Diving in the Shallow End: Are politicians capable of more depth on-line? pp31-35 Ross Ferguson

Ross observes:

• Before the election on May 5th 2005 it was clear that ‘e-election’ was “little more than hyperbole” (Page 32)
• It is easy to be negative about what was achieved through the on-line campaigning that was carried out
• The positive aspect of the 2005 campaign is that MP’s and other electoral representatives gained first hand experience of e-democracies potential to help them listen and learn. (Page 35)

Through a router darkly: How on-line campaigning was reported: Bill Thompson pp. 22-25

Looking at the other side of the coin, the limited use of the Internet during the 2005 General Election in Britain.

He observes:

It will be up to the historians, psephologists and political scientists to disentangle the strands of influence and decide whether poster campaigns, e.mails or text messages are a more effective way of reaching the electorate. When the spin doctors, candidates and party press officers try to decide where and how to use the many channels that exist for communication between campaign and voter, they will have little detailed evidence from the coverage of the 2005 election.

Live Support?

I had to use one of those live support things today. Dabs customer service lives up to it’s diabolical reputation!

Read on …


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The human touch of on-line campaigning:Milica Howell Pages 26-30.

Talking about the blog of a once homeless person (Jamie McCoy) which was set up to raise the profile of homelessness issues during the 2005 British general election Milicia observes:

• The blog was monitored by the mainstream media including the BBC, The Guardian, The FT, The Independent, The Times and CNN. Page 27.
• Although the report has a negative slant on the impact of the Internet on the overall campaign and they observe that it was not an ‘e-election’ per se. Blogs like Jamie’s and the personal e.mails from some senior labour figures helped the election become more personal.

• A more gradual, less sensationalist and transient mode of humanising issues than offered by traditional media is offered through the Internet. Page 30

Logging on or switching off? The public and the Internet at the General election. Stephen Ward and Wainler Lusoli pp 13-21.

They observe:

• About half the population had Internet access at the last election. Over one quarter of those (28%) used the Internet for gaining information about the Election (Pages 13-14).
• Internet access makes no difference to older peoples voting habits, but younger people who use the Internet are more likely to turn out to vote if they had explored the election on-line (15% more likely). (Page 15)
• Humour about elections equated to half of all reported e.mail correspondence. (Page 17)
• Only 8% of on-line users participated in active discussion about the election (through on-line discussion, on-line petition and subscribing to election news). (Page 17)
• Internet information seeking is becoming part of the natural way of doing things. 44% of those people who sought information on-line reported a specific reason for doing so. (Page 18)
• Of the 47% of the voting British public who do not have access to the Internet 9% suggested that they would get access within the next three years. This suggests that by the next general election two thirds of the public will have access. (Page 19)

Why I have got involved with a network of church planters.

I have been to an Incarnate Network Steering group committee. There are a few things that interest me about the Incarnate Network but I might say more about them on another occasion. One of the things we did at the meeting was to share our own reasons for being there.

Mine are:

• When I was involved in front line mission in the uk as a church planter (I still am involved in front line mission but I have become more of a facilitator in my role as Minister at Stanley Road in Morecambe) I felt lonely and inexperienced. I would have loved to have been part of or had a network of people in a similar position with whom I could relate to and discuss the unique opportunities for mission that existed in Long Whatton.
• Having had that experience I would willingly sacrifice my own time to help other people who are now in that boat.
• Being part of a group who are investing their time in trying to explain the basic elements of the Christian faith is massively envisioning. I see what they are doing, sharing partly in their journeys gives me encouragement in mine.

One person said “In this group I feel normal.” I echo those sentiments!

It’s interactivity, stupid! Digital media and the DIY election campaign. Stephen Coleman

The fundamental misconception underlying much analysis of e-politics is that the Internet is for broadcasting one way messages via web sites. (Page5)

Stephen observes that using the Internet as a means of building relationship between the campaigner and the electorate is the future of on-line campaigning. He observes the use of the Internet under three broad headings:

1. Communication
   He notes the success of the TV red button as well as the BBC interactive features on their web site.
2. Remixing
   The Internet is used for basic satire and remixing of political messages. The ability to replicate the style of the Political adverts with satirical messages was particularly popular. He observes a deeper level of remixing through the use of vote exchanges and tactical voting websites. He calls this approach DIY politics. Where the electorate are using the opportunities afforded to them by interactive web sites to subvert the political process to their own ends.
3. The majority who are not interested.
   Although the statistics about those who show an interest in politics are interesting the majority of his discussion is directed at the majority who are wholly disinterested. He is unable to draw any conclusions about the data other than:
   • Some people went on-line to avoid the general election
   • Some people trust the television as a source of information. Others do not and are turning to alternative sources.
   • Some people sent or received e.mails about the general election and some people would never dream of doing so.
     (Page 12)

His conclusion is based around a response to one of his surveys where 93% of people expected to have no contact with their MP after the election.

if people believe that they are being asked to elect a politicians who won’t talk with them or listen to them in between elections why should they talk with or listen to politicians during the election campaign. (Page 12)

Forward to Spinning the Web by Clare Ettinghausen

Spinning the web is a collection of articles about the online habits of voters and campaigners during the general election in the UK of 2005. It is available for download from:
http://hansardsociety.org.uk/ assets/Final_HANSARD_ONLINE_A5.pdf

In the forward Clare says:

Although it is the time between elections when long-term relationships between the electorate and the elected can be sustained, the campaign its self is an opportunity for the roots of these relationships to be planted. This collection of essays seeks to understand whether these relationships have been esablished and how sensitive they are over the next four or five years.

Participation, Political Organisation and the impact of the Internet.

I read the final report of a group involved in research about the impact of the Internet on political participation. The report can be found here:
http://esri.salford.ac.uk/ESRCResearchproject/ papers/IPOP_final_report.pdf

The project have a web site http://ipop.org.uk

The report summarises the activities of the research project and lists some of the overall findings and the publications and influence of the project members. In short they examined the way that political parties, pressure groups and protest networks used the Internet to “Promote greater participation by their members and the wider public” (Page 1).

Some of the most effective campaigning uses of technology have come from new virtual protest groups, which lacking material resources and physical headquarters have focussed their efforts on developing initiatives that generate more wide spread media mainstream coverage. Page 4

I don’t find that finding particularly surprising. It strikes me that organisations that have been born in a different era have to spend their time upholding the apperatus of that era. Organisations that are born around the ease of communication provided by the Internet are going to be both more focussed on using it and better at doing so.

Some of the interesting conclusions of their research are:

• Using both web sites and e.mail can increase the likelihood that people will become more involved in the events of the organisation. (Page 5)
• People visiting the sites tend to be the newer and younger members of the organisation. Generally they have a higher income than the average member. (Page 5)
• The major impact of the use of new online technology is that people stay involved in the organisation, though one side effect is that it is managing to attract people to the organisation as well. (Page 5-6)
• They also observe that a significant proportion of people would not have looked for the information about the organisation and its events if they “had to rely on conventional methods such as telephone or mail.” (Page7).

I feel compelled to note that some of the sentences are very long and have to be re-read a number of times before the intended meaning becomes absolutely apparent. It is a good reminder of the need to read and reread my own work so that to make sure I have made my own writing as easy to understand as possible.

Zotero.org bibliography and citation manager

I just spotted this free bibliography manager. http://www.zotero.org/ works in the Firefox web browser. Not tested it yet but Tim has a review here: http://www.bigbible.org/blog/ 2006/10/zotero-endnote-free-bibliography.htm