Could it be that the Downing Street e-petitioning service might actually be a good thing?
Despite all the hoo-haa around Number 10's web site e-petitioning service it's starting to look like it might actually be a useful way for government to communicate with the public at large.
Take the email this week which came from the site after 60,000 people signed a petition against "proposed restrictions regarding photography in public places". Now, anyone can put up a petition but if the wording looks about ... read more
The role the internet is playing in trying to encourage young people to vote
Elections in which you can vote for Wet Wet Wet to represent your region? Travis bassist Dougie Payne runs for Parliament?
Maybe it’s not such an absurd proposition given that Arnold Schwarzenegger’s foray into politics resulted in him becoming governor of California. Unfortunately - or fortunately, depending on the extent to which you like to mix your music and politics – the aforementioned elections are not real, but an ... read more
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags are amazing things, storing all sorts of data about anything they are attached to.
Now European citizens will get the chance to shape policy on smart tags. The European Commission - after a year of consultation - is setting up a group made up of citizens, scientists, data protection experts and businesses to discuss how the tags should be used. They have until the end of 2008. It's about time. Right now there are no new laws coming out of the EU to ... read more
How technology used innovatively provides genuine help for the socially excluded
Using technology to improve the lives of those sectors of society who find themselves socially excluded is sometimes seen as a ridiculous, utopian panacea. However, Sunderland City Council seems to be showing the way with some imaginative ideas and has won £2m of government funding to realise its plans.
They include a scheme to allow carers respite from their jobs and a video-conferencing system to benefit local charities. ... read more
Where next for British political broadcasting?
We've heard cries of anguish about the dumbing down of British telly for years, but surely political broadcasting has always been a cut above?
After all, Ofcom breathes down the necks of British channels to make sure their politics coverage is impartial and accurate. But all that is starting to look a bit crumbly round the edges, as internet ventures far beyond the regulator's reach are starting to get ... read more
The internet is poised to play an unprecedented role in determining who will succeed George W Bush as President.
Republican hopefuls in the battle to win their party’s nomination for the 2008 presidential election have so far opted to announce their bids from traditional venues: Rudolph Guiliani on CNN's Larry King Live and Mitt Romney from the Henry Ford Museum. John McCain varied it slightly by opting for a more comedic approach, making his presidential intentions public on CBS's Late Night with David Letterman.
Slightly less traditional, Democrat ... read more
The truth behind the Downing Street petition debacle?
You will have heard about the mass e-petition on the Prime Ministers web site about road toll pricing.
Now, admittedly there are many more petitions on the site which are somewhat off the wall, as Newsnight found recently when it tested the efficacy of the idea by petitioning the PM to sit in a tub of custard outside Parliament. They got 2,000 signatures.
Lately you can ... read more
An interesting story in the Guardian about the role of money in the US election shows that the Internet could actually start to help fund candidates who are less tied to big business interests.
Back in 2003 it took Howard Dean six months to compile an email list of 139,000. But that was before networking sites such as MySpace. In less than two months Barack Obama has gathered ... read more
Perhaps we shouldn't be too harsh on the nominated Headliners project, the youth media charity formerly known as Children's Express ("Making news, changing lives") which has been giving young people a chance to answer back to the mainstream media's portrayal of them for the past 12 years. However, there is something just slightly "1999" about the web site, given that many of the young people it gives space ... read more
China has decided today to put a cap on the opening of internet cafes to open this year on the basis that its citizens are becoming internet 'addicts'. It's appropriate then that a country oft feted by the developed West for marching towards "liberal capitalism" is marked out by Amnesty's Irrepressible.info campaign (nominated for an NMA award) which names China as being one of those countries that limits ... read more
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