Mayor Rahm Emanuel is hosting his second Facebook town hall forum on Monday evening, and this one focuses on education. He might need to address that whole extended school day thing. more ›

Taking a lesson from his former boss President Obama, Mayor Rahm Emanuel has embraced social media and fashioned himself as an early adopter. more ›

A social media scavenger hunt involving teams running willy nilly around the city with their noses buried in their smart phones strives to be bigger and better than last year’s event. more ›

We've been following the saga (disaster) of the local ice cream industry for the past several weeks. The state has imposed new regulations that make it nearly impossible for small companies to do business, and due to the new regulations, large stores like Whole Foods have stopped ordering. Enter social media: Nice Cream is taking to the ether to support themselves. Starting last week, a Twitter-driven kickstarter campaign has been moving forward to keep Nice Cream alive, and a fundraiser next week at Revolution Brewing will support the effort. more ›

So how is Chicago embracing erstwhile facebook challenger Google+. Quite well, according to Windy Citizen's Len Kody. more ›

Eric Fischer is something of a map geek. So much so that he's started a series of photos where he maps out the usage of social media in various cities around the globe. more ›

In the here today, gone today world of social media, caution is a surprising watchword. After all, today’s Twitter is tomorrow’s MySpace, Friendster, or Chatrouettte. So let’s have fun with Turntable.FM before someone or something inevitably screws it up. more ›

Roger Ebert isn't backing down from his tweets about Jackass star Ryan Dunn. more ›

Everyblock, the website that takes hyperlocal news to its block-by-block conclusion, launched a full-on redesign. Founder Adrian Holovaty explains the methods to his madness in a blog post. more ›

Restaurants and social media seem to lead an uneasy coexistence. Many chefs and owners don't quite know how to handle Facebook and twitter, except as outlets for press releases, and mentioning the word "Yelp" can evoke pan-throwing from some chefs. As more and more people get their news and gossip through social networking sites, a few restaurants have risen above the pack and are attempting to figure out how to use this new medium to their advantage, and to the advantage of their customers. more ›

We love a good pissing contest as much as the next person. And when one starts from baseball players, even better. Baseball players who don't want to switch teams routinely rip their former organizations on the way out of town. Take former White Sox closer Bobby Jenks, who made late innings tense experiences for fans the past two seasons, had some choice words for Sox skipper Ozzie Guillen after he signed a two-year deal with the Boston Red Sox. more ›

The latter half of 2010 could potentially be called the “Season of Food Trucks” as they’ve taken to Chicago’s street in abundance after legalization this year. Amongst the many is the quirky and tasty, fan-favorite Happy Bodega. more ›

We know English is Ozzie's second language and, in his defense, he did tweet prior to this that he was getting ready to tailgate at the Bears/Dolphins game in Miami. more ›

It’s mid-afternoon and you’re looking for a sugar fix. Your best bet? Check Twitter to see if Flirty Cupcakes on Wheels is parked near you. With regular weekday stops around the city, there’s a good chance they’re within walking range. more ›

Sure, he brought our city its only World Series in our, and even out grandparents', lifetimes. But White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen is perhaps more well known for his way with words. Doesn't matter whether spoken in interviews or tweeted, Ozzie's got a way for drawing attention to what he says. So it's only fitting that Ozzie gets a new platform for speaking his mind. more ›

My stepfather once told me, "It ain't bragging if you can back it up." Is Roger walking the walk here? more ›

Hey, wanna be mayor? All you have to do is spend your career representing Chicago citizens, building a massive war chest, gathering signatures, amassing volunteers, getting endorsements, and motivating people to get out and vote for you over a crowd of other mayoral wannabes. more ›

• Mike Sula, in keeping with the Reader's "road trip" theme this week, took a road trip to June, a Peoria restaurant that splits the fine line between molecular gastronomy and the localvore movement that he surmises may be the best new restaurant in the Midwest. [Reader]
• Sula also likes the gyro jibarito at Thamara Dominican Restaurant in Humboldt Park. Next week, Megan will calculate Sula's reduced life expectancy. [Reader]
• Rachael Ray crowned her favorite Chicago hot dog today. Whatever. At least she had the good sense (or savvy producers) to put Superdawg and Jimmy's Red Hots in her final three. [The Stew]

Do you use popular app Foursquare in association with popular social media tool Twitter? Do you cheat to accrue more points than you deserve? Be warned, scofflaws, Foursquare Cops are on to you. more ›

Social media has reached a new level of government today. Former Chicagoista/current News Hour-ian Kate Gardiner tipped us off to what appears to be Mayor Daley's Twitter account. Of course, we're not so gullible as to believe that the man who admits he doesn't even read the newspaper would actively maintain his own Twitter account. Still, the idea of him tweeting from a City Council meeting (a la Peraica) cracks us up: "Wish this Dumke kid would stop bugging me. Maybe I'll egg his house LOL!!1!!1!" And in case you're wondering who the Mayor is following, they include his own Office of Special Events, President Obama, the White Sox, and Oprah. more ›

Apparently, the bone-headed move of making threats via social media sites isn't just for teens. Buffalo Grove's Michael Sullivan, 41, was arrested at his workplace in Vernon Hills after an out-of-state Facebook friend contacted police because of threats Sullivan had posted on his page via his cellphone. The threat: "Mike Sullivan is again ready to start killing indiscriminately. I'm going to put Vernon Hills on the freakin map." more ›

It made our week when we learned that White Sox skipper Ozzie Guillen had made the leap and joined Twitter. Known for speaking his mind, what venue could be better for Oz to share his off-the-cuff thoughts with his fans and followers, especially as the team begins Spring Training? Tweeting for less than a day, Ozzie's already offered classics like this non sequitur, "going to eat in half hour why dye no have a job?" referring to former Sox outfielder Jermaine Dye. more ›

Are you a social network addict? There may be hope for you to break the chains of technology, but you'll need a few tips to help. [via] more ›

Following up on yesterday's profiles in Time Out Chicago and the Tribune on the return of Dale Levitski to the kitchen at Sprout comes this little bit of information. In an effort to give diners a feel for the dishes on Sprout's $60 prix fixe menu, Levitski has launched a project called SproutCrowd, a multisource platform for Sporut's customers to offer Levitski feedback on menu items, quality of their dining experience and whether a $60 prix fixe menu is too pricey, too cheap or just right. more ›

With the way technology is growing, it's no surprise there are so many ways to keep track of things and we're no different. Here's a list of places you can follow us. more ›

The countdown to Homaro Cantu's big reveal of his "Disruptive Food" project currently stands at 62 days. Today, however, we're gonna give you another reason to follow Cantu on Twitter. More accurately, to sign up for the messaging service yourselves. more ›

Rick Bayless has consistently been in the news in recent weeks. First, there was his winning Top Chef Masters and earning a $100,000 check to his Frontera Farmer Foundation. After two years of planning, today Bayless opens XOCO (449 N. Clark St.). Inspired by the legendary Churreria El Moro in Mexico City, XOCO is Bayless's tribute to Mexican street food: tortas, hearty soups, churros and chocolate. Anticipation among food media and foodies, not to mention the pared down, simple menu, has primed XOCO to be the Publican of 2009. more ›

God Bless The Onion. Especially for giving us this pretty brilliant take on parents and social media, which, now that parents are having to pay for kids to study Twitter, is only going to get worse. more ›

Rick Bayless, who's probably the most Twitter-savvy chef out there, announced an opening date of September 8 for XOCO, his highly anticipated street-food centric restaurant at 449 N. Clark. more ›

Ald. Manny Flores (1st) is still fighting the bacterial infection that is traditional Chicago politics - with sunshine. First he, with Ald. Scott Waguespack (32nd), pushed hard enough to pass the so-called TIF Sunshine Ordinance. Then he and Ald. Ed Burke (14th) won the baby bottle battle last week. Then he proposed even more legislation requiring city government to clear up its muddy financing via online publishing. And somewhere in there, he was the first alderman to attract our attention to the plight of charity magazine Streetwise. So what's he up to this time? More transparency, combined with his favorite constituent-focused hobbies: social media and cable television. more ›