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Contents of JSC's Stealth Twitter Revealed (Update)

By Keith Cowing
NASA Watch
August 2, 2009

Keith’s 21 July note: The NASA JSC Social Media Working Group has a Twitter online at http://twitter.com/JSC_SMWG .However, this Twitter is closed off such that only approved people can read what is posted there. I made multiple requests to follow it but JSC did not respond. So, I sent a series of FOIA requests to NASA JSC asking to see what NASA civil servants had posted there.
I got this response back today containing the contents of that Twitter. Not much. But now that its contents have been revealed, is the account open to the public? No. They say that it will take until possibly 31 July to do that i.e. 10 days. I guess they need to form a commitee to work this issue. Yet anyone not working at NASA can make that change in mere seconds.
In summary: I can read what is in this Twitter account via FOIA request (researched and answered at some expense to the government) but I, as a taxpayer, cannot just read it like I do other NASA Twitters for free – at least not for another week and a half. The fact that this Twitter account is meant to be used by the social media experts at JSC – and that it contains only one stale post – speaks volumes.
Keith’s 2 August note: Well, we’re past the 31 July date JSC PAO set but the http://twitter.com/JSC_SMWG Twitter is still closed to reading by non-members (taxpayers). Apparently the NASA JSC PAO committee that will decide how to make this Twitter account’s contents public hasn’t met yet or come up with an official NASA process whereby the settings are changed. Alas, a child in jr. high school could do it in seconds. Once again, the fact that this Twitter account is meant to be used by the social media experts at JSC – and that it contains only one stale post – and that none of the JSC social media experts seems to have the incentive or knowledge to adjust it so as to be transparent – speaks volumes.

NASA Watch founder, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA, Away Teams, Journalist, Space & Astrobiology, Lapsed climber.