Saturday, December 20, 2008

Tweet Minister

Lindsay Tanner has been blogging about enhancing government accountability through use of the Web. He also blogs regularly on the BusinessDay Blogs of The Age. It might be time to get an Australian version of Britain's Tweetminster to push this process along a bit:

TweetMinster is a public service that makes it easier to connect the public with Members of Parliament using Twitter. We want constituents to find their MPs (or invite them to use Twitter if they're not already doing so) and through encouraging participation and open conversations, promote better and more transparent communication between voters and elected representatives.
or Germany's abgeordnetenwatch:
With abgeordnetenwatch.de voters, citizens, anybody can talk to their MP's on line at any time. All they have to do is give their name and their e-mail address. You log on. You give your zip code. The voting precinct is found by the computer. You see a profile of your MP and fire away your question.
There are OZ sites with some of their features but we have a long way to go to establish real communication. GetUp has Project Democracy where we can watch our Senators but it's one way.

Apparently Malcolm Turnbull was one of the first of the tall timber to start twittering. His latest: "Just visited Bondi Public to see their new garden plans. On 380 into city now."

Kevin Rudd twitters as part of his new website:" Penny Wong and Jenny Macklin have just recorded a new vpod about the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme at www.kevinpm.com.au." Of course none of this is interactive. At least you can ask questions of the British and German pollies.

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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Turnbull said: "On 380 into city now."

I'd imagine that if he was PM and continued to take the high road of using public transport, his security detail would go ape if this was broadcast.

I can't wait for politwitians to get caught out saying they were doing one thing while actually doing another.

Kevin Rennie said...

He should get his cat to twitter or is it his dog with the blog.

Unknown said...

If you find Project Democracy helpful and interesting, have a look at www.openaustralia.org

Anonymous said...

Hi, I have added your blog to my blogroll.
Your blog is interesting for me.
Hope when you are free you will add my blog to your blogroll too.

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