If there’s one thing that Twitter is good for (excluding wasting your time!) is the distribution of information with it sometimes giving better results than Google, and in fact, we heard not long ago about plans for Twitter to link up with news corporations to provide a stream of the latest real-time news.
So the town of Darlington have taken the initiative and have decided to make the most of the internet craze by employing an official “Twitterer in Residence” whose job will be to make sure that people across the town are kept up to date with news and events both within and outside of the town via the social networking medium.
Although, before you give up your day job and persuade your local council to appoint you, this is as much as a PR move than anything else (in my opinion) and the £140 a year that Mike McTimonery (the appointee and local teacher) will be receiving for doing this will hardly provide for you and your family!
But regardless it is a nice idea, and if it works then I can imagine that it may well catch on and spread around the country as it not only symbolises the embracing of modern technology and trends but also allows for the council to make contact with a demographic that otherwise wouldn’t go out of their way to find out what’s happening.
The account (@thedarlobard for those interested!) will be linked up to the Darlington Experiment 2.0 website which collates news and videos related to the town from across the social networking sites (including places like YouTube) and displays them in a nice friendly format!
I would advise having a look at it as it’s a credit to what can be done with a bit of initiative and allows people across the town to connect with each other in a safe and easy fashion and as it appears to be successful I can see this coming to a town near you soon, so perhaps something to add to your local Twitter list if you have one!
Via – Guardian & The Next Web
