SOS: Can Twitter save Mumbai city?

When New York Cityrsquos mayor Bill de Blasio tweeted on August 1 ldquoWelcome sree as NYCrsquos new CDO And onward to becoming the most techfriendly transparent digitally equitable city in the worldrsquo it got heads turning to an instantly recognizable Twitter handle sree who goes in the real world as Sree Sreenivasan is a digital expert who previously held the post of Chief Digital Officer CDO at the Metropolitan Museum of Art the Met mdash the first ever such position at the museum mdash before being ousted from the post due to a ballooning deficit He led the creation of the museumrsquos first app and brought the Metrsquos collection onlineSree Sreenivasan is in India on a social media tour PicPrabhanjan DhanuThat was in June this year Instead of social media silence on the subject Sreenivasan 45 went on to make a Google Form that he posted on Facebook telling people ldquoA FORM TO TELL ME WHAT TO DO If you hear of things I should think about LMK If you want to invite me to anything I now have time including for meaningful cups of coffee and drinks Irsquod also love to go walking with anyone available I try to walk 5 miles a day I plan to make it 810 miles this summerrdquoSreenivasan a former tech journalist who served as an academic administrator and professor in the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism rides the social media wave with great eacutelan and knows how to use it ndash personally and professionallyHis father is a former Indian diplomat and is the head of the Council for Higher Education of the State of KeralaAs he gears up to assume office as NYCrsquos third CDO in October this year with a clear agenda declared by Blasio midday caught up with him during his India tour for some tips on digital governance for Mumbai And if you are wondering how he got so succinct a handle well the advantage of getting on Twitter earlyEdited excerpts from the interviewQ What do you have to say about the Mayor of New York announcing your new post on TwitterA In most cases you and your boss discuss over a long period of time and no one knows what you are doing except you and your boss No one knows what the deliverables are And then in this particular case something incredible has happened The Mayor tweeted my job In one way the job description is clear in another way it is ambitious and in yet another way it is super scary Because suddenly the whole world knows what I am going to do Now a year later someone can ask ldquoArey bhai what have you done with thisrdquo He has boiled it down ndash lsquoyou better deliver buddy or you are outrsquo It is a lot of pressureQ As newly appointed Chief Digital Officer what is on the top of your agenda for NYCA He said that we are going to make NY the most techfriendly the most transparent and the most digitally equitable city in the world What are the ways in which you can get access to wi fi for example How can you get people comfortable with using technology Next it is about transparency Everybody talks about transparency but what is it actually And then making cities digitally equitable What does that mean in a city that has a huge digital divide You have some of the richest and poorest living side by side mdash you know what it is like in Mumbai We have that in New York too The divide neednrsquot necessarily be about money We often think about money in racial terms or economic terms but it can also be about age A lot of old people in Kerala feel left out of social media because they think it is for kids In the media people are reading Pokemon Go taking selfies and snapchatting ndash if you are above 65 you think lsquoI donrsquot have the timersquoQ With reference to a mismanaged pothole campaign run by the BMC Raheel Kursheed who heads news politics and government for Twitter India spoke to us about experimenting with ldquotweeting potholesrdquo mdash potholes that tweet using sensors Every time a car hits a pothole these sensors can autotweet But honestly why would we spend on sensors when instead we can just repair potholesA Because a pothole is not a onetime thing Even if a pothole gets covered over in the next rain it will recur I can give an example At the New York Times office the main atrium has a tree and other plantations which tell you using tweets when they are running out of water Because it is digital it will trigger an action If you are the government then you can look at pothole tweet data and see how many are silent today On a rainy day like this this data will be explodingQ Mumbai University recently started online admissions and it didnrsquot work out that well Can we make it better A You have to start it with a good infrastructure just having an interface does not help Everyone has to be as involved right from the principal to the workforceQ What do you think are the limitations of social media when it comes to municipal governanceA The best that any municipality can do is to share information ndash give people access to knowing whatrsquos going on But you can have all the Twitter Sewa you want but if people donrsquot know it exists then nothing is going to happen People may have a phone but may not know how to use it At the same time be realistic about what is possible and not Thiruvanthapuram for example doesnrsquot have a single garbage collecting system They need to work on that first rather than worry about 4G access All this digital stuff is well and good but letrsquos not get so caught up in it that we forget underlying issuesQ You were Chief Digital Officer for the Met and ran some great initiatives for them Despite this the Met ended up in a budget deficitSocial media cannot solve everything Can social media help you deal with your relationship with your customers and the funnel Social media is about building a bigger and better funnel People who see our content become followers followers become visitors member patrons and then give money ndash but to get them there you have to increase the catchment areaQ What is it like to have be constantly on Twitter Do you tweet when you are on a vacation with familyA I believe you have to keep your social media going keep it on a low simmer and then you have something big you have to connect with the people You donrsquot have to post everything you see you might feel like doing that but you donrsquot have to My idea of vacation is that my family is all relaxed and I get to speak and help people Thatrsquos how Irsquom wired I write every tweet as if it is my last tweet Itrsquos not a death wish but thatrsquos how much effort I put into it Not that I get it right every time but itrsquos about what I leave on the table Yes so I need a life laughsSreenivasan was in India on a social media tour offering his master classes on tips and tricks to build social media presence