our list is now a Twitter List - it’s available to anyone who’s interested.  It may even become useful to someone else.

It was particularly satisfying to get the idea & complete the project as a collaboration in a few days.