List of *Real* Politicians Online?
Posted on April 24, 2009 by by madepercy
A necessary first step in moving toward cyber-citizenship is to have a list of *real* politicians who are engaging with citizens online. Following Jonathon’s contribution to my post last month, this list is fast becoming a reality. I have blogged a bit about it here: http://tinyurl.com/d3jc3y but it seems a local representative might be interested in creating a *legitimate* list.
If you know of any *real* politicians online, I think Typeboard would be a great place to start the list if others are interested.
Cheers,
Michael.
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A necessary first step in moving toward cyber-citizenship is to have a list of *real* politicians who are engaging with citizens online.
Why?
L
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OK. We (I mean as citizens) need to know that the representatives we deal with online are actually our representatives. Legitimacy is key to liberal democracy (ie, citizens typically mistrust the government therefore the government must establish its legitimacy as a first principle) and therefore the same principle is key to ensuring that cyber-citizenship functions accordingly.
Frankly, I can’t answer this question in under a few hundred words! Will happily engage piecemeal.
But I think it is important that we have some legitimacy for our representatives online. No such function exists at the moment. Fake Stephen Conroy is funny until you need to know the person you are dealing with is ‘for real’.
Anyway, we are putting together a list and I hope you are interested in contributing.
I must say, if this keeps up, you guys will make me so sharp I will have to acknowledge you in some of my future work! Keep ‘em coming, I enjoy Typeboard immensely!
Thanks L!
Cheers,
Michael.
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@Michael
May I suggest the following link as being able to provide a definitive answer: http://tinyurl.com/cf223h
You can thank me later.
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In my personal opinion knowing which politician is using the internet to communicate with the public is very important, specially if we will all have to deal with the government using the web.
If I am going to deal with a government dpt online, I want to know if the representatives/ministers of that department are also using the net to communicate with with me as well.
The whole point of governments using the web and moving towards web 2.0 applications is so they can have a better way to communicate with the public, using blogs, e-voting, online payments and so on. I hear people saying governments want to use a two-way symmetric public communication,
That type of communication is suppose to be a honest and open two-way communication and mutual give-and-take rather than one-way persuasion, and so many governments are using the web to do exactly that but they need to be online if they want people to talk to them…
L, feel free to correct me if I was wrong with that
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Some politicians are using twitter, others facebook but I haven’t found anyone using myspace yet
Simon Corbell is using Twitter a bit http://twitter.com/SimonCorbell
http://twitter.com/KevinRuddPM he has 33,567 followers
https://twitter.com/TurnbullMalcolm he has 8,819 followers
The liberal party has a twitter profile as well http://twitter.com/LiberalAus
Couldn’t find Labor, National or Greens in Twitter, maybe I am not looking hard enough
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Any politician important enough to matter is too busy to use the net. Anyone who thinks Rudd or Turnbull posts to their own twit-feed is deluding themselves.
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I agree with Dermott, but I think everyone knows politicians don’t post anything up anyway, however they probably have a few people doing that job for them and keep them informed of what people are saying.
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I don’t know. While I readily acknowledge that government (note I didn’t say ‘politicians’) need to move into more advanced communication mediums, I’m highly suspicious of politicians flouting themselves around on Facebook. I don’t want to be friends with the politicians I vote for … I want them to show leadership, and courage, and fortitude, and guts. I don’t want to go out and have a beer with them. On the other side of the coin – I love having a beer with my mates, but I certainly wouldn’t want any of them running the country.
L
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@L Some of our teaching research has revealed findings similar to your comments. Some students see lecturers being involved in social networks as an invasion of privacy, while others think it provides a better way to learn and be involved. The results tend to vary depending on the lecturer – those who ‘live’ publicly online get very good results for using social networks; those who use the networks but simply ‘lurk’ in the background get poor results.
It may be a ‘stretch’, but I wonder if it might be the same for politicians? Like any network, I suppose we can choose to be a part or not. I think the closer our representatives can be to the people the better, but then I have always been a hopeless idealist! Cheers, Michael.
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Legitimacy is key to liberal democracy (ie, citizens typically mistrust the government therefore the government must establish its legitimacy as a first principle)
I think you’ve made a pretty significant leap of logic here, Michael. Anyone who has studied marketing and/or politics in Australia (and compared it to the same fields overseas, particularly the USA), will tell you that Australians actually have an inherent trust in our government, and in our politicians.
But, the question I asked was, “Why [do politicians need an online presence]“, not “Why [do we need politicians to prove their legitimacy when they're online]“. I grok why there needs to be a level of believability, what I don’t really understand is why politicans should be encouraged to be online at all. Particularly online in the form of Facebook or Twitter.
L
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Let’s remember that particular arms of the government are interacting online right now. They are unknown, and are not behaving as a govt employee, as they try to snare potential risks for children, the country, etc.
If the pollies want to interact and gain insight, however, they need to ensure that they are above reproach.
If they pose as an anonymous contributor, they cannot really expect the wider online community to accept their comments. The ideas that they would be suggesting would quickly be dismissed as trolling or flaming…
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If they pose as an anonymous contributor, they cannot really expect the wider online community to accept their comments. The ideas that they would be suggesting would quickly be dismissed as trolling or flaming…
Doesn’t this mean that the ideas are probably not worth looking twice at?
If the idea is good, it shouldn’t matter what name is attached to it. The thing that I like the most about social media, and the potential for change that it offers, is that of a great equaliser. If a politician needs the weight of “I’m a politician” behind their statements to make them believed, or considered a good thing, then they probably don’t belong on Facebook.
L
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So you’re saying that ideas, and thus reputations, should stand or fall on their merits?
What would Senator Belinda “Don’t you know who I am?” Neal think of that, I wonder?
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Absolutely. And I’m sure the lovely Senator wouldn’t be the only one to disapprove
L
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I receive a tweet from a pollie every day. I don’t respond to him often, but it makes me feel good to know what he is doing – I count it as seeing where my taxes are being spent. It may not be the pollie himself, but it is the perception…
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Check out the list of pollies which Open Australia is developing: http://ozpollietweeters.pbworks.com/ Anyone can contribute to this list.
Premier Mike Rann (or at least his staff!) in SA is active on Twitter and is using a twitter-ticker on his website: http://www.premier.sa.gov.au/
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Hey Michael,
Smart way by SA premier to implement Twitter to his site. It is good to see governments using current web trends for their sites.
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