It’s published.

A new Hansard Society report, sponsored by Microsoft, MPs Online: Connecting with Constituents, reveals that MPs are using the internet primarily to inform their constituents rather than engage with them. The most widely used digital media are those which are mainly passive in nature, such as website. Interactive forms of media which could be used by MPs to develop a two-way dialogue with their constituents, such as blogs and social networking, are used less commonly. Where these tools are used, it is often in passive ’send’ mode with few MPs exploiting their full interactive potential.

Sponsored by M$? Since when did M$ make any ’social media’ tools?

Just digging around the Hansard Society website for a copy of the report on MPs online, published by the e-democracy unit and I found the blurb for this event, The Online Campaign, in late March.

The use of online strategies is becoming increasingly important, encouraging grass-roots activism and enabling mass mobilisation. But there is no guarantee that the cooption of online strategies will guarantee electoral success or promote healthy dialogue between politicians and citizens.

Chair: Dr Laura Miller (Hansard Society eDemocracy programme)
Speakers: Derek Draper (LabourList.org), Mark Pack (libdemvoice.org), Jonathan Isaby (ConservativeHome.blogs.com)

Tuesday 24 March, 10am, House of Commons, Westminster.

I wonder if the new Director of Digital Engagement will be in post by then and if that person will attend this event.

Just been listening to the Toady programme on R4 and heard in the news report at 8am that the Hansard Society had published a report on MPs online. According to the Societies’ website, this “research attempts to understand how MPs themselves feel the internet affects the way that they work and communicate with their constituents. The research includes a survey of MPs and a focus group of MPs and their office staff.”

I’d love to share more with you, but the report is not yet available online for downloading or purchasing.

Today I’ve accessed three different MySociety websites: TheyWorkForYou, WriteToThem and WhatDoTheyKnow.  I honestly don’t know what I’d do without these powerful tools: MySociety are indespensible and we’d all miss them if they weren’t here.

I was using WriteToThem to contact Sarah Teather to urge her to support Early Day Motion (EDM) 2141 that her parliamentary colleague Jo Swinson has tabled.

 FREE OUR BILLS CAMPAIGN, 22.07.2008, Swinson, Jo

That this House believes it has a duty to publish Bills in such a fashion that they can be accessed as easily and as early as possible by the public; notes that the non-partisan Free Our Bills campaign is urging the House to publish bill texts in a new electronic format to improve accessibility and public scrutiny of legislation; further notes that the changes requested would have no impact on the content of Bills, nor upon the process by which they are currently made; considers that the new format could be delivered cheaply and quickly; acknowledges that the Leader of the House’s office did not accept a prior request for new formatting from mySociety, nor provide an explanation of why the changes could be made; and calls on the Leader of House to ask House of Commons Clerks to work with Free Our Bills campaign staff to commence publication of Bills in the new format.

I wrote to Sarah

“As you will recall from previous meetings and correspondence, I have a strong belief in the enabling potential of new media technologies in mproving accessibility and increasing timely access to information. The opportunities of new media technologies are being ignored or locked by parliamentary authorities, preventing public scrutiny of legislation by the widest possible audience.”

“EDM 2141 calls on the “Leader of House to ask House of Commons Clerks to work with Free Our Bills campaign staff to commence publication of bills in the new format.” I urge you to support this EDM and to give as much support as you can to this proposal.”

Why don’t you write to your MP about Freeing Our Bills using WriteToThem today too?

UK Citizens Online Democracy’s (UKCOD) main activity is running the mySociety project, building websites which “give people simple, tangible benefits in the civic and community aspects of their lives.”

MySociety are the people behind the great web tools TheyWorkForYou, WriteToThem, PledgeBank, HearFromYourMP and FixMyStreet (a project similar to one comwifinet were hacking up in the distant past…)

I’ve just been emailed about mySociety’s ‘Free Our Bills’ Campaign. Please go and add your weight to the call for Parliament to publish these documents which are a crucial part of the process of making law in a way that is sensitive to the electronic use over the internet.

David ‘web’ Cameron has already endorsed the campaign. But I’m not about to give his site linkage, so you’ll have to find the video via The All Seeing Eye.

I’ve also just found the beta test version of whatdotheyknow.com which aims to provide a public searchable repository of Freedom of Information Act requests made to public bodies. GREAT IDEA! Now the information made public in FoI requests is made public in a much wider sense. The site is open and searchable. The site helps people to make Freedom Of Information Act requests of public bodies, reminds you when the request is timing out (not that it will of course, our public bodies are quick of the mark with these sort of things!) and make all the information in the request public.

Praise is due.

For some feature enhancements I’d recommend adding something that will take any attachments and process them so they are readable. These public bodies, especially councils, have a habit of replying to electronic messages in the fashion of material messages. It amuses me greatly to see a properly formatted letter, typed out in a word processor… attached to an email with a message saying ‘please read the attachment’. bonkers. So if whatdotheyknow.com could process attachments and display them in the webpage as well as giving us the files to download, that would be great!