April 11, 2007
(Prerecorded) E-Bate: Shaky First Steps
MoveOn.org hosted the first of three virtual town hall meetings, leaving us to ask; where is this first foray into digital debate headed?
On April 11, MoveOn.org, a progressive public policy organization, assured its place in the history books by hosting the first nationwide virtual-town-hall (E-Bate?). The topic of the debate was the War in Iraq, and the guest list included seven Democratic presidential candidates.
Shortly before the event, at around 6:30 pm, there were 1,100 registered places where the discussion could be viewed. Upon searching for gatherings in the Charleston area and finding only one, it became clear that I was going to have to “host” my own last-minute event, in order to take part. After a five minute registration process, I had access to the feed, and at around 7:00 pm, a droning voice began to sing repeatedly, “dum dum dum move on, move on,” as little dots appeared on a map of the US, indicating where people were listening (See Picture). I was intrigued.
Yet as soon as the ‘discussion’ began, it was clear that all of the potential of the new Web 2.0 technologies, in terms of providing a new forum for more participatory two-way communication with the public, would not be realized here. Indeed, the responses from the candidates were comprised primarily of the same prerecorded, poll-tested, pre-formulated snippets from their stump speeches. This seems to fly in the face of what a town hall meeting is arguably supposed to be. The question/answer session was not live, thus providing little insight into how the candidates think on their feet when responding to public questioning.
Additionally, the Virtual Town Hall was promoted as something ground-breaking. According to a Boston Globe news report, it promised to be “the largest and most ambitious experiment yet in harnessing the power of Internet technology to reshape participatory democracy,” but this is only half accurate at most. On one hand, questions were asked and selected by MoveOn.org members, thus involving upwards of 10,000 people. On the other hand, however, the nature of the candidates’ responses did not change significantly from what people are accustomed to hearing.
Still, from a technology point-of-view, this is highly innovative and full of potential for both candidates and constituents. These technologies provide a more effective, potentially more interactive, connection between voter and candidate. If utilized in a fashion that is more conducive to a live discussion, candidates could enter into actual conversations with voters on a national level. Yet, if used as another forum for delivering prepackaged responses, these new virtual debate technologies are not realizing their full potential. Although this town hall was truly innovative and almost flawlessly executed, it may be leading digital debate away from the interactivity that Web 2.0 enables.
Links:
Campaigning Gets a new Web Version
Highlights from the event
E-politics first
Posted by Buzz Webster at April 11, 2007 01:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Comments
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)