Square Pegs: Wanted: For the crime of Tweeting | www.pegasusnews.com

Local stuff that matters to you.

Did you know about Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra — playing at Bass Performance Hall today?

News & events for

Sunday, November

63° F
Partly cloudy in DFW

Marketplace:

Wanted: For the crime of Tweeting

Posted By Mike Orren in Square Pegs on August 19, 2009

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:

TXDotTwit

Here's my response:

TXDOTtwits

Staff
Verified User
Anonymous

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.

Pavel Lishin Verified

3 months ago
Link to this comment | Suggest removal

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!

Travis Bush Verified

3 months ago
Link to this comment | Suggest removal

Occurs to me I should have sent 18 responses in 140-character increments, but that's just too much trouble...

Mike Orren Staff

3 months ago
Link to this comment | Suggest removal

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.

Scott Doyle Verified

3 months ago
Link to this comment | Suggest removal

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..

Travis Bush Verified

3 months ago
Link to this comment | Suggest removal

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

Mike Orren Staff

3 months ago
Link to this comment | Suggest removal

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)

Michael Davis Verified

3 months ago
Link to this comment | Suggest removal

haha, that's awesome.

And I don't understand their HOV white paper mumbo jumbo.

Jesus Valadez Verified

3 months ago
Link to this comment | Suggest removal

That's just because the paper is racist. Ask for the HOV Mexican paper.

Pavel Lishin Verified

3 months ago
Link to this comment | Suggest removal

I love this place

Mike Bullock Staff

3 months ago
Link to this comment | Suggest removal

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...

Travis Bush Verified

3 months ago
Link to this comment | Suggest removal

This is the greatest Twitter battle since William Shatner blocked The Blogess (http://thebloggess.com/?p=3716). Love it!

Sharon Lyle Verified

3 months ago
Link to this comment | Suggest removal

Update on the original story here: http://www.pegasusnews.com/news/2009/...

Sarah Blaskovich Staff

3 months ago
Link to this comment | Suggest removal

Well played sir, well played. Funny that you embarrassed them into actually doing their JOB. High five!

ch0 Anonymous

3 months ago
Link to this comment | Suggest removal

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!

Chris Kidd Verified

3 months ago
Link to this comment | Suggest removal

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.