twitter me this

I'm sure you're all avid followers of my Twitter feed (@mikinoguchi, thanks for the follow!). You may or may not have noticed that most of my posts are international development related--there's a shocking lack of updates about the latest level that I've unlocked in whatever is the top-rated app game or where I ate lunch today (I'm sure it was underwhelming and filling). I've talked about this before a bit, but I wanted to expand on it a little now that it's been a couple years since I was roped into this whole Twitterland.

If you're interested in international development, but have no idea where or who to start with, these are the Twitter feeds that I began with and still pay a lot of attention to:

• Alanna Shaikh (@Alanna_Shaikh) -- Alanna is an international public health development practitioner currently based in Tajikistan, but she's been all over the 'Stans and Eurasia. She has very accessible writing, lays out the current issues facing development on her feed and on her blog, and is very interactive if you have any questions. 
• TalesFromThHood -- a humorous take on life as an aid worker, his Twitter descriptor says it all, "Aid worker since 1991. Aid blogger since 2006. Cynical since Ronald Reagan. Smartass since birth. Don't hate." He has a blog too.
• TMSRuge -- He's a Ugandan photographer and co-founder of Project Diaspora, he usually has a biting perspective on development news.
• TexasInAfrica -- A political scientist at Morehouse College. She/he (I think she's a she...) again stays current on the latest news in Africa and gives her take on them, always an interesting perspective and often the first one I see posting about a new topic. She also has a blog.

This is just a short list. Honestly, if you want a good selection of blogs to start with, check out my Twitter feed and see who I retweet the most and who I'm following. I have put a list together on Twitter that has all my international development related feeds on it, but it probably needs some updating, so buyer beware.

Social media has really allowed me to gain a perspective on ID that seems much more relevant and fresh than some more established fora might give. That said, these are all people's opinions and ideas, unfiltered and un-fact-checked, so take the Twitterverse with a grain of salt, even for these more serious topics.