By day, Old Lake Highlands resident Allen Gwinn is senior director of technology with SMU Cox School of Business, but Dallas dignitaries know him as the man behind Dallas.org.
After publishing Dallas ISD salaries on his blog in the early ’90s (and enduring the subsequent hullabaloo), Gwinn recognized the power inherent in using the internet to fix what is broken in city and school district politics. Since then, he has sniffed out many a public official doing less than his or her job.
Gwinn has “plogged” (internet-speak for political blogging) on the rise in Northeast Dallas residential burglaries, DART riders skipping out on paying up, Dallas Police Department placement of proceeds ($175 per DWI funneled to MADD instead of city coffers), and sailboats versus speedways along the Trinity River.
No Dallas citizen or official is beyond scrutiny, and Gwinn doesn’t mind naming names, earning him plenty of official ire over the years. But Gwinn claims not to care whether people love or hate him.
“I write what I do in an effort to get someone to rectify the situation,” Gwinn says. “When people get interested, things change.”
They certainly seem to be interested — Dallas.org receives approximately 700,000 to 1 million hits every month, Gwinn says.
