The Westside Extension effort, commonly dubbed as the "Subway to the Sea," went social networking/Web 2.0 style a few weeks ago with a group on Facebook. This is the first time a specific project has done outreach like this and word on the transit street is that more project managers may be doing more of this in the future.

Metro's Librarian, Matthew Barrett, has definitely been a leader in exploring blogging and other online tools for the agency. One of the most helpful local blogs for transit-nerds is his daily updated Los Angeles Transportation Headlines blog. The library's Twitter is used to update followers on projects in the library. The latest tweet? "Converting the first L.A. Metro TV commericals from the 1950's (black & white, animated) into YouTube friendly files." Their YouTube channel has 37 videos uploaded so far.

Next steps on how Metro can further communicate to the public with helpful information? Here at LAist, we recommend they take advantage of Twitter by sending out real time service alerts when train or major bus line incidents happen causing delays. As the civic glogfather, Los Angeles firefighter Brian Humphrey, says, "we can no longer afford to work at the speed of government." It helps that Twitter is free in these times of economic hardship too.

Note: There is one more public meeting for the Westside Extension in the latest update sessions on Monday, May 12. More info can be found here.