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Illinois 2.0: Governor Quinn Launches New Social Media Websites


CHICAGO–(ENEWSPF)–June 29, 2011. Governor Pat Quinn today launched official Twitter and Flickr pages to provide Illinois residents with yet another way to access and communicate with state government. Governor Quinn’s new social media sites will be regularly updated with the latest state news and videos, as well as the Governor’s own tweets (marked as “-GOV”). The Governor will also use Twitter to seek feedback and ideas from people throughout Illinois.

“Social media including Twitter and Flickr are the latest tools we have added to share news and information with the people of Illinois.” Governor Quinn said. “We are continuing our work to make state government as open and accessible as possible, sharing updates and photos to further engage Illinois residents on the issues that impact them.”

This new use of social media is part of Governor Quinn’s efforts to utilize technology as a way of making Illinois government more transparent and accountable. In 2009, Sunshine.Illinois.gov was launched to allow the public to see employee salaries, state contracts, inspection results, campaign finance disclosures and other important information.

Earlier this month, Data.Illinois.gov was established as a searchable clearinghouse for state agencies to inform residents about the operation of state government and encourage the creative use of state information, including the development of applications for mobile devices that can be built around the data.

Last week Governor Quinn launched Apps for Metro Chicago Illinois, an application development competition. The competition, which will take place over the next six months, will allow developers to create applications using nearly 200 data sets that have been made available by the state of Illinois, Cook County and the city of Chicago. The competition features more than $50,000 in prizes and encourages developers to create innovative solutions to public policy issues and applications that can improve the lives of people everywhere. Data and information for the competition can be found at AppsforMetroChicago.com.

The public can follow Governor Quinn on Twitter at Twitter.com/GovernorQuinn and access photos from his time in public service at flickr.com/photos/GovernorPatQuinn.

Source: illinois.gov


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