So, I’ve decided to eat the $25 that I spent to go to the Politics4All.com Social Media Workshop and spend another $35 to head over to Vulcan for the “More Clients = More Money” .

As I attested to in an earlier post, I’m not a huge fan of politics. I guess I was looking for a legitimate excuse to not drive down to Montgomery (though I hate that I’ll be missing Paul Chaney speak, again). And I’m thinking more and more that a gathering of Media Professionals will be a touch more interesting.

I’m also looking forward to hearing Phyllis Neill and Andy Ford, two great entrepreneur here in town. Not to mention Tammy Hart…

Going to be great people, don’t wanna miss it!

(PS – if anyone wants my ticket to the Political Social Media Workshop in Montgomery email me)

Personally, I’m not a big political guy. I know just enough to know who I like and for who I could care less.

Now, since way before our last presidential election, I knew that social media would have a big impact on who would be elected.

Why? Because it was the ultimate way to engage “the” audience… The people of the United States. Getting people involved and interactive gets results. The fact that we are saying “President Obama” is proof of that.

So, I was checking my Google Alerts the other day, when I notice that some “political” organization was planning on holding a social media event in Montgomery. A big “I’ll pass” rolled through my head, after quickly breezing though the speaker list.

But looking at it today, I did notice that Paul Chaney was going to speak. Again, I wasn’t planning on going. But I feel that after meeting Paul at #soso (and having to miss his talk to go see my ol’ buddy @JasonFalls) I felt it was worth the $25 pricetag.

So, you’ll be seeing me down in Montgomery for the event. Though, I’ll probably stop by @FullMoonBBQ in Alabaster on my way back for some ribs.

Our state department could learn a thing or two from social media about information accessibility. Some already have. I have a permanent vision of Gov. Riley on a motorcycle via twitter. Artur Davis is making his bid for the governer’s seat with Twitter as a tool of communitcation. And don’t even get me started about the elected Birmingham officials on Myspace and Facebook.

But I’m not talking about access to our officials. They are supposed to be accessible to the public to give lip service. No, I’m talking about your local branch of the DMV.

Yes. Here recently I went to the Centerpoint branch to get my tag transfered from my poor old wrecked car to my bright shinny new one. I went 3 times and spent a total of 4.5 hours in line. Now, don’t get me wrong. I kept my cool. But it would have been a lot better if I could have actually found the information I needed about who should sign what, the dreaded and/or disaster, and what wreckage papers are needed.

Now, I don’t think SM is the end/all, be/all to this problem. Simply having someone go through the line every 20-30 minutes making sure people have the exact paperwork exactly how it needs to be filled about would be the best solution if the Great State of AL is going to be so damn picky. But an actual website that explains everything (and not the vaugeness that is there now) would be really appreciated. Ideally, (which means it will never happen) would be a twitter/AIM/google talk account that would be manned that people could ask specific questions. Like the dreaded and/or on the title. Grr.