Sheriff BJ Barnes uses Facebook to share an update about the Mary Ann Holder killings.
His posts in the wake of the shootings offered people a place to share their grief, and also served as a reminder of the toll such brutal cases take on the men and women who work in law enforcement.
He's got almost 4,500 friends on the site, and told me recently that it's become a useful way for citizens to share and receive information with his office.
I do wish the same information was posted to an open website, which would be easy to do via an application like HootSuite.
Do you think the sheriff is aware that his information sharing is behind a login wall?
Posted by: Roch101 | Jan 10, 2012 at 03:06 PM
I have no clue as to BJ's views on that subject, Roch, but there's a default assumption in many places that pretty much everyone who's online is on FB and willing to use it a lot.
That's not true, and also FB walls are in some key ways of limited utility compared to other publishing tools.
Obviously a ton of people do use FB, and as long as it's free I have no problem including it in the mix, but I would like to see this good step forward improved over time.
Posted by: Ed Cone | Jan 10, 2012 at 03:26 PM
He could check a box and make what's on facebook publicly accessible without, as it is, requiring that people log into facebook to see his posts. That would be a helpful, easy start to wider accessibility.
Posted by: Roch101 | Jan 10, 2012 at 03:37 PM
Useful feedback -- you should tell him, via FB or otherwise.
Posted by: Ed Cone | Jan 10, 2012 at 04:07 PM
Ack, that reads much dickier than it's meant, just want to say it really is worth passing along to his office.
Posted by: Ed Cone | Jan 10, 2012 at 04:24 PM
I don't know, this concerns me:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xk3I-a3CJdo&feature=related
Posted by: Roch101 | Jan 10, 2012 at 04:59 PM
Roch, hilarious! Facebooked.
Posted by: michele | Jan 10, 2012 at 06:28 PM
These technical issues aside, I find it disturbing each time the police say they have not yet found "a motive " for these killings - as if anything could ever answer the question of why.
The randomness and horror of a mental illness that would drive a person into that abyss is not a concept we can deal with easily. So we look for any alternative.
Posted by: Bill Yaner | Jan 11, 2012 at 07:05 PM