Congressman’s twittering while traveling in war zone lands him in hot water
This is an interesting read. I’m very interested in using and leveraging the web 2.0 applications into government websites. I think we are in sort of a wild west stage of development – depending upon where you are and what the attitudes in your organization/ agency are towards social media. If not though out and just used, it may cause a great deal of hurt – see article. . At this point, except for politicians, it seems the majority of government websites are keeping social media at arms’ length..and have no idea or planning on the use of these technologies. If they (government agencies) are using them, they are mostly a one way dialogue – too much fear over trolls and/or legal issues.
Web 2.0 communications should be embraced and used with the same amount of care as other forms of communications while a person is touring sensitive geographic areas. Members of the press were chastised during Desert Shield and Desert Storm for divulging too much. Same thing happened to some flashier reporters during the 2003 invasion.
From a purely human point of view– consider that mistakes often happen when people are in the midst of a sort of adrenalin rush that comes when you can communicate quickly to audiences/constituents/colleagues and friends.
These things will happen.
I’d hate it if members of Congress feel they shouldn’t use Twitter because of this incident.
I suppose advising users to consider things again, have those second thoughts before hitting “add comment” is the best course of action for those of us who are fortunate to live in a democracy.
There appear to be aspects of the trip that would be better not to post through Twitter as you never know exactly who you are providing the information too.