Comments on: U.K. – home of e-democracy?

By: pjc50

pjc50 — Thu, 04 Mar 2004 14:03:34 +0000

You know, social welfare nets don’t automatically crush initiative and turn everyone into spongers. You may be surprised to know that even socialised healthcare is not incompatible with a functional English-speaking society, and the medical-educational complex does not crush all before it. Sarcasm aside, you’re right that Hansard could, should and would work better as a blog. It would be wonderful if people could read it daily like blogs, or track MPs like livejournal users.

By: Maria

Maria — Thu, 04 Mar 2004 10:53:40 +0000

Agreed! On Hansard, oh, where to start? Making the thing properly searchable by MP, Committee, Bill, date, and even subject. Making it not spit back reams of unrelated text. Also, being able to find amendments proposed and rejected. Somehow, miraculously, finding a way to stop Hansard telling me that debates I’ve attended never actually took place… I’m no search technology expert, but I imagine what I have in mind would require advanced AI to have a hope of coming up with intelligent results. So I’ll live in hope!

By: Tomski

Tomski — Tue, 02 Mar 2004 15:41:51 +0000

Kind words, thank you. We’re not sure how much these initiatives really improve democracy – after all, the audiences are small and often already have a voice. However, a tactic of continuous prodding from the margins could eventually lead to a wider climate of change, even if the change itself is not an obvious cause and effect result of our projects. And what, pray tell, would you do with Hansard? :o)