San Francisco Uses Twitter for Residents' Complaints

According to TechChrunch, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and Twitter co-founder Biz Stone announced recently that San Francisco residents can now send direct messages via Twitter to the City @SF311, to complain about street cleanings, graffiti, potholes, abandoned vehicles, garbage issues, noise complaints and more. The useful part of the new service is the ability to send pictures or video of various offenses.

Once a resident submits a direct message to @SF311, he or she will receive a service request number. Apparently, there is a city staff member devoted to handling and responding to @SF311 Tweets.

Will Twitter helps make the city’s response more speedy? Mayor Newsom is a big fan of Twitter and even announced his bid for governor of California via the microblog site.

You can send your thoughts, questions and complaints via Twitter to the Library @troylib, or to the Technology Department @tpltechnology.