San Francisco and civic social media

June 12, 9:10 AMSF Social Media ExaminerPat Kitano

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From Craig Newmark's blog, Gavin Newsom is introducing social media to San Francisco civics, and creating a Zappos-like Twitter channel @SF311 to support non-emergency city nuisances like potholes and trash.

RecoverySF.org is set up for citizens to discuss the local issues related to the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act (ARRA) passed by Congress, also known as the Stimulus Plan. It's positioned as a bulletin board to solicit citizen opinion.

@SF311 is simply representative of the Twitter feed that we believe will soon replace telephone support for local community services. It's a great example of using Twitter for asynchronous / real time support and a testament to the utility of Cotweet, an enterprise application that allows multiple city support personnel to reply to requests into @SF311. Gavin Newsom is taking a page from Barack's playbook in adopting new social media ideas that could eventually build him a following for his run for California governor.

ANECDOTE: I tested @SF311 by reporting a racial epithet graffitied onto a lamp post near my house, and it was repainted in three days.