Twestival is a shining example of tapping into a vibrant community for the purposes of making a difference. Occurring last night in multiple cities around the world, the collective event donates 100% of the money they make to a notable cause. This year, Twestival supports Concern, a humanitarian organization that helps those living in extreme poverty.

San Francisco Twestival featured great music from Stroke 9 and Sioux City Kid. Notable Twitterati, that you may or may not care about, were out in full force. Overall, it was a great event held for a fantastic cause.

Great job, Krystyl!

Great job, Twestival Team!

Happy New Year from RedCandle Research! May all your plans for world domination partially come true in 2010. Here’s a quick look at some of the New Year shout-outs from across the blogosphere.

Joseph Nye of The Huffington Post offers a look back at the hardships of our decade:

Americans are going through another bout of “declinism” such as we experienced in the ’50s after Sputnik, in the ’70s after the oil shock, in the ’80s when Japan was declared to be number one. The 1930s were once described as “a low dishonest decade,” and we could apply the term to the past ten years. Will the 2010s continue a slide or see a recovery? One bright sign is that polls show a recovery of our soft power in many parts of the world, but much will depend on whether our economy follows suit. The World Economic Forum still ranks us near the top of economic competitiveness (just behind Switzerland), but much will depend on our ability to remain an open and innovative society. I place a countercyclical bet on modest optimism. See me in 2020 to pay or collect. In the meantime, happy new year, and happy new decade.

On Mashable, Brian Solis tracks the most influential topics of 2009, covering a long list of subjects from movies to politics:

1. Topics Influencers Talked About
-Social Media
-Iran
-Healthcare Reform
-Television
-Republican Party
-Wine
-Photography
-Dogs
-Movies
-Technology

Gizmodo looks at the “7 Gadgets That Will Ruin 2010.” Topping the list is a briefcase for processed meats:

Losing Weight: Sorry, but your diet is blown sky high when you carry around a briefcase full of sausage—as is your resolution about not having heart attacks in 2010.

CrunchGear declares Windows Vista to be the biggest product flop of 2009:

Fast forward to 2009 and Windows 7 is on everyone’s lips and Vista is just a bad, bad memory. It wasn’t a horrible OS. It was just not enough to be worth users’ time.

And, of course, Perez Hilton offers a light-hearted and optimistic outlook on the year to come:

2010 is going to be the best year of our life! It is as it has been designed and it is our job to ensure that design is properly executed.

We go into this next year so rich – in strength, joy and more knowledge than ever before. We are armed and ready to tackle these next 12 months.

We are gonna rock some shiz hardcore in 2010!

(Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cheesebikini/ / CC BY-SA 2.0)