Welsh Liberal Democrat Assembly Member, Peter Black, writing in his capacity as an Assembly Commission has an article in today’s Western Mail about e-democracy.
Peter points out that there is a danger that when you hear politicians bandying about buzzwords such as Bebo, MySpace and Twitter it can often induce the same toe-curling reaction he received when he addressed a group of young people earlier this year:
They said that seeing the Assembly and politicians on Facebook would be like “watching their Dad dancing in a disco”.
This does not stop him from having his own profile on Facebook and Twitter as well as running a blog and contributing to this one. Peter points out that the Assembly itself now has 1,000 people directly engaging with them, through Twitter, on issues ranging from education to what can be done about flood defences – views that have directly fed into evidence gathering exercises as our committees scrutinise Welsh Government policy:
And perhaps they are groups of people who would otherwise not be engaging in the process.
We also have over 600 more directly engaged with us through Facebook and many more looking at our photographs on Flickr and watching our videos on YouTube – videos about the work we’re doing in terms of holding the Government to account.
Moreover, what e-democracy really means is that we now have additional ways of communicating. But we must use them wisely and appropriately if we are to truly maximise their potential.
Read more over here.
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