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Complain to City of San Francisco Via Twitter

by Terrence O'Brien on June 8, 2009 at 04:14 AM


Who isn't in on the Twitter craze these days? No, seriously. Is there a single person, organization, or company that hasn't hopped on the microblogging bandwagon? Everyday, it seems, we're inundated with news and announcements of someone else joining the glorified status updater of a social networking service. And we usually ignore them, because at this point, who cares?

But last week we got word that the city of San Francisco is now taking complaints and questions via its 311 service on Twitter. Citizens will be able to send @ replies and direct messages to @SF311 to report graffiti, potholes, and other issues. The service was announced by mayor Gavin Newsom, who himself used Twitter to announce his bid for Governor of California in April.

While you can send @ replies to SF311, sending a direct message (DM) to the service is more effective. After sending a DM to SF311 you'll get a reply containing a service request number so that you can track the progress of your complaint.

It's nice to see Twitter being used for something a little more interesting and innovative than stroking egos, and tracking bathroom habits. [From: TechCrunch]

Tags: 311, government, microblogging, san francisco, SanFrancisco, top, twitter

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