At the recent UW Engineering Job Fair, Mr. Bill Benzer of SPU (Seattle Public Utilities) suggested I take a look at how WSDOT (Washington Department of Transportation) was using social networks. They have a Facebook presence and are asking the public’s opinion on how we want our information . Do you want traffic jam information Tweeted to you? On a gadget or widget on your desktop? Cellphone RSS feed? Some other method? I encourage you to enter the discussion, if the MCDM doesn’t have the answer, who does? Now, if they can just link to our car GPS mapping device and update traffic clogs in color like on their map….
This is great, I’ve always wanted to give this type of feedback.
The question is difficult for me to answer because high-tech gadgets are still a luxury in my world, not a necessity. So my vote is always: the simpler, the better. I’m really not looking forward to the day when I have to install a bunch of widgets or buy a bunch of gadgets just to keep up with friends and know what’s going on in the world. But I may not have a choice …
Renee, I agree. We are getting device heavy. However, WSDot is trying to work with existing tools: a desktop or laptop PC and your cellphone. My car doesn’t have a GPS thingy and I am not sure I want it. But I do think it is great the organizations are asking for input.