I guess with all platforms that facilitate and encourage people to lobby or debate on public issues, there is the risk that some people with certain ‘niche’ views will use those platforms to promote hostile causes.

When Tony Blair’s office launched the No. 10 web petitions platform in 2006, one petition in particular caused a storm about the government’s plans for road pricing reforms in the UK. More than 2,000,000 people signed up to that petition, and it forced the government to respond on the issue. Since then, the petitions platform has hosted hundreds of petitions on various subjects, from banning to the use of all private cars to changing London’s 2012 olympic logo.

One No. 10 petition was in the news today (July 17th). More than 250,000 people have signed a petition to stop the building of a large mosque in a predominantly Muslim area of East London. The petition leaders say that should these plans go ahead, the mosque ‘will only cause terrible violence and suffering’, a claim which is refuted by the group who is building it.

Mayor of London Ken Livingstone said the petition was part of a “vicious” campaign to spread untruths about the scheme.

I guess one of the prices of freedom of speech is allowing people with these hostile views to have their say also.

Many people in London should by now know that Boris Johnson is officially running as a candidate to be the next city Mayor. There have been rumours of the tory being the party candidate circulating for a while. Political views aside, it ought to be an interesting race.

However, Boris doesn’t seem to have a very good web team. On Friday, the frontpage headline on one of London’s free papers (the London Paper) exposed how the campaign website accidentally spilled the news of his impending candidacy three days before it was officially announced.

I’ve just tried to visit http://www.boris-johnson.com (13:20 on July 16th) and I was greeted with the default Apache setup screen. Not great if you consider that Londoners are amongst the most connected citizens in the world, especially if you’re asking for their votes.

Not a great start Boris!

UPDATE (13:30 July 16th): The website is now fixed.

I read an interesting article on the BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/6292602.stm) about the use of (or lack of) the internet for campaigning during this month’s election of the Japanese upper house.

Japan’s electoral laws were drawn up in the 1950s, clearly before the web was used as a campaigning tool! The electoral commission imposes strict laws on the methods candidates can use, and how many people they can reach, while running for office.

This is interesting for a number of reasons. What initially comes to mind is that for a country as technologically advanced as Japan to limit the use of the net in elections is a little strange; surely opening up candidates as much as possible during elections is a good thing? When you consider that 95% of people in their twenties regularly use the internet yet only a third of that age group vote, targeting them where they are would be the logical thing to do.

However, this puts Japanese politicians in a position which some of their colleagues in other countries may find uncomfortable - they can only use the web to campaign outside of election-times, meaning that if they don’t want to appear behind-the-times they need to uphold their web presence, and thus win elections, outside of election times.

Hello and welcome to will they vote for you, the new blog about all things ePolitics & eGovernment. Technology is fundamentally changing the way people engage with their politicians and governments, and these changes are improving democracy, politics and government worldwide.

I will use this blog to report interesting stories and view-points from around the world. I am the former eCampaigns Manager for the Labour Party, during which role I put the first Head of State/Government on YouTube. I believe in the power of technology to change people’s lives, and to improve societies, and ePolitics/eGovernment has a large role to play to that end.

Watch this space…

About me

I am a former web advisor to the Labour Party and Tony Blair. I worked with the party during the last six months of Blair's premiership to re-invigorate their web presence, which included launching the first YouTube channel for a head of government. Previously, I had worked with various government organisations, international organisations and NGOs, implementing projects that use technology to enable people to discuss issues with their leaders and peers.

Amongst other things, I was an organiser of the first ever youth consultation for the UK's Foreign & Commonwealth Office, in 2004.

Contact

If you would like to contact me, please email me at: lukebozier {@} yahoo.co.uk.