XX Merge: Tweeters

This Merge XX festival is the first time I've found Twitter useful for anything other than keeping up with friends. The conversation around #xxmerge has been fun to follow and also useful for gathering information (like what band is going to play next, or who are we missing as we're driving down 15-501 towards the Cat's Cradle). I was curious how many of the #xxmerge tweeting particpants were from outside of the Triangle, so I wrote a quick script to see. It was the first time I'd used the twitter API and was happy to see how simple it was. Probably took me maybe all of 15 minutes; I think it actually took me longer to put together this posting.

Turns out that unsurprisingly most of the participants were from the RDU area, followed by a New England/NYC contingent, then a few west coasters: SF (me), Portland and WA. I could have sworn I saw someone from the Czech Republic, but they disappeared in a subsequent run. Must have been a glitch. Here's the breakdown (or as Google spreadsheet):

1000yregg	Baltimore, MD
AdelaideHayward	Port Ludlow, WA
alycemarie	somerville, ma
barnacle_goose	iPhone: 34.170956,-80.303963
biffbangpowell	Durham, NC
bobbymcdonald	Raleigh, NC
bradleysalmanac	Allston, MA
bwall05	        Connecticut
bzrd	        chapel hill nc
catscradlenc	Carrboro, NC
currincy	iPhone: 35.789791,-78.626205
dan_mccleary	Chapel Hill, NC
dav	        San Francisco, CA
dbrine1	        NJ
ejrc	        Brooklyn
eshep	        apex, nc
indyweek	Raleigh - Durham - Chapel Hill
johndemartino	Durham NC
jonnypolite	iPhone: 45.533173,-122.714920 (Portland, OR)
jseaton	        Raleigh
kbodnar32	Raleigh, NC
malitzd	        Arlington, VA
mergerecords	North Carolina
mike_noodle	Raleigh... RA-LEIGH
nervousacid	Brooklyn, NY
rossgrady	iPhone: 35.994507,-78.902725
spinmagazine	New York, NY
stoftey	        Oak City
straintest	New York, NY
the_dp	        Carrburritos Taqueria
timnyc	        Williamsburg, New York
trianglemusic	Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill, NC
val1124	        Cary, NC
WNRNradio	Charlottesville, VA
wordnerdy	Durham, NC

Here's the source code (need ruby and curb to run):

require 'rubygems'
require 'curb'
require 'json'

STDOUT.sync = true

exit unless ARGV[0]
search_term = ARGV[0]

def grab_page_of_search_results(search_term, page_number)
  json = Curl::Easy.perform("http://search.twitter.com/search.json?rpp=100&q=#{search_term}").body_str
  search_response = JSON.parse(json)
  puts "Found #{search_response['results'].size} tweets on page #{page_number}."
  return search_response['results']
end

def grab_user_data(user)
  json = Curl::Easy.perform("http://twitter.com/users/show/#{user}.json").body_str
  return JSON.parse(json)
end

tweeters = {}
1..15.times do |page|
  results = grab_page_of_search_results(search_term, page)
  break if results.size == 0

  results.each do |result|
    print '.'
    user = result['from_user']
    if tweeters[user].nil?
      user_data = grab_user_data(user)
      tweeters[user] = user_data['location']
    end
  end
  print "\n"
end

puts "#{tweeters.size} unique tweeters:"

tweeters.each do |user,location|
  puts "\"#{user}\",\"#{location}\"" unless location == ''
end

Btw, last nights six slots is putting a serious damper on my 'extra slots' theory. I'm still holding out for surprise band though. Here's the updated schedule sheet. I'm sticking with the previous Friday night picks. Telekinesis and M.Ward for Saturday night. And Arcade Fire.

Picture 42