The hype begins but when will politics 2.0 deliver?

I love gadgets and technology, whether it be iphone's, smart phones, xboxes, ps3s, youtube, twitter, hd-dvd, blu-ray, blogs, rss, atom, whatever, I love reading about and using new technology. I also believe that technology when used correctly can be a positive influence in our lives, including our political lives. But lets not kid ourselves, at the moment new technology such as blogs and wikis have created minimal value to voters political lives.

To analyse the political web lets look at three different categories of content that can be generated by all the people who take an active interest in politics.

Author generated Content -

Websites that provide the political classes with a platform to provide news, views, gossip, videos etc. The Internet has allowed an explosion of such content and leads some to believe this as 'new'. Not sure this is true at all. The only difference between 21st Century web publishing and a 15th Century pamphlet is that more people may potentially get to read it (and I really do stress may).

It's good that the political classes have a free, independent place to air their views but do not overplay the importance of blogs in a political debate.

Member generated Content -

Websites that act as virtual meeting places for like minded individuals. Rather than people meeting in a house or local library people choose to meet up online. The online space provides a much more immediate experience, allowing members to congregate on a 24x7 basis and can of course be used as a mechanism to organise real world meetings/campaigns.

An example of this would be the Obama and Clinton websites that allow supporters to join up and participate in their election campaign. A more simple example would be an online forum where people get together and discuss any topic they so wish.

This type of content is and will play a large part in any political party's campaign strategy as a means of engaging with and growing their 'feet on the street'.


End User generated Content -

Content generated by 'users' or in political terms citizens/voters. Simple processes such as interactive polls and forums to more complicated sites such as those generated by mySociety. Theyworkforyou as an example, other sites include this local council site in Holland which allows citizens to place markers where they feel the local council needs to improve their community (mySociety has produced a similar site at http://www.neighbourhoodfixit.com/).

With End User content voters are able to engage with the political class directly, no focus groups or third parties acting as an interlocutor. The recent examples of online polls on the 10 Downing Street website are a classic example of End User content. Such content can of course be very contentious.

Summary -

The political web is currently full of Author Generated content that tends to generate a great deal of heat. Technology creating real change however will only occur when the political web is a balanced mix of Author, Member and End User generated content. Until then don't believe the hype and check back here for reviews of political websites.