Running a Town Over Twitter

dkatana writes: You may call Jun an ancient town — it was founded by Romans 2,200 years ago. But Jun's mayor is known worldwide for using the latest technology to run the city. Back in 1999, when he was deputy mayor, the town declared internet a basic universal right for its citizens. And now political parties run "virtual" campaigns without printing posters. But the most impressive accomplishment of Jun's mayor is running the entire town administration and public services using Twitter. He has more followers (350 k) than the mayor of NY. A third of the 3,800 residents have Twitter accounts, and they use the platform to interact with the city administration at all levels.

Comments

So corporatism merging with government.

[o_ferguson]

In other words, fascism.

Re:So corporatism merging with government.

[XxtraLarGe]

Hold it when corporations merge with government it's fascism
When government merges with corporations it's socialism

Good to have that cleared up, I have never been clear on the difference.

Think of it as right-totalitarianism vs. left-totalitarianism. One's mostly concerned with your bedroom activities, and the other's concerned about your bankbook. The problem is your bankbook can impact your bedroom activities, or vice versa, so eventually fascism/socialism have to regulate those activities as well. Hence the cause for your confusion. The difference is probably more easily explained using cows.

Re:So corporatism merging with government.

[Dutch Gun]

Since when is a government office using Twitter "merging" with it? When government computers run Microsoft Windows, are they also "merging" with Microsoft? When they use a Selectric typewriter, are they "merging" with IBM?

Governments and private industry always have and always will work together. The government doesn't actually *produce* anything, and as such, relies on the private industry for many products and services, just like other businesses do. That's how things work. I'm a little mystified by the knee-jerk auto-outrage.

Mayor José Antonio Rodríguez Salas (@JoseantonioJun) has encouraged all Jun residents to get a Twitter account to communicate easily with the town government. That way they can report issues about public services and infrastructure, send suggestions, participate in the town decisions and “talk” to the mayor and council members directly.

Hmm, I'd tend to call this the exact opposite of fascism.

Helping a full third of all citizens?

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

>> running the entire town administration and public services using Twitter...a third of the 3,800 residents have Twitter accounts

So...the government is accessible to a full third of all citizens? (And probably not the elderly who need the most services.) What's the win, exactly?

Re:Helping a full third of all citizens?

[MerlynEmrys67]

a third of the 3,800 residents have Twitter accounts

That isn't even the most objectionable thing in the summary. I found that the mayor of the town of 3,800 has 350K followers, I can imagine the signal to noise ratio involved there. Does the mayor have to filter through 1000 twits to find one that actually came from a constituent. Even worse if he uses twitter to do simple polling... What does his followers say vs. the people that actually live there.

Re:Helping a full third of all citizens?

[Harlequin80]

Where did it say that phones and email and snail mail are no longer available? If anything having 1/3rd of your communication going via twitter you will reduce the load on the other areas and hence reduce waiting time.

Most politicians already summarize complex issues

[Ukab the Great]

in 140 characters or less.

Re:Most politicians already summarize complex issu

[Trepidity]

Plus these days Twitter gives you 140 characters and an animated GIF, which ought to be more than enough for any political soundbite.

Re:Nice!

[Harlequin80]

And in this town they communicate with the administration via modulated speech sent over copper cables, or e-mail or scribbled ink on some dead tree or via electronic instant messaging system.

Re:Disgusting.

[garcia]

The Public Sector does a lot of things well, but it is not great at many others and thus private/public partnerships are an absolute requirement for government to run effectively. If the Public Sector were really out to avoid all outsourcing, it would be detrimental to the core competencies of its staff.

So, if we're to take a step back and say that a lot of government's utilize SIRE or GovDelivery to host, manage, and deliver their documents to the public, are you instead suggesting that the Public Sector bring these functions in-house and build infrastructure and management solutions to do this themselves?

You believe that web/email hosting solutions should not go to IaaS organizations and instead should be handled by high-cost internal IT groups which may not be as inexpensive or effective as those in the Private Sector?

I think your view is incredibly short-sighted for many of the functions of the Public Sector. While the Public Sector *must* do a better job managing the Private, that is besides the point; they simply cannot do what you claim they should, especially while being mindful and reacting quickly to their citizens.

Re:promoting a walled garden

[Jack Griffin]

The worst part is that the people who use Twitter tend to be the left side of the bell curve. So the 2/3rd of people that don't use it are having their views shouted out by the minority of attention whores who feel the need to announce every emotion they are feeling at any given time. The benefit of writing a letter is it gives you time to reflect on your opinion. This can only end in tears.