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Twitter's Corporate Development lead Jessica Verrilli disclosed the opening of a new Twitter "HQ in NYC" today, meaning the fast-growing new media company now has a beachhead in the center of the old and big media world.

Confirmation of the office's existence came in a perhaps typically laid back San Francisco style. Twitter communications team member Carolyn Penner told us by email, "We have some sales folks who work from NYC, and we thought it'd be nice to give them somewhere to sit. :)"

Update: Despite my reading of the statements from these two Twitter team members, and Twitter COO Dick Costolo's May statement that New York or Los Angeles were the next places Twitter would probably set up offices, the company wrote to say that they have not in fact set up a New York office yet. "To clarify...," Penner wrote us, "We just have the one office - in SF. In NY, we have a temporary area in rental space for a handful of people who are based there." That space may be temporary, but we're hearing people are being hired in NYC to sell ads out of it. Twitter execs have every right to speak casually without nosy bloggers taking them too literally, though. We regret any misunderstanding.

Blogging, Tweeting and Facebook have changed the world by making it easier than ever for everyday people to publish and distribute their thoughts and media to the world. The resulting tidal wave of data now offers opportunities for innovative entrepreneurs to build entire new products, services and companies based on processing that data and offering recommendations, analytics and other information products to consumers.

Social data is set to be surpassed in the data economy, though, by data published by physical, real-world objects like sensors, smart grids and connected devices. The United States may have dominated the first basic and the second social stage of the Web, but the Chinese government is moving quickly to make China the world leader in this next stage, the Internet of Things. A major new public/private partnership in Chongqing aimed explicitely at the Internet of Things is just the latest signal.

GroupTabs, a new New York City-based startup, is offering yet another twist on location-based social networking services. Like media darling Foursquare, the mobile application incorporates the idea of checking in to a local business or venue, but uses those check-ins specifically to offer special deals.

However, unlike Foursquare's own partnerships with major brands like Starbucks and Ann Taylor, for example, GroupTabs' deals are just for local businesses, and are only provided when enough people check in to get the deal, a business model similar to that of group-buying service Groupon.

Two location-based social network geeks are getting married after one proposed to the other via a "tip" on the service Foursquare. Web designer "Geoff G" proposed to his girlfriend Rhea on Saturday when she used her phone to check in on the last remaining steamboat traversing the Mississipi River through New Orleans. It was a mix of the old and new, pretty romantic as such things go.

Since the two were connected on the service, the tip "RHEA: Will you marry me?" popped up on Rhea's phone when she checked in on the boat. Rhea accepted the proposal. Both also received the "I'm on a boat" badge on Foursquare for checking in on a boat.

Today marks the beginning of Internet Week in New York City, an open event taking place all over the city that is "celebrating New York's thriving Internet industry and community." Started just two years ago, the festival is expected to draw more than 20,000 people to hundreds of official and unofficial events, a number of which are custom tailored to the startup community and should be on the top of the agenda for entrepreneurs in the Tri-State region.

Last fall, we told you about an exciting and innovative competition to find - and fun - civic-focused web abd mobile apps in New York City.

Tonight, after an all-star panel of judges had reviewed more than 80 apps over a month-long period, a handful of winning applications were announced.

Back in the fall, we told you about NYC's BigApps competition, which encouraged technological innovation to benefit government and civic engagement. Public voting for the submitted applications opened this week.

One of the submissions to come out of this competition is Blocks and Lots, an interesting app and API that essentially expose all the property records - more than 5 million records, total - for New York City. For site owners, there's a customizable widget that can be embedded in just about any kind of site.

In keeping with Mayor Bloomberg's focus on innovation, transparency, accessibility, and accountability, New York City is today launching the NYC BigApps Competition, a challenge to developers to create software based on city data.

The competition will be hosted by ChallengePost, an online network for organizations and individuals to create and offer competitions. The launch of NYC BigApps will be also be officially announced at tonight's NY Tech Meetup. So, what's in it for developers? Read on.

New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority has sent a take down notice to Greenwich man Chris Schoenfeld for using Metropolitan Transportation Authority schedules to power his StationStops iPhone application. The popular blogger created an $2.99 application that gives commuters access to MTA train and bus schedules. He received a DMCA last Friday to remove the application from the app store The MTA claims that its scheduling information is copyrighted intellectual property. You read that right. Public train schedules are being treated as copyrighted material.