“Wherever you live, chances are you think your government could do a better job,” writes Shel Israel in the opening sentence of chapter 13 of Twitterville: How Businesses Can Thrive in the New Global Neighborhoods.

Shel explains the background to the book’s title, published earlier in 2009, in the introduction, some 200 pages earlier:

Twitterville connotes a certain homey, small-town feel, a place where you meet people you know as you stroll down familiar streets. These are people with whom you share common friends, interests, and ethics. When you meet a stranger here, chances are you have mutual friends or interests.

While Twitterville has millions of people in it, and is growing faster than the world’s largest megalopolises, it still feels cozy to most of its residents and visitors. It still feels safe for the most part.

This is due, in my opinion, to Twitterville’s most important characteristic, something I have named global neighborhoods. . . . Twitter lets us behave online more closely to how we do it in the tangible world than anything that has ever precede