I was also left miffed by the panel session, mostly because most of those present couldn’t disengage from their own agendas. The politically-affiliated present didn’t seem to be able to differentiate between democracy and politics and I left feeling that they thought e-Dem was about blogging or not and being able to add social bookmarks to pages.

So I agree, there’s an element of denial. And perhaps of fear – policy making seems largely to me about personal opinion and lobbying. What happens when you get clear information from the ground that doesn’t support it?

Some great links to follow up from your messages here. It’s all started me blogging too:

http://damianwatson.wordpress.com/

I do think there is some credence in the ‘generational’ argument, however, people use Facebook, Bebo and Myspace to check out bands, keep up with friends and share media. The thought of them ever reading a politicians blog, regardless of whether it is on these sites or not, is just not going to happen.

Just because the tools are there to reach out to people through technology, that is merely icing on top of a rotting cake that is our democracy. All the research points to the fact that political participation will continue to decline as the current older generation die out.

Peter Bazalgette’s look at the ‘Tale of two houses’, nails the point vividly. Big Brother, Xfactor and the like offer real participation, a chance to affect the outcome of the show. Politics is remote enough from young people’s lives for them to feel that even the vote is a useless tick in the box.

I support the many democratic reforms that are often offered as things to alter than paradigm, eVoting, fully proportional voting system, votes at 16, week long voting periods, early voting. But these are merely little things they may or may not have any impact. The only way to enthuse young people is to give them the power to shape the world how they see it – and that involves politicians that speak their language giving them that power.

I will blog about this, for I wrote my masters dissertation on this very subject.

Marcus

>E-democracy is an important new area.

It feels like a depressingly old area to me – when I was doing EGov work for Local Authorities years ago (2003) it was the coming thing then with expensive conferences all over everywhere and people getting funding for white elephant pilot projects.

I think the problem is that it is made into a sexy product that is thought of as a silver bullet.

Where we need to start is with democracy itself at the grass roots, and then looking for “carriers” – which may be bits of E-Democracy or something else. Blogs and social media are the current tools, and they were not created by a conference.

So I’d argue that the way ahead for AMs and the rest of us is to use whatever tools do what you need to do best – and not worry about E-Democracy.

E-Democracy is certainly happening – but it won’t by it’s nature be driven from any centre: it will emerge as is necessary by local causes and campaigns, and it will cost virtually nothing.

For the political centre to get involved, the place any change has to start is with there being some worthwhile local democracy to express – i.e., giving power away. Then there will be a demand for the tools to express it. I’d suggest that is not in place – although Wales is perhaps easier with a more regular council setup than England.

At the moment, there’s too much of a feel of “pull the cart by putting reins on a dead horse”.

As a kicker, can I plug our recent online symposium about Devolution. It’s in the context of England, but it’s bloggers thinking from different viewpoints about getting power further down the tree:

http://www.mattwardman.com/blog/publications/ and the “Devolving England” report or article series.

Rgds

Matt

It’s politicans like you, and the people who come after (of whatever party), who will make full use of e-democracy, web2.0 and such. I wouldn’t worry too much about it, the culture WILL change. Lead by example, keep blogging and Twittering and Facebooking and whatever it takes to get your message out there. Everyone else will have to catch up or get left behind, I’m afraid.

The best way of evangelising is by “doing the internet” well, as you, Peter Black, Paul Flynn and Glyn Davies so obviously do.

The worst blogs, facebook presences, web sites and so on by politicians are those by politicians who are uncomfortable with the medium but are there because somebody said they should be (Elfyn Llwyd, Nick Bourne and Carwyn Jones come to mind).

If all MPs, MEPs, AMs, MSPs and MLA’s blogged the blogosphere would be clogged up by a load of dross, and the value of the elected representative’s blog would be diminished.

In Wales we are fortunate in that we have at least one good “political heavyweight” blog from each party that has been created organically by people who like blogging and enjoy doing so. That’s the way is should be.

In Wales Plaid Cymru dominates all aspects of internet politics, because party supporters have chosen to exploit the medium. If the party was to “lay down the law” and say that all councillors, all AM’s all MP’s all party officials etc HAVE to have a web presence, then that vibrancy would be lost.