Canadian Politicians and Web 2.0

Three items here.

When I was in Newcastle-upon-Tyne last month I met an old friend Councillor Ron Beadle, who told me of the ways in which English politicians are using Facebook as ways of keeping in touch with constituents and supporters. I’m more likely to get responses from English politicians that way. Matthew Fraser and Soumitra Dutta’s new book Throwing Sheep in the Boardroom has much on how the Obama campaign deployed Web 2.0 technologies.

But let’s come closer to Canada.

In last week’s NDP leadership convention in Toronto, Peter Tabuns had more money. But there is a fascinating footnote in Inside Queen’s Park – IQP’s New Media Correspondent,

Scott Piatkowski, this morning counted up how the contenders rate in three Facebook measures of support. Andrea Horwath is far ahead in Groups, at 603, with Bisson at 366, Prue at 337 and Tabuns at 304. Horwath also tops Politicians’ Pages, at 294, with Tabuns at 232, Bisson at 223 and Prue at 148. Horwath wins big again in Personal Facebook Friends, at 1,262, with Tabuns at 679, Prue at 623 and Bisson at 184.

Not that everyone is thrilled. In the legislature in Edmonton yesterday, Speaker Ken Kowalski issued the following Speaker’s Ruling Alberta Hansard March 10, 2009 303- 304
Use of Electronic Devices in the Chamber

The Speaker: Hon. members, before we move to Oral Question Period, I just want to advise all members that I have been receiving complaints. In the recent letter that I put out to all hon. members
with respect to laptop computers and other electronic devices, including BlackBerrys, I indicated they were not to be utilized during question period. There’s something going on in virtual wonderland called Twittering, and it seems that even as the question period goes on, some hon. members have been accessing their BlackBerrys to put some messages in the virtual world before the question is even answered by another person. Come on now. We agreed on certain things, certain decorum. I’ve even noticed today that prior to this point in time several members had BlackBerrys out. Please.

Here’s the Edmonton Journal blog on the background. And a plug for Matthew: