onionbagblog
Twidget
Scroll down and eyes right for some new sidebar widget action.
As the *cough* developer, I'm calling my new tool the Lambeth Walk widget. Essentially it strips the RSS feed of the tweets sent out by the good Twitterati folk over at Lambeth Council, and then aggregates the data in one central location. If I was part of the Nu Labour Third Way persuasion, I may even be tempted to describe the tool as:
'Joining up the dots for an integrated communication platform policy. Oh yeah, for hard working families, 'n all that.'
But the Lambeth Twitterati is not all about Nu Labour Luvvies. Our Conservative friends (note the cheeky use of @lambethnews as a username) are of course placed on the top of the pile; in an online sense, anyway.
Astute observers will notice that there is a lack of yellow presence from the Love Me I'm a Liberal Lot. Just like Parliamentary seats, the hand wringers are also lacking on the local Lambeth Twitterati front.
I've positioned a placeholder for our fence-sitting friends, should a Lambeth LibDem presence ever become available. No proportional representation here - first past the post / first to sign up to Twitter rules apply. Do they even have the modern interweb over in LibDem Land?
The final tweet branded in the colours of the Twitter livery at the base of the app pulls up the latest tweet from the public timeline with a search string of 'lambeth.' It's the online Lucky Dip for the Rotten Borough.
Grouping together tweeps related in some way is nothing new; TweetDeck does this to perfection. Having the tweets embedded in a web page has great potential though. It opens up Twitter to non-users, and demonstrates the power of the 140-character post when similar themed tweets are place next to one other.
Lambeth Council can't boast many things, but the Rotten Borough is actually home to the highest number of local councillors using Twitter. This can only be good for local democracy and transparency.
Why should this matter? Well, it won't slash your Council Tax bill overnight, but it does provide the electorate with an instant form of engaging and having direct contact with their elected representatives. Ultimately it all comes down to how each councillor uses twitter. @cllr_robbins is actually rather good, and has 'fixed' various requests on my behalf using Twitter.
The good councillor has also been experimenting with live tweets from within the council chamber itself. Following endless local authority financial debates online may not be your idea of a good night in, but having an app such as the Lambeth Walk widget stacking up opposing tweets on the same subject may just bring a little excitement to local politics.
The next step if to try and convince the *not so good* corporate communications crowd over at the council to register a generic Lambeth Twitter account to become the public face of the Borough online. This needs to be implemented properly though to succeed. Simply re-tweeting press releases is not good enough; Twitter only works as a two-way process, and genuine interaction between the council and constituents is needed.
The widget itself was built using the wonderful @sproutbuilder - my online find of the year so far. The only problem I've had is that there is a size limit imposed on your work area - so no more Lambeth tweeps please, I can't fit you all on (although I suppose you could just fiddle around with the back end code, or even just build a second widget and stack it underneath.)
I quite like the idea of creating something new from other people's content. It uses their data for a different purpose from what the original intention was. Here lays the beauty of this brave new world; share and share alike, for everyone's benefit.
The app can be embedded into a variety of other social media platforms, or even into your own site. Simply add the html shown when you click on the share option.
Ultimately the Lambeth Walk widget is only of any use if the good people of the Council actually tweet regularly. Some are better than others. If nothing else, then giving them an extra platform in which to communicate with their constituents may encourage a little more twitter action.
If you're a local Lambeth councillor and you want your feed added to the widget, tweet me @Jason_Cobb.
technorati: lambeth council, twitter
reply via twitter
| Wednesday 18 February, 2009 |
Scroll down and eyes right for some new sidebar widget action.
As the *cough* developer, I'm calling my new tool the Lambeth Walk widget. Essentially it strips the RSS feed of the tweets sent out by the good Twitterati folk over at Lambeth Council, and then aggregates the data in one central location. If I was part of the Nu Labour Third Way persuasion, I may even be tempted to describe the tool as:
'Joining up the dots for an integrated communication platform policy. Oh yeah, for hard working families, 'n all that.'
But the Lambeth Twitterati is not all about Nu Labour Luvvies. Our Conservative friends (note the cheeky use of @lambethnews as a username) are of course placed on the top of the pile; in an online sense, anyway.
Astute observers will notice that there is a lack of yellow presence from the Love Me I'm a Liberal Lot. Just like Parliamentary seats, the hand wringers are also lacking on the local Lambeth Twitterati front.
I've positioned a placeholder for our fence-sitting friends, should a Lambeth LibDem presence ever become available. No proportional representation here - first past the post / first to sign up to Twitter rules apply. Do they even have the modern interweb over in LibDem Land?
The final tweet branded in the colours of the Twitter livery at the base of the app pulls up the latest tweet from the public timeline with a search string of 'lambeth.' It's the online Lucky Dip for the Rotten Borough.
Grouping together tweeps related in some way is nothing new; TweetDeck does this to perfection. Having the tweets embedded in a web page has great potential though. It opens up Twitter to non-users, and demonstrates the power of the 140-character post when similar themed tweets are place next to one other.
Lambeth Council can't boast many things, but the Rotten Borough is actually home to the highest number of local councillors using Twitter. This can only be good for local democracy and transparency.
Why should this matter? Well, it won't slash your Council Tax bill overnight, but it does provide the electorate with an instant form of engaging and having direct contact with their elected representatives. Ultimately it all comes down to how each councillor uses twitter. @cllr_robbins is actually rather good, and has 'fixed' various requests on my behalf using Twitter.
The good councillor has also been experimenting with live tweets from within the council chamber itself. Following endless local authority financial debates online may not be your idea of a good night in, but having an app such as the Lambeth Walk widget stacking up opposing tweets on the same subject may just bring a little excitement to local politics.
The next step if to try and convince the *not so good* corporate communications crowd over at the council to register a generic Lambeth Twitter account to become the public face of the Borough online. This needs to be implemented properly though to succeed. Simply re-tweeting press releases is not good enough; Twitter only works as a two-way process, and genuine interaction between the council and constituents is needed.
The widget itself was built using the wonderful @sproutbuilder - my online find of the year so far. The only problem I've had is that there is a size limit imposed on your work area - so no more Lambeth tweeps please, I can't fit you all on (although I suppose you could just fiddle around with the back end code, or even just build a second widget and stack it underneath.)
I quite like the idea of creating something new from other people's content. It uses their data for a different purpose from what the original intention was. Here lays the beauty of this brave new world; share and share alike, for everyone's benefit.
The app can be embedded into a variety of other social media platforms, or even into your own site. Simply add the html shown when you click on the share option.
Ultimately the Lambeth Walk widget is only of any use if the good people of the Council actually tweet regularly. Some are better than others. If nothing else, then giving them an extra platform in which to communicate with their constituents may encourage a little more twitter action.
If you're a local Lambeth councillor and you want your feed added to the widget, tweet me @Jason_Cobb.
technorati: lambeth council, twitter
reply via twitter
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