Publication Date

June 16, 2009

Perspectives Section

Perspectives Daily

TwitterFirst YouTube, then blogging, and now Twitter; it appears that the U.S. government has fully embraced Web 2.0.

By now, most people have heard of Twitter, the “micro-blogging” service that allows users to post 140 (or less) character messages on their profile pages, or send these messages to other users who subscribe to their “tweets.” And now the U.S. Government is getting into the act.

While Twitter is a popular site for the text-happy younger generation who want to stay in touch with friends, it’s also being embraced by organizations and established institutions as a way to communicate news, events, exhibits, and more. And this group includes government agencies.

What parts of the government are on Twitter? Steve Lunceford, blogger and managing director of a PR firm, has created an extensive list of areas of government on Twitter, including “state and local, federal, contractors, reporters, academics, judicial branch and more.” He plans to keep this list up to date, and will announce changes to it in a very appropriate manner: through the Twitter feed GovTwit.

Here are just a handful of Twitter feeds from Steve Lunceford’s GovTwit Directory, along with some of their recent posts.

This post first appeared on AHA Today.

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