Despite the availability of tools like Twitter Search, Twitter Advanced Search and Twellow, finding counterparts to follow on the Twitter social-networking site still can be a challenge.
Here's a quick rundown -- in no particular order -- of a handful of CIOs and IT VPs we uncovered who Twitter regularly. Those most active seem to be in the healthcare, government and education fields. We'll do a sequel when we come up with more, so feel free to pass them along to me via Twitter.
John Halamka, M.D., is CIO of the CareGroup Health System, CIO and Dean for Technology at Harvard Medical School, Chairman of the New England Health Electronic Data Interchange Network, and the list goes on. From his Twitter account, we also know that John is striving to read a book a week this year. The superconnected doctor uses Twitter to promote his blog, Life as a Healthcare CIO, where he can expand well beyond 140 characters.
Janet Claggett is CIO for Richland County, and an industry veteran whose LinkedIn account tells us she's got lots of experience in both the private and public sectors. She mixes work and personal Tweets: On the work side, we know that she's made progress on CRM and ERP projects, and is intrigued by a new mobile technology think tank.
Linda Cureton is CIO for NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center and a blogger] as well. Her areas of interest include IT governance, which she says is the real deal. Scored points with me by quoting my favorite author: "thinkin' about Oscar Wilde quote and a perennial new yr rez -- 'I never put off till tomorrow what I can possibly do -- the day after.'"
Bill Schrier is CTO (CIO) of the city of Seattle and a blogger as well at The Chief Seattle Geek Blog. Given his location, he naturally keeps a sharp eye on Microsoft. But we also learn a bit about his family life: "My wife and I have a mixed marriage. She loves Apple stuff and I'm married to PCs and Microsoft Windows." The old softy broke down and got her an iPhone for Christmas though.
Will Weider is CIO of Ministry Health Care and Affinity Health System, which has 14-plus hospitals and 400 physicians. He blogs at Candid CIO, where he shares "what I have learned through my mistakes and other crazy things in the life of a healthcare CIO." One recent observation via Twitter: "I find it funny when a business claims to offer 'enterprise' services, yet requires payment via PayPal."
Charlie Catlett is CIO for Argonne National Lab. He has a serious background in supercomputing and grid computing, having been part of the team that started the National Center for Supercomputing Applications. Among his recent Tweets: "pondering what IT infrastructure/service would a CIO look back on in 2 years and wish s/he had outsourced. (beyond the obvious)."
Join the CIO Australia group on LinkedIn. The group is open to CIOs, IT Directors, COOs, CTOs and senior IT managers.