Last night, bigmouths Andrew Girdwood, Wendy Rees and myself went along to the EdTwestival at Hawk and Hunter which was attended by nearly 250 other Twitterers from all around Scotland (and beyond). As well as getting an opportunity to meet the people we’ve been following and communicating with on Twitter, there was some excellent music from Peter Gregson, Epic26 and Plum as well as some entertaining compering from Ewan Spence.

But most importantly, the Twitterers at EdTwestival managed to raise around £3400 for charity:water. Doing our bit to help the Twestival total towards its $1m target.

As well as the mass of Twittering going on during the night heliping to raise the profile of EdTwestival, BBC Scotland came along on the night and gave the event a fantastic write up

Pictures from the night’s shenanigans can be found on Flickr.

All of this is being announced at a time when readership rates for print newspapers, and even the finances for print newspaper are struggling and online media is gathering momentum at an unprecedented rate.

Although online content has been allowed as an entry for the Pulitzer Prize, websites that do not have a print publication have only been allowed to submit entries in the ‘breaking news’ and ‘breaking news photography’ sections.

According to a statement for the Pulitzer Organisation the criteria for online publications is that they “publish at least weekly … are primarily dedicated to original news reporting and coverage of ongoing stories … and adhere to the highest journalistic principles.”

The last dramatic change to entries for the Pulitzer Prize was in 1943 when photography was allowed, but hopefully we won’t have to wait half a century before online video will be included as well.

Anyone would have thought it was Thanksgiving. Well, they would if they were looking at Google’s hot trends that is.

Google Hot Trends is always a fascinating insight into the mind of America, and you can clearly see what is on their mind today. Not wanting to raise any stereotypes but the 19^th most popular search term today is “deep frying a turkey”. Not only are Americans wanting to deep fry their Turkeys, they’re “grilling turkey” (I’m sure that wouldn’t work) “baking turkey” and “rubbing turkey” (I’m sure it’s all above board). However, if Google fails you, it’s always good to know that there is the “Turkey hotline”.

Things become more compelling when you look at Google trends and see just how massive that turkey spike is! Every November, search volume for Turkey rockets to around three times that of the keyword at Christmas. If it wasn’t for Thanksgiving, Turkey would be the clear underdog.

Twitter is buzzing with Turkey related chatter too – currently it’s the fourth hottest topic.

Gobble Gobble.

In response to the internet’s popularity as a source of information and as an escape from real life worries a UK charity has broadened its online presence.

As well as creating pages on social networking sites Bebo, Facebook and MySpace, Contact a Family – a charity that offers support and advice to parents of disabled children – have set up a virtual office on Second Life. Second Life is an online, 3-D world that allows users from across the globe to meet, trade property and have children together.

Funded by the government, Contact a Family is moving online to reach a wider audience. Every Wednesday their virtual office is manned allowing parents to pop in for a chat and at other times Second Lifers can use the location as a library.

Mark Robertson, the charity’s head of information, said: “The first place anybody goes for information these days is the internet. There are issues with accessing support in real life, even popping out to a local advice centre. Online and telephone support is and has been for some time important to parents of disabled children.”

This is not the first time a charity has entered a virtual world in an attempt to reach out. Last year, Childline booked a room in Habbo Hotel and, in 2006, World Vision opened a store on Second Life.

Picture from The Guardian

These days it pays to be green and within almost every aspect of our lives, from drinking beer to opening bank accounts, there is an environmentally conscious option. In the world of the sustainability, things could only get bigger; first we had eco-houses, then came green skyscrapers, and as blogger Superforest NYC says, it’s exciting times for environmentalists, as China, already a giant in the global economy, announced plans for Dongtan, the first ever Eco-City, last year. The entire settlement is being purposely designed to be completely sustainable, producing all its own energy from renewable sources, offering cycling, walking and public transport instead of personal cars and recycling all of its city waste.

The Dongtan development, which has been lauded by environmentalists and travel bloggers alike, is scheduled for completion by 2010, to coincide with the Shanghai Expo, and by 2040 is predicted to be a third of the size of Manhattan with a total eventual population of 500,000.

Picture from the Tourist Republic.