August 19, 2009
Wanted: For the crime of Tweeting
There must be something in the air this week -- it's not just my D Magazine pals getting wild , threatening fan mail. It seems that the Texas Department of Transportation might want to send yours truly to the pokey.
You may recall that a couple of weeks ago, Sarah wrote a piece about how TXDOT is using Twitter to provide up-to-the-miniute traffic flow and closure alerts all over Texas. Well, everywhere but here.
Longtime readers know that one of my pet rants is the way that government mucks up technology and public data. So, it should be no surprise that I set up Twitter accounts to do what the local offices weren't. We linked them up to an RSS feed of PegNews stories in the category: Transportation > Traffic Flow and Accidents .
My hope was that we could approximate a service that local TXDOT offices could easily provide until such time as they woke up and decided to join their comrades, at which time we'd hand over the accounts.
Seems that the folks at TXDOT don't like being poked at:
Here's my response:
Latest Contests
Latest comments...
It's lights out for Jazz Under the Stars at the Dallas Museum of Art
Will miss these....but heard about the Mesquite Symphonic Band ... Mondays in June. 7:15 p.m.. Westl
Dick Van Dyke and The Vantastix
Egorsti, just put in all the information and then press the Enter button - that should work.
Pavel Lishin, verified:
Fight the man, Miko!
First they came for the tweeters, and I said nothing because I did not tweet.
Then they came for the MySpace, and I said nothing, because I don't space.
Then they came for the Facebook, and I said nothing because I was already pretty drunk.
Seriously, though, nothin' but support.
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Travis Bush, verified:
What a bunch of knobs! This is another reactionary attempt to CYA by TXDOT, because they have the technology yet fail to implement/deploy it properly. Give em hell, Mike!
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Mike Orren, verified:
Occurs to me I should have sent 18 responses in 140-character increments, but that's just too much trouble...
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Scott Doyle, verified:
My employer and I
So, while Miko's in the slammer, can a guy get a job? <a href="http://www.pegasusnews.com/news/2009/aug/07/txdot-creates-twitter-accounts-most-texas-cities-e/#c57269">As indicated previously</a>, my reign is forthcoming - might as well accept the inevitable and either pay me off or negotiate my salary.
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Travis Bush, verified:
ScoDo...we haven't had a good public execution around here in a while..don't expect the proletariat to accept the shift in power so easily..
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Mike Orren, verified:
Another update: Apparently since this story, TXDOT Dallas & FW made Twitter feeds. Compare them to ours and see which (if any) you find useful.
http://twitter.com/TxDOTDallasPIO
http://twitter.com/TxDOTFTWPIO
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Michael Davis, verified:
I like how you sent it to twitter's corporate office as well.
Did Vicki Truitt the blogger hater send them after you?(I kiiiiid)
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Jesus Valadez, verified:
haha, that's awesome.
And I don't understand their HOV white paper mumbo jumbo.
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Pavel Lishin, verified:
That's just because the paper is racist. Ask for the HOV Mexican paper.
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Mike Bullock, staff:
I love this place
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Travis Bush, verified:
BTW...I didn't see too much that was wild or threatening about the email D mag posted...kind of super special lame compared to teh TXDOT breathing down your neck...
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Sharon Lyle, verified:
This is the greatest Twitter battle since William Shatner blocked The Blogess (http://thebloggess.com/?p=3716). Love it!
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Sarah Blaskovich, staff:
Update on the original story here: http://www.pegasusnews.com/news/2009/...
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ch0, anonymous:
Well played sir, well played. Funny that you embarrassed them into actually doing their JOB. High five!
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Chris Kidd, verified:
Wow, talk about having to guilt TxDOT into doing their appointed job, that was funny as heck mike. I applaud you and your organizations creative approach to making them do their job. BTW, the "forced" tweet feed from TxDOT is a joke, its listing public meetings, no real traffic information. Keep up the good work Mike!
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topcad, anonymous:
So, essentially they just got upset because you "took" their official names but offered to give them back if they did their job? That is kind of amusing.
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jtmbls, anonymous:
I love how you started off with a little Twitter joke - as if anyone working for the DOT has a sense of humor. Very nicely done!
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tabulator32, anonymous:
I can't wait to see how they respond. They haven't responded yet, have they?
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Mike Orren, verified:
They have responded. I'll be posting later this afternoon.
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What do you think?