If White House town hall meetings via Twitter and Facebook weren't proof enough that we're moving well into the Gov 2.0 era here in the US, then this might help sway your opinion. The Department of Homeland Security, seeing massively clogged telephone connections on the East cosat following a Virginia earthquake, is encouraging the use of social media to contact friends and family.It's also interesting to note that the DHS didn't wait to put a release out on typical news channels, but instead ch [...]

Read More: Following quake, US Government urges citizens to use social media for contact

All the way up in New York, and even in Toronto, we at the Social Times felt the buildings shake.  None of us were quite sure what it was.  Google News was silent, even Facebook didn't have a peep.  Where do I go, for an immediate reaction and validation of whether it was an earthquake or not?  It has to be a search of the term "earthquake" on Twitter.  And yes, immediately, everyone on Twitter realized that the tremors had shaken the entire Eastern coast of North America.  This pretty much unde [...]

Read More: Thanks To Twitter, East Coasters Were Able To Quickly Verify the Quake