Clerk Website,Twitter Accounts Go Live

Wayne Wouters recently announced the launch of the new Clerk of the Privy Council website.  That by itself strikes me as extraordinarily cool.  Actually delivering your own first-person message communicates genuine engagement with a new initiative and the people it touches in a way that a generic press release style announcement just can't.

But Mr. Wouters really impressed me with his über-coolness by making his announcement via Twitter:

Mr. Wouters greets site visitors with an embedded video where he expresses his excitement about using web technology to communicate with people.  The right hand column of the new Clerk website also contains a live stream of the Clerk's most recent tweets on Twitter.  A "Follow Me" button below invites visitors to add his updates to their tweetstream.

Alternately, you can visit the Clerk's profile pages on Twitter to subscribe directly:

• http://twitter.com/WayneWouters/   (English)
• http://twitter.com/WayneGWouters/   (Français)

I subscribe to a number of Government of Canada tweetstreams, and sincerely appreciate the efforts that some departments and agencies are making to bring their message to the people.  If there is one thing I find a bit disappointing though, it's that this channel seems to be nearly universally one-way.  Try to direct an inquiry to one of these accounts, and you're unlikely to receive any acknowledgement, let alone a personalized reply.

I'm hopeful that the Clerk's accounts will set new precedent here as well.