Power of the Tweeter! - by David Pogue

I suggest you guys do 2 things today; 1) join twitter (at twitter.com), 2) follow me on twitter (twitter.com/harisrahman) .... hehe

Last Monday night at 10 p.m. was not my finest moment.

The CNBC camera crew was due to arrive at my house the next morning at 11 a.m., as they do every Tuesday, to shoot my weekly CNBC/NYTimes tech video. Not only did I have no script yet, but I didn’t even have a concept for the skit.

Finally, by about 10:30 p.m., I had an idea I thought could work. The only problem is, it required a series of fake “man on the street” interviews (about HD radio). But it was too late to start calling my neighbors, as I usually do when I need extras.

So, in desperation, I opened Twitter, my favorite crowdsourcing magic machine. I typed this: “Hey–anyone wanna be in my CNBC video this week? You have to live in Fairfield County, CT, and be available midday tomorrow. :)”

This was insane. What were the odds that anyone would want to come all the way to my house, with only 12 hours’ notice and no pay?