Most Tweeting occurs somewhere in the dark dimensions of cyberspace.

But Tuesday night, it crept out into the real world and flittered to Iowa City’s own Hamburg Inn.

The first casual Iowa City “Tweetup” was such a monumental bash, some even brought hand-held devices to Tweet about it. But others — such as Twitter user “bldngnerd” (“tonight? thought it was thursday?!”) — may have missed the gathering entirely and were left only to Tweet, or perhaps chirp, about it from somewhere far off in the distance.

Sarah Wood, who works with the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, has been “Tweeting up” with fellow users for a little more than a year. In November 2008, she organized the first Cedar Rapids Tweetup at the Irish Democrat Pub and Grille.

It was about time Iowa City joined the fun, she said.

“As far as I know, this is the first-ever #ICtweetup!” she wrote online.

In fact, she has even baby-sat the children of people she met online.

“I just like to meet new people — my intention is to change conversations online into real friendships,” Wood said.

The Milwaukee native brought together around 15 Tweeters —all of who are interested in computer programming and information technology.

Twitter has drawn in 54 million users. Tweetups happen daily everywhere from Chicago to Dallas to Liverpool, though they have only become popular in Iowa over the last year or two.

Brittney Wichtendahl, a UI junior in journalism and international studies, was a “twirgin” to Tweetups.

“I’m basically here for the pumpkin-pie shakes,” said the first-timer. “Any reason to get a pumpkin-pie shake.”

Others were there to expand their social-networking horizons, including Sam Blair, a junior at West High, who said he doesn’t even have a Twitter account.

“I’m pretty happy with my Facebook for now,” he said. “But if this inspires me, who knows?”

Blair was there with his friend Jake Nolan, a West High senior. Nolan has been Tweeting for three weeks and said he was excited to meet Wood and the others, who promptly asked what his “handle” was.

“Didn’t I just follow you?” he asked her, in Tweet-lingo. “Not like, followed you here, I mean.”

Another person quipped that Tuesday night’s event would be the only time Nolan’s remark wouldn’t sound “stalker-ish” or “creepy.”

Wood said the negative stigma around Internet relationships is going away. She thinks there are just as many normal, friendly people online as on the street.

“No one just goes and talks to their neighbors,” she said. “We’ve created our own neighborhood this way, through Twitter. Instead of being geographically-based, it’s interest-based.”

And people on Twitter aren’t the only ones who find online relationships interesting and useful.

UI Professor Julie Andsager teaches students about social-networking sites in communication classes. That Twitter “can actually lead people together in the real world and real time” particularly intrigued her.

“It’s very interesting,” she said. “The criticism of online social networking is that it’s driving us further apart, since we’re spending more time updating our Facebooks or Tweeting than we are actually talking to people.”