brewery33

Local Politics found in Twitter, yes it’s true

I received an interesting email on my phone the other day. Apparently @susaneggman has joined the ranks of Twitter and is now following my @brewery33 account. I am not opposed to this, actually I am pretty pumped that a politician on the local level would even take an interest in the pulse of the tech community. I say tech community, because let’s face it, unless you are basically wired up at all times with a smart phone rife with applications that assist you in your online social interactions, you are probably not using Twitter on a regular basis. You might be dabbling, but using as a tool you are not.

So back to @susaneggman following me, I have a tumultuous political opinion of this individual. At first I was opposed to her politics based solely on my ignorance and staunch conservative opinion. Then she endorsed a fairly conservative guy who happened to running for Mayor, Clem Lee, as opposed to the historically liberal and fellow woman Ann Johnston(she had a MySpace?). This confused me. I began to read a little bit about her efforts in the community and have found that she is fairly involved in community based organizations. This is surprising because when one thinks of a politician one thinks of the major endorsements that the figure has received from the donating heavyweights. I can tell you that I am involved in a few civic efforts that are completely unsung, and we don’t have politicos calling us asking if they can help, frankly because the only payoff is through the philanthropy that is generated by the effort. I am not saying that politicians don’t do good deeds every once in a while, I am saying that @susaneggman has done a fair amount with organizations that are either connected to, or directly for effort in which I was working on. For this to happen is rather impressive on a local government level. It is the answer to the question, for those philosophers out there.

Now here I sit in front of a screen pounding out text pondering the choice that @susaneggman made by opening an account in which she could potentially do some real political good.

My suspicion with @susaneggman lies solely in the fact that both her Facebook acccount and Twitter account are linked therefore posting her thoughts and whims on both mediums. This technique is good if you have more than 140 characters to say, but it also could be quite bothersome to the league of Facebook friends that @susaneggman will acquire throughout the campaign, that is if she is using it for campaign purposes. Twitter tends to deal a little better with the noise, as it is a pretty noisy place to begin with. Just FYI, I suggest managing your account with Tweetdeck.

My advice to @susaneggman is to reach out to the tech community. We are pumped that you have taken the first step to making our digital divide (thank you @ianhillmedia for the term) between government and the average citizen close. In order for this to make the impact that would be mutually beneficial is for us (ie Stockton’s Tech Community) and @susaneggman to open a dialogue and start the conversation. This conversation must be just like the real world, meaning someone listens and another talks, and vice versa, hence bringing value to the exchange.

On the other hand, I might be all wrong. @susaneggman might just want to be my friend. Blame the suspicion on the Italian upbringing. I followed her up, just to be sure.