sctweets.com
January 11, 2009
This weekend, a new website appeared that I believe truly puts our state and several elected officials at the forefront of political communications in the 21st century.
From the site….
“…a simple site really. SC’s elected officials do all the work. We just combine all the feeds and publish them in one place.
This site was thought up by SC Representative Dan Hamilton and political operative Wesley Donehue when trying to find a creative way to showcase SC’s tech-savvy elected officials . Specifically, we expect the Statehouse crew to be twittering a lot from the floor and we thought it would be cool to see what they were saying. That goal somehow expanded and we decided to showcase all South Carolina politicos with our directory. We then gave them a way to interact through #sctweets.”
Last summer, I noticed Representative Hamilton was using a tool called “Twitter” and I decided to quickly join as well (it’s free, by the way). Then, shortly after that, I made the leap to “Facebook”.
Tonight alone these social-networking tools have allowed me to hear (within minutes) from constituents about the “one thing” they’d like to see from state government this year.
Paige Tillman Cooper posted the following reply to my Facebook status this evening: “I don’t really think this is something on the legislative agenda but I’d love to see everyday citizens becoming more involved with their state government. .Not all South Carolinians are political junkies like me but they need to be aware of what’s going on at their State House.”
I couldn’t have said it better, Paige.
That’s what a group of us have been trying to do through our push for roll-call voting, campaign finance reform, online registries for local governments, and…..social-networking sites.
Representative Hamilton says “(the site) was designed to give South Carolinian’s a play-by-play, real time look at what is happening inside South Carolina politics from the State House to the newsroom.”
When I asked Wes his thoughts on the internet and its importance to the democratic process, he told me “(Barack) Obama changed the direction of political communications. It’s amazing to me that South Carolina’s Republicans are implementing his strategies much faster than the Democrats.”
I imagine over the next few weeks, you’ll see more elected officials joining sctweets.com and that can only be a good thing for our state and you, the folks we were sent to represent in Columbia.
To see who all is sharing on Sctweets.com, visit the directory here .
As I have always said, elected officials that stay in touch regularly with their voters (and not just at election-time) have a much better chance of doing the job they were sent to do!
Get involved, South Carolina, and stay involved!
Comments
4 Responses to “sctweets.com”
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On my blog, I have been encouraging educators to not only use Web 2.0 tools in the classroom but to also use social media tools to get outside the classroom and connect with policy-makers and others to get their voices heard. I often hear teachers saying they wish more legislators would follow them around for a day to know what really goes on in a school. Using blogging, tweeting, and other social media outlets is a great way to make it happen–albeit virtually.
Only when all entities–educators, politicians, parents, business people–get out of the echo chambers we have established for those of “our kind’– will meaningful conversation happen.. Listening to others ideas and opinions whether we agree or not can have a powerful impact on the transformation of education of our children for the 21st century.
Thanks to sctweet.com for setting this up. Now let’s get more than a handful of folks–from all sides– using the tools!
I love you guys … really. Check out my website I created and you will see that closing the gap between the elected officials and the people is important to me. I am going to have to be honest on the site and explain that not all politicians are resistant to the idea of informing the people about what is going on and being tightly connected to them. It is the way of the future for sure. It is just a matter of time I believe.
Shirley,
Thanks for your comments. Representative Dan Hamilton and I have been encouraging more officials to twitter. Anton Gunn (D – Richland) and James Smith ( D – Richland) are the only Ds I’m aware of that do so though. I have read several “D” tweets from friends, constituents, and people I follow looking for more bipartisanship online but it seems a little slow for now.
I do like learning more about you and your family through your tweets though.
Thanks for what you do for the education of our state!
Nathan
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