'Public Policy in 140 Characters'

AUSTIN (KXAN) - It seems the South By Southwest Technology Conference came of age only a few years ago when a small San Francisco company came to town promoting its 1-year-old micro-blogging service. Since then, Twitter's popularity shot like a laser to more than 200 million and counting -- and that's an exciting reality to many government officials.

"Using a Twitter account is convenient, easy to use, we can get the message out, can be more transparent in government," said Karen Robinson, State of Texas chief information officer.

She and other public officials who attended Friday's conference, "Public Policy in 140 Characters," said outreach with handshakes and phone calls is being replaced by Web links and tweets. The event was held at Bass Lecture Hall at the LBJ School of Public Affairs on The University of Texas campus.

"People can click on that link and get to your Facebook page or click on that link and get to your website and read more if they want to, but it teaches you good skills to be short in your message, which a lot of politicians need to do," said State Rep. Jason Isaac, District 45.

Others like Leticia Van de Putte of District 26 in San Antonio said today's world is being reshaped by the power of social media.

"For emerging democracies and for people that don't have the freedom of the press right to free speech as we do sometimes those Twitters and those electronic sometimes is the only way the word out to the rest of the world," she said.

With the emerging popularity of phones, tablets and satellite reach faster than ever before, panelists say get ready for micro-blogging to continue, as tweeting and other online chatter will continue to shape lives for  years to come -- and that's a good thing, at least, according to some.