Using Twitter has also reduced the need for some jobs. Jun cut its police force by three-quarters, to just one officer, soon after turning to Twitter as its main form of communication after residents began tweeting potential problems directly to the mayor.
“We don’t have one police officer,” Mr. Rodríguez Salas said. “We have 3,500.”
The slow changeover to using Twitter in this way has saved Jun an estimated $380,000 per year in public expenses.
Of course, some people aren’t sure this is all for the good. First of all, there are only 3,500 residents in Jun, so it’s unclear whether what has worked there can be applied to larger towns. In addition, some analysts question whether a publicly listed company like Twitter should be permitted to help provide government services.
“Should a municipality take pride in cutting its work force by outsourcing it to an international company?” said Richard Rogers, a professor of new media at the University of Amsterdam.
Time will tell, I suppose, but someone has to be on the forefront of the future.
Source: The New York Times
