Previously on Twitter Monmouthshire County Council (MCC), who are one of the few councils who seem to be grasping the benefit of social media - i.e. its ability to connect with people (surely this is at the heart of what a council should be doing!),  tweeted something which caught my eye:

As someone interested (obssessed!?) with Twitter, Foursquare and other location based services this got my brain whirring - in fact this is a topic which I've already discussed with other folks.

How can location based services such as Foursquare and Twitter help with reporting (say) anti social behaviour?

Ok, let's consider a situation where a member of the public is out and about and spots some anti-social behaviour (ASB) - e.g. graffiti on a wall. How can mobile technology and/or social media help here?

 

1) Phone number

Create central phone number for issue reporting (MCC have this covered). A lowest common denominator approach as all phones (credit allowing!) can make calls.

 

2) Texting

Again this is very much a lowest common denominator. All phones pretty much allow texting. If MCC purchased a shortcode then people could text their issues to that SMS address.

 

3) Email

Many phones allow the sending of emails. This gives greater freedom and more length to the message as well as the ability to attach photos etc (perfect for capturing damage etc).

 

4) Twitter

More advanced phones (such as Blackberry, iPhone, Google Android etc) can not only do the above but can also integrate well with social media - this is made even better by the fact that many of these devices have built in GPS (as in satnav systems) - this introduces a fanatastic element in the mix - location.

For example, look at this tweet:

This tweet (sent via my GPS enabled Blackberry Curve 8900) has location data automatically embedded in it. Why is this important? Well if someone reports an issue then MCC etc can automatically know where the issue is. Location adds clarity. Furthermore, MCC could search specifically for tweets which occur within X miles of the centre of the county. Being able to pan the never ending Tweetstream for gold is half of the battle.

Obviously on Twitter MCC could encourage people to tweet replies to the MCC account to make them aware of issues. That's a given.

Further options include encouraging the use of a hashtag (e.g. #ReportIT). In a sense this is better than having people simply reply to the main MCC account as it gives the tweet great visibility. MCC want people aware of what this is and how to use it. MCC are then seen as being caring, proactive and can react to the issue in a highly visible environment.

It's fairly trivial to search on a particular hashtag or, even, to restrict such a search to within x miles of a certain location.

Twitter is great also for attaching photos etc so - photos of the ASB damage can be worth a 1000 words.

 

5) Foursquare

Foursquare is the location based service which is gaining lots of momentum (find out more about it here). It's not in mainstream yet but, imho, that's only a matter of time.

With Foursquare there is already a database of venues (ok, some might need to added). So if a user indicates ASB damage then it can be very clear which property/venue is being called into question. Again this aids clarity. 

How can MCC monitor 4SQ? There are a few obvious options including:

- become "friends" with local 4SQ users;

- educate them as to how you want them to report issues (e.g. perhaps report a "todo" of an issue)

- track a feed of the venues in your area

...all of this tracking (with a bit of thought and planning) can be done in an automated manner which does not create an admin headache. After all we are talking about cruncheable data here!

Foursquare are also looking to add photo capability soon.

 

 

....and the list goes on. I haven't mentioned Facebook but the same principles apply.

Fundamentally social media (especially the flavours which lend themselves to the in-my-pocket, used-on-the-streets variety) offer a fantastic opportunity for a council (or any organisation for that matter) to create a conversation and engage with their audience (especially in light of reporting ASB issues etc). 

Many people care about their neighbourhoods but the means of communicating ideas/reporting issues etc is not obvious. In steps social media...

 

 

Ok, my shush account concept is causing a bit of confusion with some folks so here's some common answers.

1) a "shush" account is just a normal Twitter account. It doesn't tweet and serves solely as a topic placeholder. Why? See 2)

2) If you decide to tweet about (say) Blackberry mobile phones (and you don't think it is relevant to your regular followers) then you can prefix such tweets with the @shBBerry account (i.e. a Twitter reply)

3) Because of how Twitter replies work, only your followers who additionally follow @shBBerry will see these tweets.

4) Therefore you probably want to let people know that you are using sushes like @shBBerry. For instance you can tweet it occassionally ("hey, I'm also using @shBBerry", you can put it in your bio, you can put it in your Twitter background (look at mine), you could give them an auto reply when someone follows telling them about which sushes you use (this is the only time I've come up with a good reason to use such a tool!)

5) I've only created shushes which are relevant to me (listed here). Please feel free to create more. Best to prefix them with sh (for "shush!")

Hopefully that sheds a little more light!

updated:

6) Why don't shush accounts tweet? Because they are only acting as topic placeholders. If they additionally tweeted then, when you prefixed your tweets with (say) @shBBerry, are you tweeting about a topic or replying to a tweet from @shBBerry? Therefore, to avoid confusion shushes do not tweet.

@sh4SQc ("ssssh Foursquare checkins") is a Twitter Shush Account designed to help minimise the noise created by Foursquare checkins.

If you are a Foursquare user and have set up your Foursquare account to broadcast to Twitter when you checkin then you CAN prefix such checkin shouts with @sh4SQc to help hide such updates from your regular followers (who might not be interested).

If such followers have decided they DO want to hear about Foursquare checkins, then they can always follow the sh4SQc account to tune in to such broadcasts.

...easy as that :)

Obviously it's important that folks know about these shush accounts - one way it to highlight on your Twitter background or your bio which shush accounts you actively use.

 

 

Most of us who use social networking (who isn't?!) are pretty much aware that the concept of a "friend" is waaaay to simplistic and we need a much greater granularity of tools & controls to govern who sees our content.

Facebook (FB), and they are the easy arse to kick here, was born out of a vacuum where this deeper understanding of 'friends' did not exist - you were either 'friends' with someone or not. FB have tried to address this evolving situation with "lists" (allowing you to segment your friends) and advanced privacy options on the publisher tool (controlling which "lists" see what update) - but it's a bt clunky.

Whilst developments such as "lists" etc are welcome, they are not enough. Too often FB users are posting content to a wider audience than intended or having content shared to a wider audience than intended.

FB simply does not (yet) have the plumbing to deal with this elegantly. Perhaps also they do not have the incentive - after all - they can make more off our backs when our data is as open as possible - a classic fox guarding the chickens situation.

The "new wave" of social networking tools will hopefully be built from the ground up understanding the complexity and shades of grey of social networking "friends" - content needs to be firewallable (now there's a word!) and it's privacy level/shareability level needs to be obvious to all. Complex? Yes. Too complex to be solved? No...we put a man on the moon (and don't say otherwise!).

Very interesting times ahead for Facebook etc!
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device