“Ms. Closkey, president of Downtown Web design firm Big Big Design, noted that over the past five to seven years, Pittsburgh’s tweeters and bloggers have tapped into a deeply philanthropic vein and produced some remarkable charitable efforts as a result.

“‘It’s interesting because people talk about Twitter being like a water cooler or a cocktail party,’ Ms. Closkey said. ‘I think social media offers technological tools to allow people do to more of what they do in real life. We see tweetups that happen around a charity or a group of people who have a cause.'”

I’m quoted in today’s Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, talking about Pittsburgh’s social networks and how individuals and groups use them to benefits causes that are important to them. Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/in-the-lead-2014-stories/2014/05/13/Knowledge-Pittsburgh-charities-use-social-media-to-bolster-grass-roots-philanthropies/stories/201405150081#ixzz31nwfm3d6

(Historical note: I was but one of several co-founders of Pittsburgh Bloggers back in 2004. Anne Brannen, Vanessa Kristoff, Christina Schulman, Mike Woycheck, and I worked together on it, with Mike taking on the significant challenge of creating the first website for pghbloggers.org. Good times!)