Technology

With Broken Link, Walsh Announces New Boston Digital Chief

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh The Boston Globe

By Adam Vaccaro

November 13, 2014

1 minute to read

Mayor Marty Walsh announced the appointment of Boston’s first-ever chief digital officer on Thursday. Lauren Lockwood, currently a product manager at a local startup with an MBA from Harvard Business School, will “unite and strengthen the City’s digital assets, including web, e-government, video, and mobile platforms, and lead a digital team responsible for transforming citizen experience in…digital media, digital services, and digital engagement,’’ according to a press release from the city.

So it came with quite a bit of irony when Walsh—or somebody running his Twitter account—tweeted out the announcement. The problem: the city website link didn’t work. (The images below show the since-deleted tweet, and the link to which it sent its wayward clickers.)

We reached out to the city to see if this was a joke, because if it was, it would be a pretty darn good one. Alas, said mayoral spokesperson Kate Norton, it was not. Nor was it a particularly poorly-crafted tweet, just a matter of bad timing, she said.

“The broken link was not intentional, and rather unfortunate timing, given the nature of today’s announcement,’’ Norton said. “The section of the website where press releases are posted went down as the tweet went out. The tweet has been pulled down and the website is currently being worked. We recognize the irony, and we welcome Lauren to the team.’’

Walsh later nailed the tweet on the second try. And anyway, who among us hasn’t made a social media flub? Then again, who among us has, but had a brand new chief digital officer coming on board?