Jack Dorsey: Why Twitter matters

OpenAid is not yet on Twitter. We try to be present and responsive on other social networks. Why such a presence is important to the transparency agenda has been explained by Jack Dorsey, one of the founders of Twitter, in a recent interview in Chile. Taking the example of how the current president of Chile is using Twitter Dorsey suggests that social networks change the way politics is done. Regular and personal updates of politicians about their daily activities and ongoing policy debates make politics much more transparent. Politicians and governments become much more approachable and human.

If politicians use Twitter, information is sent instantaneously and any citizen can give immediate and public feedback. The quality of democratic discourse can potentially be greatly enhanced by such technologies. Already now many project managers in development cooperation complain about cumbersome formal reporting requirements. Should we not move to other forms of accountability? It would seem that if heads of state are able to take time to engage in discourse with their constituents, that aid managers should be able to do the same. The precondition, of course, is, that they really consider the beneficiaries of aid projects as their constituents.