Petition Tony Blair

Online, that is [and not for long, Gordon was spotted logging in surreptitiously...]

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/

Still rubbing my eyes in disbelief

Any thoughts, anyone?

Internet in the US mid-term elections

Of recent, I have been doing a little, impressionistic survey of added-value Internet use in the 2006 mid-term election [you need to start somewhere!].

As the dust begins to settle, overviews of the digital election begin to surface.

A number of articles flagged the growing importance of Web 2.0 [some claim that ‘widgetry’ counts as Web 3.0, time shall tell].

In the Washington Post, Web sweeping election coverage [Paul J. Gough] provides an overview of big media players’ online offerings.

There is data from the Beving report, mentioned in a previous entry. Again on the more academic site [perspective, perspective!], you can read an article by Michael Cornfield and Lee Rainie, The Web Era Isn’t as New as You Think, published in the Post.
There are interesting prima facie accounts, from the inside, as in the case of Matt Stoller.

And there si commentary on the overall significance of the Internet in the economy of the election, as in the case of this review by e-politics team and of this article form Alan Rosenblatt.

Of course, you would expect some noise from the sceptics’ camp. Here’s one, The Neetroot election? Not so fast, published in The Nation. The gist being, ehr, not so fast, not so important after all. All wind and no sail for progressive bloggers, it is claimed.

In terms of novelties, yours truly has spotted the ‘exchange’ feature of the CNN website, where people could contribute to campaign coverage. The i-reports featured there deserve some close research attention.

Oh, and e-voting wasn’t very smooth, according to some…

• Voting Tech Snafus Pop Up Early, But How Often?


• A sampling of e-voting glitches on election day 2006


• E-voting glitches disrupt election day


• It’s election day. Do you know where your e-vote is?
  

The Internet’s role in political campaigns

A short, informative study on the use of the Internet [specifically blogs] in 2006 Congress campaign, vis-a-vis the 2002 campaign. The study coners the e-campaign of senatorial candidates only.

From the Bivings report:
The Internet’s Role in Political Campaigns

We recently completed a study that assesses the utilization of the Internet as a tool for 2006 political campaigns. The study, a follow-up of the 2002 version, examined how 2006 senatorial candidates used the Web to publicize information about their campaign platforms, personal backgrounds, and volunteer opportunities. We looked at a number of Web campaign tools and made comparisons based on party affiliations, importance of particular races, and whether candidates were incumbents or challengers.

The results clearly showed that while Web use by political candidates increased dramatically since 2002, politicians are still failing to take advantage of all the Internet has to offer. Ninety six percent of this year’s Senate candidates have active websites, while only 55 percent of candidates had websites in 2002. While most candidates use a set of core Web tools, the majority of candidates are refraining from using newer and more sophisticated Web strategies, such as blogs and podcasts, on their campaign websites. Only 23 percent of Senate candidates are blogging, just 15 percent offer Spanish alternatives to their websites, and an even smaller number of candidates, 5 percent, maintain podcasts. In contrast, between 90 percent and 93 percent of candidates offered biographies, contact information, and online donations on their websites. It is obvious from these results that despite a general increase in the use of the Internet for political campaigns, candidates are still hesitant to pour finite financial resources into new campaign strategies.

danish party members online

A fine new piece on Danish party members online, by Karina Pedersen. Not just because she refs some of the papers on party members we've written, mind you [read abstract, below; and read the paper!].

It would be intriguiguing to track whether and how the usual picture of active offline -> active online changes with the introduction of Web 2.0, especially in relation to young people. If my third year students are anything to go by, just give it time and the right sort of issues. We shall see.

Karina Pedersen

DANISH PARTY MEMBERS: PLUGGED OR UNPLUGGED?

Representation, 42, Number 3, pp. 223 - 233.

Abstract:

Danish parties have adopted new information and communication technologies (ICT) and thereby introduced new online party activities facilitated by these new technologies. However, the application as of 2000–01, the time of the party member survey applied here, is still limited and the online participation of party members is not substantially changing the character of party member participation. However, even though limited the application of ICT does make a difference. Most members who are active online are also active offline. Hence, party members attending traditionally party meetings – in particular officeholders – participate more online than other members. But some otherwise passive party members are mobilised by activities facilitated by ICTs. Hence, the application of ICT has an impact on the amount of party activity. Furthermore, the representativeness of party member activity is affected by the application of ICTs. When compared to voters and party members in general, the age representativeness is ameliorated, whereas the education and gender representativeness are exacerbated. In sum, even though limited, the application of ICT within Danish parties has an impact on the character of party member participation.

i-ways latest issue

The last was an interesting issue of I-WAYS: Digest of Electronic Government Policy and Regulation. It includes overviews and updates on e-government form the EU [penned by Vivianne Reading], US, NZ, other OECD countries and post-confict countries.

Useful addition to my e-library, in terms of e-government discourse and praxis.