Twitter is a POWERFUL COMMUNICATION TOOL that can be used to manage projects, collaborate, keep everyone in the loop, etc. by reaching massive groups of people all over the world or few selected people. As a result Twitter is a darling among marketers, activists, politicians! We too can put it to many PRODUCTIVE uses ..it's limited by our imagination.

Twitter is broadcasted short messages of 140 characters including links to a larger document. Those messages are called Tweets and can reach to so many people who "follow" ( subscribe to another party's Tweets). Tweets are short by default and easy to comprehend to the casual reader and force the writer of the Tweet to be "short and sweet" :-). Tweeting ( micro blogging is the industry jargon for these types of short messages) is proactively viewed by followers. Thus it's different from email groups where one has to create the group and add emails.

A FREE Twitter account can be created in few minutes by visiting www.twitter.com. The best part is one could create an account via SMS from a simple mobile phone. Read these simple instructions on how to use your mobile phone to create, follow Twitter:

• https://support.twitter.com/articles/14014-twitter-via-sms-faqs

To receive Twitter messages via SMS will not cost money in most mobile subscriber packages. So it's the best way to keep up to date with IESL via a basic mobile phone.

IESL has been promoting the use of Twitter for almost two years.

With a public Twitter account, anyone who knows that Twitter account handle such as IESL Twitter account - @iesllanka - can follow it without any involvement from anyone. Followers also can post Tweets to the third party account they follow if it's public without any issues ( however, account admin / owner can delete a posting or even can remove a follower).

With a moderated / private Twitter account, one can send a request to follow it but can receive or send Tweets only after the administrator of the private accounts allows it. IESL Mechanical Engineering Sectional Committee Twitter account - @iesl_mesc - is a private one to which all IESL members can request to join.

Become followers of the above two Twitter handles ( accounts ) and make use of its rapid communication abilities ( news, announcements, events, many learning links, exchange ideas without long emails, etc.). There may be other interesting public Twitter handles out there!

To follow IESL or IESL MESC Twitter postings, send a SMS to 40404 (only if your mobile carrier is Hutch, Mobitel, Airtel and Dialog) as follows:

FOLLOW @iesllanka

You will receive a confirmation that you are accepted since it's a public Twitter account. Then onwards you will receive IESL updates from 40404!

FOLLOW @iesl_mesc

You will receive instructions via SMS to which you should send SMS replies ( what you do depends on whether you have a Twitter account or not. If you don't have a Twitter account, just do few additional SMS s and you will be all set). Once setup, you will receive IESL MESC updates from 40404!

Probably the most powerful ICT feature in our membership management system is FORUMS. You can access Forum Page from IESL web homepage (http://www.iesl.lk/page-1560868). We have reorganized the forum page in the following ways to make it simple and practical:

1. All forums are now in a secure area where the member has to login.

2. To discuss and communicate with our elected representatives we still have Meet IESL President and the Council forum which is the most used one. Please get in and make your requests, opinions, comments to them as it us our democratic right and member responsibility. Very soon, the President and the Council intend to use this forum to communicate monthly Council and other decisions as well. Don't complain or forget your rights, instead, collaboratively work for them where ever you are! Don't say the Council is not listening..first write or speak up ( yes not only write, you can record your thoughts and put a link to your saved recording in a topic - use https://soundcloud.com/ for this)

3. The forum Ask and Engineer which we started as the only forum visible to the "public" is now moved into the secure area and its purpose has been expanded to take and discuss any professional, common interest, social, subjects. We merged all Forums related to professional disciplines with their past topics ( and related replies) to Ask an Engineer forum. We found Ask and Engineer to be the second most utilized forum over the last 18 months. We hope to see more collaborative learning, exchange of ideas, solutions to problems you have through this in months to come.

4. There is a dedicated forum to Share Insights About Obtaining Charter. It is a sad state of affairs when this is the least active forum with more than 7000 members waiting to get the a Charter. You must be very active in this whether one has the Charter or not. Those who got the Charter must help others, we have that in our code of conduct. Mentoring is a must. Please contribute your thoughts to a very timely topic in this forum about reducing cycle time in the Charter Process: http://www.iesl.lk/page-1567211/3205123#3209113

By the way, DON'T FORGET to subscribe to your favorite forum or topic

While at it, go to your profile ( MyIESL from home page) and see whether it requires any updates. Its best that you have a private email such as Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail in your profile than your organization's email which is too cluttered. Any way, your call. Don't forget to check whether your Charter Discipline ( even if not a corporate member) is populated correctly. If not contact nimesha@iesl.lk

Arjuna Manamperi
Council Member
Chair MESC