ePolitics

Very interesting and progressive developments in Westminster. Lots of accounts today about David Cameron’s new website to allow people to check on the progress of government policies on a month-by-month basis, as well as to examine expenses, diaries and more.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11708375

With the Midterm elections rumbling closer in the US, our friends in Mashable have compiled a list of online election tools to help voters decide who to vote for. would these work in Ireland? As always I value your input and views so keep them coming.

North Korea’s Twitter account, which started just last week, has been banned by South Korea’s state-run Communications Standards Commission because its tweets contain “illegal information,” according to South Korean National Security Law.

Look at what the leaders in political communications are doing… as Maman Poulet puts it: “Merrion St watch out!”

Citing national security concerns, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has announced that it will soon ban e-mail, web browsing and messaging for the BlackBerry smartphone.

The British government and Facebook have announced a partnership aimed at spearheading a new initiative focused on public spending and tackling the deficit.

This is being described as the “largest public engagement project” ever launched by the British government, and the goal is to tap into the 26 million British citizens who actively use Facebook and get their feedback and ideas about policies associated with the public spending budget.

The project, which is dubbed “The Spending Challenge,” is first launching via the Democracy UK Facebook Page. This page will link users to official government websites where they can get information and submit or opine on other ideas.

During the general election, more than one million people participated in election day polls using the Democracy UK Facebook Page. The government hopes to use that momentum to solicit ideas and opinions about the deficit.

The first phase of the Spending Challenge was rolled out to individuals who work in the public sector and the feedback was pretty strong: More than 60,000 ideas were submitted in just two weeks. This second phase, which is open to all British citizens, encourages individuals to not only submit ideas but to give feedback on suggestions from others.

Prime Minister David Cameron held a web conference with Mark Zuckerberg to discuss Facebook’s role in supporting the Treasury’s new project.

What do you think of the way the British Government is using social media to affect public policy? Let us know!

Mr Birch (founder of BEBO) starting up a new political social networking site called Jolitics. Launching soon, it will be issue based and not party based. Because of Bebo’s success [...]

Clients are often asking me what the real value of Social Media is in Irish Politics. This is a tough question, and one that is unique to each political environment. The example of the Obama campaign is always used, and was deafening in Ireland coming up to the 2009 local elections – however the Irish political and cultural landscape is very different to that of America’s, and hence Social Media’s impact is also different.

Below see an evaluation from Mashable of “How Political Campaigns Are Using Social Media for Real Results”.

I’d be very interested to hear your opinions on how this relates to Ireland, so please blog below, or contact me.

Best regards,

Tom

Here is a good example of online lobbying thanks to Mashable. Creative agency Jess3 has developed a Firefox plugin that aims to black out all mentions of BP (British Petroleum) [...]

Reuters reports that Chavez asked Castro and Bolivian President Evo Morales to join Twitter, during a visit to Bolivia.

Chavez joined Twitter on Tuesday, taking the username @chavezcandaga. His arrival on Twitter was a surprise, partly because only 30% of his country has Internet access (though that figure is far higher than it was before he took office) and partly because he called Twitter a potential “tool of terror” just two months ago.