I have six bits of good news about plans to blog Labour Conference.
The first bit of good news is that it looks like we've found someone who will knock up a conference blogigng site. Mark Simpkins got in touch to point out his forthcoming sites ElectedBloggers, PoliticalBloggers and ElectionBloggers. (None of these are built yet, but i they will be). And he has offered to put up ConferenceBloggers too. Way to go mark! I think we'd be very grateful if you could do that. I might have mis-read this but i think Julian Bond, the brains behind eCademy, might also carry what we do on his excellent UKPoliBlogs.
The second is that Tom Watson is having a word with "London" to see if they can help, either by accrediting bloggers, or by doing something else. (Might they let us have wifi?). Anyway, in particular I think it would be cool to get Slugger O'Toole - a serious, respected and award-winning UK blogger - a press pass to cover the Northern Irish part of the conference. We'll see if Tom can help in between not mentioning Liberal Democrats and beating back monkey-lovers in the North.
The third is that, and how silly of me to forget this, that Brighton has tons of wifi outside the conference zone on the beech. This means two things: even if those who live locally can't inside bloggers can still congregate here, and if there is no wifi inside then so can the attendees. If the bloody Guardian can do it, then so can we. I seem to remember a nice cafe in the arches down on the beech which might make a good base camp - anyone know the on i'm talking about?
The fourth is that Bobbie Johnson, the new gentlemanly deputy Editor of the Guardian Online Supplement has said he may well let me do a Second Sight piece on this to get some publicity. (Must remember to write this this weekend, note to self).
The fifth is we have a bunch of people interested in blogging on their own sites, and hopefully feeding in to the main site using this funny Are Ess Ess stuff. These include DEMOS, collectively and emergently, Will Davies, Stephen Pollard, even though he says he hates conference he said he'd post something, Tom W, naturally (no word from his fellow MPs yet.... ), Councillor Stuart Bruce, and a few others. DEMOS also suggested the idea of guest blogging from politicians, which I for one reckon is a great thought. Drop Paul Miller a line on their site with ideas of people you'd like to see as GreenhouseGuests.
And the sixth? Well, it has sod all to do with blogging. I'm off to the cricket today to watch England further bury the reputation of West Indian Cricket.... and it'll be my last cricket match for quite some time. Actually, in saying that....
Again, anyone who knows of any other bloggers out there who might be able to help or will be going to Conference do post here. Also, if you can spread the word to Brighton techies who could help or take part, well that would be grand.
Right. Am I ready for Freddy? You bet i am....
A comment from Steven Ward, one of the UK's leading academics on internet politics, is worth repeating:
"The original Guardian piece was so full of basic errors I found it difficult to take seriously any arguments it put forward. & where has this assumption come from that all Mps have websites? They don't. My last calculation form jan this year suggest that around 42% of Westminster MPs run live (I use the word live very loosely) with perhaps a further 25% with e-politix microsites."
In my Statesman article the phrase "nearly all" was meant to include live sites (as Ward puts it), ePolitix, Labour's web-in-a-box sites, and those hosted on Conservatives.com and libdems.org.uk. This "nearly all" comment was then repeated (almost verbatim) by articles on the bbc, the same guardian piece and elsewhere. Guess I should have checked by facts a bit more, as 42% seems pretty pathetic. Worse still I suspect that Steve's 42% also includes the generally useless web-in-a-box efforts.
I'm not sure if i ever put this up here before - an article I wrote for Access2Democracy's launch last month.
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Don't Outsource Democracy
Aviel Rubin was not impressed. He and his colleagues at Johns Hopkins University had been given the opportunity to scrutinise the e-voting software of Diebold Election Systems. They found what Rubin described as «stunning, stunning flaws». The ensuing controversy over Diebold's bug-ridden secret code raised wider doubts both about the integrity of electronic voting and the role of private companies in its delivery. Some even questioned whether the private sector should have a role in delivering «democratic services» and e-democracy at all.
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Peter Preston's attack on american political convention media got me thinking. His point - "American political conventions have become events where nothing unscheduled or remotely interesting happens - but where nothingness must be inflated to high significance, pored over by a lustrous array of pundits and experts." - got me thinking about bloggers and their role at the conference. And that got me thinking about whether there will be any blogging at this year's Labour Party conference. And then I saw this on Tom Watson's site. And then... and then.
I have been a regular Party conference attendee these past years; indeed I'm a huge fan of these wonk Glastonburies. Although i'll be in the USA this year i'm wondering if anyone will make the effort needed to get a few bloggers together, and make a fuss. Anyone up for trying? On Preston's analysis there are good reasons for doing it, not least the ability to introduce some slightly different coverage to the event. I've often thought that a fly-on-the-wall documentary set in the Bar of the Highcliff Hotel in Bournemouth would scandalise the nation; the drunken antics of the political class could do with on-the-ground reporting! So what are the barriers to doing it at this year's Labour Conference?:
- Labour party members. How many labour party members who blog are there? Councillors, MPs, Journalists and activists? How many could be persuaded to do so? I think Tom, Austin and Clive should lead the charge and try to get fellow Party members. There are also some blogging wonks - Paul Miller, Will Davies, Tim Aldrich, all of DEMOS. Would they play ball?
- A portal site. We'd probably need to knock up some sort of portal site like this one for the Dems.
- Conference passes. They are expensive unless you are a member of the party. I doubt the media office would give out press passes for bloggers
- Wireless and Access. Its tricky getting Access in the conference centres and hotels.
- Locals. Yuo could add in blogs from locals in blackpool, brighton or bournemouth depending on where the conference is held.
I'm going to mull what we might do to get over some of these.
A friend e-mails with this:
"Milton Friedman comes out for Kerry! ....according to radio 5 live, who confused Morgan Freeman ( who is doing voiceovers for Kerry campaign ads) with Milton Friedman. I nearly spat my coffee all over my keyboard when I first heard it. What next? Chomsky doing voice overs for Bush campaign ads?"
Its really open season on MP's websites. The guardian has been at it too. What caught my eye in the piece was the notion that various spiritual ancestors of Tim Ireland were beginning to do to their MP's what Tim did to, er, Tim. I just came accross this site, run by this fellow, tracking the movements and campaigns of Liberal Democrat Brent East MP Sarah Teather. When i read the Guardian piece I assumed that these MP's mirror-sites would generally be run by politically partisan opponents. But unless I'm wrong the Sarah Teather fan really is following Tim's lead: another gadfly trying to goad their MP online, while also criticising (and sometimes complimenting) her efforts locally. A fuller list of MP's having ther google ranks crowded out are in this post. One of the aim of sites like They Work For You - the provision of context and explanation to political debate by users - could also, in the hands of political parties, become a source of disinformation. I'm sure i'm well off the pace on this one, but I wonder to what extent this sort of thing might feature in the next election?
Buzz Webster? No, make that "Buzz E. Webster". Phil Noble's idea of a joke? Nudge-nudge-geddit?? nom de blogs aside, the new(ish) Politics Online weblog is doubtless going to be worth reading. Noticing the post below its clear these things come it twos: the Washington Post, Mr Webster reports, are also looking for the best political website too.
More interestingly, though, he/she also highlights Technorati's new political meta-blogging service. This has been doing the rounds on blogdex for a few week's now; people noticed the URL, but there wasn't anything on it. It was launched at the convention as a way of ordering what was a frenetic round of breathless - OH MY GOD, I JUST SAW JO TRIPPI! - round of web scribbling.
I'm pretty busy at the moment. I'm leaving the country in four weeks. I'm leaving two jobs in two weeks. I have a leaving party to organise, and my parents are about to arrive. So why am I thinking that i'll just be playing this for the next month instead? Combine Championship-Manager-surpassing addictiveness and living your Josh Lyman fantasies.... what could be better? All together now: "Donna! Get Leo on the phone! Toby is going nuts...."
Harry's Place notices the BBC asking for nominations for best political websites. The report even uses a suspiciously familiar opening line, but I can't quite put my finger on where they might have got it from.... Anyway, as Vox has, as one friend put it, been "dormant" for a while I don't think we'll be qualifying. For a while Tom Steinberg and I have wondered why there is no "must-see" political westminster gossip blog or site. And then the other day he sent me a mail with a site saying it came pretty close. And then I forgot what it was called. Next time Tom pops up on IM i'll try to find out what is was.... In the meantime i'm left to muse on why i get so little political news from the web; most of my political knowledge still comes from (a) newspapers or (b) people in bars.....