Community Funded Reporting
SF Appeal  |  18 Mar 2009

Costs and benefits of using Twitter for public service.



Twitter_medium

San Francisco technology startup Twitter has recently become the darling of local politicians. Examples include concerted Tweeter Gavin Newsom and San Francisco's Board of Supervisors.

Does it represent a new era of transparency and community involvement, or is public policy discussion reduced to 140-character bites a bad idea?

This will be a three part series led by Jackson West, mentored by former Chron city hall editor Chuck Finnie, and edited by Eve Batey. It will first appear on SF Appeal and then be made available for others to republish.

We will be seeking interviews (more than 140 character) with Mayoral spokesperson Nate Ballard, Mayor Gavin Newsom, and the first Board of Supervisor member to utilize Twitter, Chris Daly, among others.

How will it help?

The media has become enamored with Twitter like few recent online social services, with regular callouts on major networks and regular press in papers nationwide.

Always chasing publicity and relevance, politicians have jumped on board with gusto.

Lost in the frenzy is critical consideration and cost-benefit analysis.  Can politicians point to policy or public notice successes?  Are there real savings that can be realized?




Jackson West (of SFist, Valleywag, and too many other online pubs to list) will be the primary reporter, under the mentorship of Chuck Finnie, former City Hall editor of the Chronicle
Three 500 word installments exploring various aspects of this issue, for a total of 1500 words.
Sfa Author
SF Appeal
This story has been published:

Costs and benefits of using Twitter for public service.

by SF Appeal | 14 May 2009 | sfbay
The following is a three part series funded by Spot.Us, written by Jackson West with editorial support from SFAppeal.com. The content is Creative Commons, but all three parties must be given attribution. A fourth article has been produced on San Francisco's new 311 and Twitter integration. Social Media Meets Politics: Pols Chasing Publicity Find Web Waters Welcoming Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other popular sites for publishing online have become ubiquitous in the news media, if not in everyone's actual day…
Read the published story
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