Group items tagged

interesting commentary on changes in blogging and twitter

Vancouver police twitter a day in the life. CTV.ca News Staff Date: Thu. Dec. 9 2010 10:29 PM ET From the mundane to the compelling, the Vancouver Police Department posted every call they received to Twitter on Thursday, in a plan that is equally about social networking as it is about crime prevention. Sample tweets included: "Man in custody after an attempted theft of beer from a loading truck," and "police are looking for an elderly man who wandered away from his care home." While officers took out personal information that may have violated privacy protocols, the stream of short entries read like the daily diary of a police department. The stream was for a 24-hour period and won't be continued on Friday. Vancouver police say that the stream is a chance to educate people on the volume of calls they get each day, and also to publicize the launch of the force's Twitter profile, which they believe will become a crucial link to the community. "We're going to keep people much more updated with what the Vancouver police is doing," said Const. Anne Longley Thursday. While the gambit proved effective (some 2,300 people began following the VPD by Thursday evening), it didn't always run like clockwork. "Sorry for the last typo's ... I think I need a break soon!" read one tweet. But the micro-blog entries also show potential for the future. In one entry, the VDP wrote: "Report of a suspicious person checking out a building and property. Police looking for him now. Call 9-1-1 if you see suspicious activity!" Considering the instant and far-reaching applications of the web, a Twitter profile could become a savvy crime-fighting tool in the future. Vancouver isn't the only police force in the country to launch a Twitter profile; most departments in Canada already have them. A media expert said that the force's decision to get on Twitter is savvy, given the increasing importance of communicating online. Twitter recently announced that it has 145 million users -- not bad consideri

My Facebook and social info tech bib I mentioned at the meeting; it's ugly and it's a work in progress, but it's now in a public space so maybe it'll be good for someone.

Thanks for joining our group and posting the bibliography.

Thanks, indeed! We're doing a program on digital identities today and using the del.icio.us tag nitleidmgt. This is very timely.

another reason I love twitter--I hate those unwanted pings that interrupt me when I'm working

They highlight 40+ open source applications as they are used in government pages.