Urban Jacksonville

I’m much more connected to the city lately, thanks to Twitter. I’m not sure what it is about those 140 little characters, but they’re linking us in exciting new ways. I feel like we’re all part of one big system, a hive mind.

Take the case of incoming Council President Richard Clark and a reluctance to publicize his council emails. It all started with this tweet from JaxPolitics at 9:07am:

Sad that Richard Clark, the newly elected Council President, is breaking with the tradition of providing public access to his e-mail.

Four minutes later the assisting managing editor at the Times-Union, Marilyn Young, caught wind and by 10:34 emailed the city:

This issue was resolved in a day and now the public has access to Richard Clark’s emails (right?). I suspect before Twitter, this interaction would have dragged on for a week or more and spanned 10-15 emails. Twitter took this issue and placed it in a pressure cooker.

Twitter-style interaction is the next level of communication, not just a passing fad. While Twitter may evolve, go away, or be swallowed by Google, social-style communication is the way of the future. Those who learn and use this tool now will reap the benefits of unprecedented connection and interaction.

I’ll continue to keep an eye on how Twitter is shaping Jacksonville politics, government, development, and culture. Expect me to report back whenever I see a new trend emerging.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 1st, 2009 at 7:05 am and is filed under News, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Tags: Marilyn Young, Richard Clark, twitter