U.K. names its first Twittercrat
His title? "Director of Digital Engagement."
As in the U.S., millions of characters in the U.K. are laying out their lives 140 characters at a time. Now the U.K. government's bureaucracy has stepped into Web 2.0 by appointing a chief of Twittering, an old-school type named Andrew Stott.
What's been free and easy until now — Twittering — may be on the way to becoming regulated and, at the expense of users, profit-making.
In addition to investigating "jams" and "mashups", some new administrative functions have been placed on the Twittercrat's shoulders. He'll chair what's called the Knowledge Council, and implement the recommendations of the "Power of Information Taskforce" - which recommends better government through wiki-fiddling. Oh, and he'll look after the Civil Service web site.
This is not making watchdog groups in the U.K. too happy. Taxpayer Alliance researcher Matthew Sinclair questioned the role of civil servants jumping on the Web 2.0 bandwagon:
Web 2.0 has created a golden age for bureaucrats not seen since the COBOL era.
Meanwhile, hints of trouble on Web 1.0, where Google's paid ad clicks plummeted in April, according to observers of the friendly but secretive Mountain View, California, giant of search services. In "Google money machine all cranked out?," Cade Metz of the Register (U.K.) points to a reportedly 26 percent drop in paid clicks during the four weeks ending May 9:
