Programmers get front row seat to history, bring Twitter along

Supporters of presidential candidate Barack Obama may remember hearing that if they donated one last time over the weekend, they could win a “front row seat to history” — in other words, 10 donors won seats at Obama’s election night event. If you’re like me, you probably dismissed that message as an insane longshot, along the lines of winning the lottery.

Well, it looks like someone from the tech world was luckier and more generous than me. Bruce Williams, a programmer with Ruby on Rails management company FiveRuns will get to watch in person as Obama (probably) celebrates his election as the nation’s first black president. Williams is bringing fellow Rails programmer Damon Clinkscales along, and they’re keeping the rest of the tech world updated via micro-messaging service Twitter.

Even better, they’ve thrown together a website, Tweet Row to History, where users can see all their election-related tweets in one place. Williams says the app isn’t quite finished yet, and for now it’s dominated by mundane, “boarding a plane”-type updates. But tonight, this may be as close to the center of the action as most of us will get. I’ll definitely be watching.

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