Lynn board goes high tech

LYNN – Lynn residents looking for a City Council public meeting schedule need go no further than their cell phone or computer.The council has activated an account at Twitter.com, which will allow anyone signed up for the social networking service to access the schedule.City Council President Tim Phelan said the municipal account, already operational, will send out the council’s public meeting schedule every Friday.”In an effort to keep up with evolving technology and to reach as many people as possible, we have activated a Twitter account,” Phelan said Thursday. “The more people we reach the greater likelihood of governmental participation exists, which typically produces new and fresh ideas.”The Twitter-based meeting notification system will be in addition to all existing notices, said Phelan, adding, “Hopefully this will increase the youth involvement in city government.”The service is free and there is no cost to local taxpayers, the council president explained.Anyone interested in receiving the meeting announcements should sign up through Twitter.com and “follow” the Lynn City Council.”If we don’t keep up with the times, the times will pass us by,” Phelan said.Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. The messages are text-based and relatively short, up to 140 characters. Although the service is free for users, accessing it via mobile devices may incur fees from the cell phone provider. It is primarily used for sending or receiving short messages. Senders can restrict delivery to specific Twitter accounts. Those who elect to receive the short messages are known as followers.The City Council joins several other city entities on social networking sites.The Lynn Auditorium has its own MySpace page and the Lynn Area Chamber of Commerce has its own page on Facebook. The city of Lynn is also listed as a group on Facebook, which Facebook members can join and take part in.