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Friday, June 26, 2009
City Hall a (nearly) Twitter-free zone (CORRECTED)

6/29/2009 Correction: Hoax! It turns out City Hall is a completely Twitter-free zone. Mayor Nutter does NOT have a Twitter account, but there is somebody posing as him on Twitter. Unlike lots of other impostors, this phony didn't post anything wildly controversial or strange. Instead the tweets were benign and plausible-sounding messages such as "Happy Father's Day to all" and "Be sure to check out our terrific parks systems on a day like today." Regardless, Mayor_Nutter is not in fact Mayor Nutter. Heard In City Hall really, really regrets this idiotic error.

The incorrect original post follows:

In Washington D.C., Twitter has quickly become an obsession of the city’s political elite. Senators and representatives use the service to live-tweet sessions of Congress, respond to constituents, make the case for their positions and so on. Lobbyists and non-profits tweet to drive their messages.

But in Philadelphia’s City Hall, tweets are seldom heard.

With the exception of Mayor Nutter, not one elected city official has a public Twitter account. And even the mayor is just getting started, filing only 35 status updates since his first on April 27th, which read: “working hard to get this budget passed.”

Other Nutter tweets so far have included, “DiNic’s roast pork always hits the spot,” and, “talk to your councilman about the Board of Revision of Taxes if you think we need to start over.”

The 255 Twitterers following the mayor as of press time were largely reporters, political operatives and public policy wonks. But he’s looking for more fans: “Much thanks to everyone following, but we need to spread the word. Get your friends to follow,” Nutter posted on June 18.

City Council fares a little better on the social networking site Facebook, where council members Maria Quinones Sanchez, W. Wilson Goode Jr., Curtis Jones Jr. and Blondell Reynolds Brown all have public pages. Councilman Jim Kenney is nowhere to be found, but he has been known to go blog at some local political sites from time-to-time.

Click here for Philly.com's politics page.

Posted by Patrick Kerkstra @ 4:09 PM  Permalink | 3 comments
Comments   
Posted 07:48 AM, 06/27/2009
Philly Phorever
The City of Philadelphia, 311, PhillyStat, the Mayor's Office of Sustainability and the Office of Emergency Management all have various accounts on Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin.
Posted 11:56 AM, 06/29/2009
CleanupPhilly
There are two reasons I think. This is not the only impostor scenario I've seen. I've scene people pose as leaders of community groups to stand in for them when they are sick or dead, or all kinds of things. People who do it usually have some psychiatric motivation, not just their stated reason. They seem to want to be part of something important. The answer is to check, check, check, check every little thing, every address, every name, every age, every credential before print. Sometimes even the seemingly "good" people turn out to be just compulsive liars, not to be mean, but to feel privately feel clever. My neighbor claims he owns his house, but he's a tenant, and has been for years. It's weird. There are a lot of nonprofits in Philly who have people like this in them, too, not just government. The other reason is that this is a "finger on the pulse" tool, a dissent-management tool, if you will, to get a heads up on grass roots political uprisings against Nutter's policies, put up by one of Nutter's affiliates or party members, or enemies, to collect usable data. That's why I don't post on unofficial things like that. If you think that's extreme, look at Iran. What did just shut down? Twitter accounts. They don't want people posting hot info they can't control or don't know about. They never want to be blindsided. If the latter is true, this is a good story for you.
Posted 12:00 PM, 06/29/2009
CleanupPhilly
Philly Pho, that's what makes me think that the impostor posing as the Mayor is a "concerned" affiliate of the mayor or party. The 311 people could easily want to manage dissent because their program faced a lot of criticism initially as the budget crisis broke. It was just bad timing for a good program. I think they're over the hump, but cuts are required, and the public may finger 311 in their opposition to property tax hikes, or some such. I think there is a story here. Sign of the times, and all.
3 comments
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The Philadelphia Inquirer's Jeff Shields, Marcia Gelbart, and Patrick Kerkstra take you inside Philadelphia's City Hall.
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