Your Personal Mayor

Mayor of Twitter! Cory BookerWhen looking critically at changes in democracy and politics around the world, much has been said about the personalization of politics. In many countries, where politics may have once been about the policies of a party and choosing between those parties at the ballot box, today it is increasingly all about the individual candidate.

Political posters feature huge images of the face of a candidate, either smiling or looking confident. Somewhere in smaller print is the party logo, in case you’re wondering about that.  In many municipalities in the US, where one party automatically dominates, it is all about the individual candidates.  But even on the highest levels, president, prime minister, these days we pay close attention to the policies, values, and personality of the individual, more so then the party. This has been referred to as the personalization of politics.

Yet right now there is another type of personal politics that has become a major force in many democracies thanks to the internet. It is the type of political relationship where the candidate or election official reacts and behaves based on your wishes.  Bill Clinton’s staff used to do phone surveys after his speeches and TV appearances, to get a feel for what works and doesn’t work for potential voters.  Adam Curtis laid out these and other activities in his fantastic documentary “The Century of the Self,” where he looks at how candidates would make changes to their policies and actions, based on what individuals wanted.

Tweeting Snow CleanupThis might all sound well and good, people getting what they wish; a direct democracy perhaps?  If we look at the phenomenon of Mayors who make use of twitter on a regular basis to communicate with the public, we find what is very much another example of this personalized representation.  Many, including myself, have celebrated this development, as citizens are actively hearing about their election official’s daily activities, and providing real time feedback.

One of the greatest examples I follow has been my friend, Newark Mayor Cory Booker.  Now in his second term as Mayor, much has been documented about how this young Mayor takes a different approach to politics and leading a city.  Where some make speeches with their sleeves rolled up to look busy, Cory picks up the shovel during snow storms, pulls over drivers who litter, patrols the streets with citizens at night, and turns up more neighborhood parties than anyone in history.

It should be no surprise based on this description, that Mayor Booker is an avid twitter person. Tweeting a mix of inspiring quotes, personal observations, thank you’s, and daily city hall acitivies, he is not only widely followed but he also does a lot of following as well.  I should know, I’m one of those he follows.   As someone who keeps an eye on twitter and has the good nature to listen when citizens have a problem or concern, Cory receives many public twitter messages asking for help with issues in Newark.  From large to small problems, citizens tweet their Mayor about streetlights being out, meetings being held, abandoned lots that get filled with garbage, and most of all at this time of year – snow not being shoveled on their streets. Unlike his counterpart Mayor Bloomberg of (admittedly much larger) New York City, Cory does not simply post a phone number and tell his followers to use it, almost 100% of the time he responds with a “sending a crew over now” or “we’re on our way.”  Sure enough some hours later, you will be able to find a followup tweet from a citizen saying thank you or great job Mr. Mayor.  Occasionally it will be a followup complaint if the street in question isn’t clean yet, to which he still takes the consideration to tweet a very polite “be patient, we will get to you.”

Once again many observers will say – Fantastic! A modern Mayor using modern means to cut out the middleman and communicate openly with the public. Indeed I never miss a chance to tell people about the good deeds the Mayor of the city of my birth does using twitter.

Yet as more snow falls, as more problems appear for the city of Newark (or any city for that matter), and more people join twitter to tell the Mayor something directly, the more it becomes a legitimate question if this is really as fantastic as it first seemed. The individual might rejoice because their complaint or demand has been addressed almost immediately, but taken together, is the energy spent satisfying the individual well spent, among all the tasks the elected official must perform. Beyond that, how can the Mayor be sure that these issues tweeted to him are as deserving of his attention as say, some other city hall business? At some point even Mayor Booker himself tells people with demands to “be patient”.

Naturally the work of the Mayor is more often in city hall and not on twitter, the responsibilities people entrusted him with by electing him to the office.  Much of that work, as long has been true, occurs in the offline world, and sometimes unavoidably, out of the site of the general public.  Citizens of course see and live the results of the Mayor’s work over time, which always results in approval, disapproval, or something in between.

The main question here is: Does this style of leadership, elected leadership directly active on twitter, signal something positive in the long run? Is it a breakthru in the practice of addressing the needs and concerns of citizens? Or at some point will it just be the individual speaking only for an immediate and personal problem, at the expense of the greater good.

Postscript: Mayor Booker became the focus of this post which I actually wanted to be about the bigger picture of politics and twitter. I know for a fact he does tons more offline and online to hear from citizens directly and man oh man do I admire him for that.

Republica09 interview action

After speaking at Re:publica09 today, I find myself in fairly high demand for interviews… which I must say, is always flattering and often fun.? So forgive the ego trip, as I think within the interview there might be something useful or interesting to someone out there.? At the very least, for my mama to listen to.? Hence, click over to Nils’ site and you can press play and listen to me answer questions related to my talk.

(if you’re wondering if im working on podcasts while Im here.. yes.. about 2 of them to be exact.? Previews ASAP. Currently Im enjoying myself out there offline)

On Route to Re:publica09

I’m on my way to Re:publica 09 in Berlin! Haven’t had a chance to sit down and just think for many days and well.. the travels continue for the next few weeks. Still, I wanted to take the opportunity to mention that I’m speaking giving a workshop on thursday at Re:publica, 14h. My topic is Twitter and Journalism, how the two help each other; what problems and benefits twitter has for journalism and media work.

I don’t suppose the thing will be streaming, maybe? Someone (me or someone in the comments) will post a link if so. (8am EST)

I’m always excited to go to Berlin. But knowing that some of my most favorite hacker and nonhacker internets friends will be there, makes it all the more fun.? And of course there will be podcast interviews and topics inspired by Re:publica.? See you in Germany!

Technical Note

Just a little update regarding what is going on with the site and little things you may find useful or of interest:

On the menu furthest to the right you have feeds which you can and should subscribe to; feed for everything, a feed for those who only want audio, video, and even those who want to read latest comments in their RSS reader. What RSS reader do I recommend lately? Google Reader. In the past I’ve also recommended Bloglines which I still think is a fine choice. Using an RSS reader is not difficult and will actually take care of that problem that has been nagging you – “how can I possibly keep up with the blogs that I like, I have no time”. I read 90% of my news, blogs, comments, weather, torrents, you name it… using feeds in my google reader.

Also, although I thought it pointless in the beginning, twitter certainly has SOME usefulness. My twitter account, which basically is an occasional update of what Im doing, where I’m going, and what issues I’m working on, is open to the public. So if you feel that citizenreporter.org has lost some of the personal details of what bicyclemark is up to, you could follow me on twitter or subscribe to my twitter RSS. But beware, twitter can be choc full of useless mundane statements.

Lastly today, especially for those of you who meet with me in different cities and countries, or who like knowing where I’m going next, dopplr has become my preferred method for informing friends about my trips. As you can see on the menu immediately to the right, there is a dopplr box that shows my next few trips. If you login to dopplr you can share trips with me and vice-versa.

This concludes the technical updates which I felt might be of interest.

Pain of Potential

It feels like May, to me, when frisbee season is in full swing and I’m playing three times a week or more and I run and throw for hours without noticing. It also means that new people join the our league here in Amsterdam, and that inevitably means all those questions that I can never answer properly about what I do.

What do I do? “I’m an internet journalist.” “I’m a podcast journalist.” “I’m a freelancer.” “I do a little of everything.” “I’m under-employed.” Or my personal favorite “I drive a red boat around town.” No doubt it has scared away a potential date or two.

And so this evening I’m reading up a bit on the wonderful Portuguese blog written by Antonio Granado about journalism and the internet. Recently he pointed out some facts about the online application known as twitter. If you’ve no idea what twitter is, I can summarize what you’re missing – Potentially great, amazingly useless.

Why so bitter? It is like many things in this life and on these internets, the power to harness creative energy and people through revolutionary communication…. used to broadcast complete nothingness.

Picture it, you go on twitter and you have a small collection of friends, a common thing with all the internet applications these days. And whenever you easily and quickly type in a 2 line message, all your friends can see it in a real time chronological list. NOW, ideally, this could be used for say… a group of journalists… or say gardeners.. writing brief updates about a project, problem, or pressing issue that collectively, the group could certainly benefit from hearing about and responding to it. The same has always been said for how blogging or lots of different online applications could be used.

So I joined twitter many months ago, loaded it up with 20 or so of my favorite videobloggers, podcasters, and those I consider internet activists.. concerned about understanding the world around them. I purposely do not add another 40 to 60 people, most likely some very nice people who I suppose want to hear my little messages, but whose messages I just do not want to spend time reading.

But whether it is on my list, or someone else’s list, most of what is happening is simply garbage. Occasionally I find that even I join in and write some useless garbage like “trying to figure out where the socks get lost in the laundry process.” Just one more in the pile of messages about who is bored. Who is eating. Who is watching TV.

So much potential in the hands of we who somehow don’t take advantage…don’t manage to get passed ourselves and our provincial thoughts or activities. And then we hear about how twitter is growing and how amazing it is and wow what an application.

Amazing indeed. Some guy just announced he’s going to sleep while another one is about to watch the latest Sopranos. Rest easy world, today’s internet user is highly complex and concerned about the problems of this world.