Bethan Jenkins AC/AM Blog

I’m back from London safe and sound you’d be pleased to know. It shows the strength of blogs in that a colleague didn’t know where I was yesterday and instead of contacting me directly, she said that she ‘just checked my blog, and found out that way.’  So blogging is a superb way of communicating with people without having to talk to people directly- great! I’m sure that will do a world of good for my social skills;-)

So to the E-Democracy conference. Well, it wasn’t what I thought it would be, lets put it that way. The opening speech by Helen Boaden of the BBC was exceptionally useful in highlighting how the BBC is now using new technologies to communicate with people and to encourage grassroots news, but the conference in general fell flat after that I’m afraid to say. It seemed to concentrate a little too much on e-consultations and what methods are being used in such processes, but not its effect, or how politicians are using it. For example, questions were posed to panels of lecturers and consultancy firms- if the politicians do not take e-consultation responses as seriously as formal, written or oral evidence, then why should they invest vital resources to develop it?

I gave my contribution to the day by singing the praises of our e-petitions system and the Welsh blogosphere, but unfortunately the attendance at the workshop on Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales was disappointing- this despite the fact that the devolved nations are clearly leading the way in this field. Its annoying when you go to some London based events when most people do not even consider, or know that we even exist, and put us in the ‘UK’ governance box without a second thought. This does not assist in creating an effective analysis of what is out there, and what is working in the realm of e-democracy.

There’s still a long way to go on this issue. Given that there were only 3 politicians present, it seemed a little like we were preaching to the converted yesterday. Unless politicians see the benefits of, and embrace e-democracy for all that it offers, and not just as an add on to other initiatives, then we will be in the same place next year. See more here from Iain Dale on the final panel discussion of the day. I am too angry to say much. The politicians on the panel clearly saw no use for e-democracy, and especially not blogging. Supposedly they are all men in grey suits. Discuss…

An interesting point that was made in all the talk about the US elections and how Obama used the Internet so successfully was that yes, the US parties are great at gathering people to support them online during elections, but after the furore of the election, they are not so good at sustaining interest, or developing e-democracy all year round. What do you think?

Anyway, must rush. Plenary is starting.