I’ve been blogging my brains out, in one form or another, all week.

First up, on Tuesday we had a great turnout to the May New Tech Meetup (looking around, I estimate that a record 30-40% of the audience was female–fantastic turnout). The highlight of the night for me was Brightkite’s presentation. The presentation itself appeared to be done on the fly, but I liked that about it. The staid and solid 12 page power points bore me…I’ve seen them done multiple times at NTM. I like to see something fresh and Brightkite has it.

I won’t go on and on about it, but let’s suffice it to say that many have tried and failed to do what Brightkite is doing. I didn’t get it until I started using it in earnest at the An Event Apart conference in NOLA two weeks ago. I can see where my friends are (they check in and out) and post my live location. There are multiple levels of security and I never post exact coordinates, but if someone wants to direct message me and get together, I do it.

Meanwhile, yesterday out in the fine, blue-skied Carolinas, a social media event called Blog Carolinas went down. I logged in to Ustream and followed the event as it happened, live. I participated via multiple mediums (and using these tools,was able to participate remotely and through listening/watching video and talking with participants, got as much or more out of the event as I would have had I been physically present.): Twitter, Meebo, Ustream, Seesmic and Summize. I’ll assume you either know what those things are or will click the links to find out. I want to really drill down on (in my opinion, the biggest & best) one momentarily.

Twitter is a social phenomenon that allows you to track what you and your friends are doing–day and night. But that’s not the extent of it, which is why Wayne Sutton has teamed up with Twitter and a few other sponsors to sponsor a contest that asks the question What is Twitter? I’m a judge for the contest but sort of wish I was a participant because they’re giving away an iPhone to the winner and following last weeks’ Phone Falling into Toilet at The Cat’s Cradle incident, I really need one.

Ok, “need” is relative. So is “one.” But you get my drift. If you “need” “one” check out the contest and you tell us: What is twitter?