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Social Networks Government Twitter Technology

Running a Town Over Twitter 80

Posted by Soulskill from the of-the-hashtags,-by-the-hashtags,-and-for-the-hashtags dept.
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.
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Running a Town Over Twitter More

Running a Town Over Twitter

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  • So corporatism merging with government. (Score:3, Funny)

    by o_ferguson ( 836655 ) on Tuesday July 07, 2015 @03:23PM (#50065031)
    In other words, fascism.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by TWX ( 665546 )
      Not facism when a government uses a service without being a partner to it. After all, the telephone system is private.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Maybe, maybe not.

      But it is certainly the height of stupidity. Where do they find idiots like this?

      What's next? You have to have a Facebook account to get a utility hookup?

      This whole social media thing is waaay out of control. Fuck, the Borg have nothing on people like this.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Crashmarik ( 635988 )

      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.

      • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

        by XxtraLarGe ( 551297 )

        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.

        • 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.

          I thought that the standard was to use pigs...

        • The difference is probably more easily explained using cows.

          Spherical cows.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by swb ( 14022 )

      I think fascism as an ideology usually has a predominant nationalistic and ethnic component to it. I think business interests intermeshed with the government is largely a byproduct of a totalitarian political system.

      Fascism can be tricky to extrapolate to a specific economic policy because we don't have many functioning examples of governments run by ideological fascists and the ones we do have were short lived and marked by extremes of policy and historical notoriety that make coherent analysis tricky.

      Th

      • The far left of the (traditional) political spectrum is communism. not socialism. It's easy to be confused since in the US media, 'socialist' (like terrorist) is a catch-all phrase that has been used to explain the evils of regimes as diverse as Nazi Germany and Red China. Both communism and fascism are a total(itarian) merge of state, religion, business, and the press into one entity - the (absolutely) powerful and corrupted state. Every other system has some degree of independence between those conflictin

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by swb ( 14022 )

          I don't think the media has ever really used the socialist angle on Nazi Germany, at least not as an explanation for its evils. To do so would be to invite confusion into the media's narrative of Nazism as right wing authoritariansm and the political spectrum -- the NSDAP labeled itself as socialist and implemented policies that looked socialist, so how could they be socalist and right-wing at the same time?

          Before you know it people would start calling it the common sense party -- get rid of the unproducti

          • I don't think the media has ever really used the socialist angle on Nazi Germany, at least not as an explanation for its evils.

            Even a German politician used that - Edmund Stoiber, the former Bavarian prime minister once said that Nazis have been socialists first and foremost. He earned a lot of facepalms for that, but then again, everything he has ever said, was just as stupid.

    • Re:So corporatism merging with government. (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Dutch Gun ( 899105 ) on Tuesday July 07, 2015 @05:06PM (#50065561)

      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.

      • "Please sign up for this black-box-code, third-party service so that you can know if the trains are running on time." :p

        • The alternative being the government spending money creating a replacement? How is that not worse?

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by dcw3 ( 649211 )

            So, via tax dollars, the government is responsible for communicating that schedule to the citizenry. By not doing so, they're not taking on that responsibility, and instead forcing users to sign up for an unwanted service. Why should we have to put up with some kind of sign up, giving private companies more of our info, or putting up with their advertisements, when we've already paid the government, and they should just do their fucking job.

            • If the government used a website you would still have to sign up for internet access.

              If the government used a phone number you can call, you would still have to sign up for phone service.

              This is no fucking different to legacy approaches.

              • Re: (Score:2)

                by dcw3 ( 649211 )

                This is no fucking different to legacy approaches.

                It's not about fucking internet access, that's not what I stated, I'm talking about creating an account with some private company such as Twitter, FB, etc. The govt. could easily post the data on a .gov site without any signup requirement. We shouldn't have to be beholden to some private company to access data that should published on a simple flippin' govt. site. There's no need for anyone to sign up.

                • Re: (Score:2)

                  by ls671 ( 1122017 )

                  Exactly what I was thinking. I do not have a twitter nor a facebook account. I am starting to wonder if I will have to have some of those to fill up my income tax report next year...

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

        That's because you're not taking into account that you are in an Internet forum. Here, whatever a government does is fascism.
        Capitalism = Fascism
        Socialism = Fascism
        Left, Right, Up, Down, all Fascism

      • That's how things work. I'm a little mystified by the knee-jerk auto-outrage.

        Because this is slashdot. Auto-outrage is what .we do best. A whole collective of Herman Cain's, pissed off about the presidents Libya policy, when not knowing what it even was. But we know we oppose it

  • Disgusting. (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Interaction with any particular government should not require consuming the services of one particular company. Outsourcing should be a last resort for any function of government, only when it is impossible to employ people directly to provide relevant functions, and only temporarily. But outsourcing long-term to one particular company is the worst.

    Having seen their "Twitter monument" in the town centre - a fucking monument to a private company - this passes almost for a parody of privatisation of governmen

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by garcia ( 6573 )

      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 b

      • 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.

        Noooooooooooo! Jesus man, the libertarians are gonna descend upon you like crocodiles on a wildebeest.

        3...2...1....

    • While the idea of using Twitter offends me, the concept of outsourcing actually makes a lot of sense in the public sector, especially if you are outsourced to local businesses. This guy is only a mayor of a tiny 3800 person village, so there not much oversight at that level, but any state or federal type service would struggle to get such an idea approved for specifically the reason you mention.
  • such technology were available to Maax, Dar wouldn't have stood a chance.

  • And I'm betting it's a *wealthy* commuter town.

  • Helping a full third of all citizens? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by xxxJonBoyxxx ( 565205 ) on Tuesday July 07, 2015 @03:52PM (#50065199)

    >> 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: (Score:2)

      by jandrese ( 485 )
      That's probably a lot more than the number of people in a normal town who have the time and means to go down to City Hall during business hours to get something done.

      • Or you know, visit a website like any sane town.

        Wtf thought using Twitter was a good idea needs to be taken out back and shot.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by jandrese ( 485 )
          Most town websites I've seen are fairly unidirectional. They are for disseminating information out, not for communicating with town officials. Sure they usually have an email address, if you can find the email for the right person in the town.

          I guess the advantage of Twitter is that nobody can go on long rambling tirades like they can with email. It enforces brevity.

    • 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.

    • 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?

      That depends on whether or not you're a Malthusian...

    • Re:Helping a full third of all citizens? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Harlequin80 ( 1671040 ) on Tuesday July 07, 2015 @05:15PM (#50065607)

      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 (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Ukab the Great ( 87152 ) on Tuesday July 07, 2015 @04:00PM (#50065239)

    in 140 characters or less.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Trepidity ( 597 )

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

    • Yes but most politicians talk in feel-good empty-speech which doesn't make any promises nor commitments (but hints as though they were) and usually doesn't even express an opinion (but hints as though it were the same opinion as yours).

  • In my town, we communicate with the administration with modulated speech sent over copper cables, or e-mail or we just scribble ink on some dead tree and send it with a courier from the postal service.
    Or we just fucking walk there.
    Works great and not only one third but three thirds have all that.

    • 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.

  • Hi Mayor, and thank you for taking the time to hear my issue. I'd like to whistle blow to report a member of the city council his name is J

  • For civil servants, receiving instructions from city mayor directly through twitter looks like a beg for social engineering.

  • I RTFA (cute story) and I'm finding mostly negative comments here. I feel the same way but am looking for a positive aspect.

    Can Twitter produce a verified historical trail of messages relevant to an investigation? Where I live, government and utility officials are being forced to reveal their communications for the last several years (it seems there is a possibility of corruption, yes unthinkable but there you have it).

    Can a person be clearly held responsible for statements they have made (no chance of a ha

    • 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.

  • Would it kill you to add "a suburb of Granada, Spain" to the summary?

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