Comments on: The Public Petitions Committee fails to get social media

By: doctorvee

doctorvee — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 22:03:46 +0000

Edward, thanks for your comment.

I’m not too sure their intention is actually laudable. Like I say, it smacks of an organisation which is desperate to look like it is listening rather than actually listening. I cannot imagine there were ever many people that said to them, “It would be great if you had a presence on Wikipedia…”

I’m all for Holyrood leading the way on social media. That’s why it’s important to call them out when they get it wrong.

By: Edward Harkins

Edward Harkins — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:17:34 +0000

I, with respect, tend to agree with the comments about you being a little pedantic. After all, one of the most disheartening things about the UK media is the way that it ferociously exploits any attempts by politicians or political institutions to try to ‘open up’ in more open and public ways. The Holyrood folks haven’t get it quite right first time, but can’t we give them a little more constructive support, even guidance, on a laudable intention? After all, Holyrood didn’t (eventually) get it mostly (albeit only mostly) right on Members’ expenses, so maybe they could show the way on social media.

By: EU review of eParticipation, petitions and empowering communities « Spartakan

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 07:49:04 +0000

[...] date, I hope. Meantime you can go and see Scottish blogger DoctorVee having some fun with the Committee’s apparent naivete when it comes to its ideas as to how to use social media and I’m sure he won’t be the [...]

By: doctorvee

doctorvee — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 00:55:51 +0000

Subrosa, I have nothing negative to say about the Scottish Government’s approach to social media. I know for a fact that there are people there who have a healthy approach towards it, who are interested in utilising it sensibly and won’t get sucked into gimmicky projects like this Wikipedia thing.

It’s some aspects of what the Scottish Parliament has done, and particularly this one committee of the Scottish Parliament which has managed to totally get the wrong end of the stick, at least as far as Wikipedia goes.

I understand that the Scottish Parliament is working on its website, and that includes an overview of how it might take advantage of social media. That is of course to be welcomed and I look forward to seeing what they come up with.

By: subrosa

subrosa — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 22:29:11 +0000

My impression of the article was at least the Scottish government are trying. As you know I’m hopeless on technical stuff, but I do admire the website and the fact they’re introducing podcasts for the younger folk to submit.

I’m not sure what podcasts really are, videos I suppose with a different name, but I’m all for technology – even though I’ve just spent 2 hours hopelessly unable to help a friend get her microphone working on Skype!

By: doctorvee

doctorvee — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 22:04:01 +0000

Thanks for the comment, anonymous.

I don’t think my points about trying to use Wikipedia as a soapbox are pedantic, and I can’t imagine what they were thinking by trying to use an encyclopedia to reach voters. So I totally stand by my points on that matter.

I’ll concede that my points about podcasts were pretty pedantic though.

You make a good point in the final paragraph, and anything that puts off organisations (particularly in government) using social media should be avoided. I did point out that the Public Petitions Committee was moving in the right direction with the initiatives announced today, and I by no means wish to discourage it from pursuing the social media angle further.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 20:49:45 +0000

Don’t be so bloody pedantic! To those of us with years of experience in social media, the use of terminology and approach here is a little amateur, yes.

But don’t forget; everyone is learning. To slam a group of people for trying like this goes against the very grain of what we do. This is certainly no worse than that of many of the PR professionals out there that claim to be experts just because they regurgitate social media text book phraseology on their mediocre blogs.

I was involved in a digital summit organised by the Scottish Government for its PR people recently. There’s a huge appetite to invest in social media, which is sadly curbed by fear of the unknown and a lack of proven expertise and skills. We should applaud and support, offer suggestions and get involved where we can. Not just snipe. We all started somewhere, we’ve all made mistakes and now it’s our duty to share our experience and move the conversation on.