“I believe that devices and sensors that broadcast their data via social media channels are an important source of social data and engagement.”

Yes. I wish there were more public data projects that generated outbound messages (not just “explore moar data bettuh”). As much as I dislike DontEat.at, I respect that it pushes data (albeit data whose value I disagree with). My stuff like @panlexicon and @dayoftheshirt drive a lot of click-thrus, but are dumb algorithms (Panlexicon’s daily word is just the previous day’s most clicked word). I don’t use those accounts for “social engagement” though, so it’s unclear whether one should mix data with other engagement on the same account (though I try to write my tweeting algorithms to make the tweet not necessarily require external context: “We had 24 visitors today.” would be dumb as all get out.

Long story short, I would totally follow a FoodGenius account that auto-tweeted something like “Today 36 people ate burritos.”