Why do labour have a Communications Minister and not the Lib Dems
It looks to me that the Lib Dems are being left behind by the Tories and Labour when it comes to new technology.
As far as I can see, nobody at Cowley Street or the Shadow Cabinet. even a junior minister has any knowledge, remit or portfolio for Information and Communication, while even labour has Lord Carter of Barnes, as the Communications Minister.
Lynne Featherstone now has a job championing e-campaigning, but nobody is doing an iota about technology policy - try getting a policy from any MP on any loosely technical subject and with the honorable exception of John Pugh MP, few of them will know anything about the Internet beyond that 'facebook is popular, and I click the little blue icon to get the internet'.
Something is very wrong indeed when how to use technology to win some council seats or discuss speed limits in some village in somerset, has a load of priority and publicity, but how to turn around public sector waste and failure on IT projects and spending, or how we should handle the problems of governance of nominet and the UK TLD, or how we should be shaping the future of communications and technology through groups like BSI, ICANN and ITU or the UN are unmentioned, unheard of and those in charge of the party and policy are utterly clueless about them.
This week both the Tories and Labour have come out with Policies and Reports, The Lib Dems have done zip, nada, zilch in the last decade in this area and our new president with all her talk of reform and modernity hasn't made a sound on the subject.
Colour me very unimpressed.
I get mailshots asking me to write software for free to help campaigners - I don't see many other professions providing pretty expensive services for free, and certainly not when they have absolutely zero representation or input in policy!
I already commit enough time writing open source software that I'll actually use, I'd even consider writing code for worthwhile projects like MySociety, but Cowley Street is happy to shell out a fortune for expensive marketing experts and people to cold call and ask for yet more cash again for a bunch of faceless councillors I never hear from... *sigh*
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But, you know, don't let facts get in the way of a good rant.
Lynne's request for free piecemeal work doesn't work for writing software, you can't just have a bunch of people chip in an hour like you can with leaflet delivering or phoning people up asking for money or votes. #
It's offensive that she thinks you can, not to mention her remarks about geeks, etc.
The existing technology stuff that is happening is purely grass roots, the party great and good haven't an iota of clue, many don't (and not even their staff) deign to answer email - even when they're asking for members votes to be party leader.
When it comes to actual government, we're way behind on technology - our councils don't work together or talk or have any interest in saving money or using it better, my local council is legendarily p*ss poor, only Bristol City Council and Penwith have ever bothered to make an effort, and Penwith will shortly be merged into the clueless IT of unitary cornwall council .
Sorry, but when it comes to Communications and IT the Lib Dem record of local government, combined with a total lack of policy or ministers at national or local level, and a total reliance on grassroots activists to provide things like Lib Dem Voice, Lib Dem Blogs, The mailing lists servers, etc would lead me to believe that actually we're not fit to govern (not that I believe the Tories are nor labour) and the utter complacency on the matter is nuts.
It doesn't cost a Penny for a skint party to form a working group and create a shadow minister, in fact MPs have an allowance paid by the tax payer to pay for researchers, there is no reason those researchers couldn't be working with specialist groups within the party or outside it (such as MySociety, LUGs, BCS SIG, ACM, etc) and get a common sense report much like the tories have.
As Jennie says, voluntary help is crucial to a health political party; a party that was only the work done by paid employees would be a very top-down, hollowed out sort of party.
You're right that the software side can't involve people just chipping in an hour now and again in a way similar to leafleting. It requires something a bit more systematic, but then that is what we're planning... and also why the survey asks about software project management skills as well as the coding skills. I'm not sure where you've got the idea that anything else is intended from?
One final thought: have you considered that the reason successful things are happening at the grassroots is in part because fostering this is the deliberate policy "the great and the good" have taken, and that considerable efforts go in to supporting this? To give one small example, why do you think the party runs its blog of the year awards in conjunction with Liberal Democrat Voice? It's because that helps foster those very grassroots in a way that a central-only awards wouldn't.
One of the best things about the Liberal Democrats is that the grassroots are its great and good. We’re not based on privilege and we try to model what we’d like to see more of in society. Our Councillors and MPs (Lynne included) and our Peers have come from the grassroots themselves, campaigners before they were politicians.
I don’t know which of Lynne’s “remarks about geeks, etc” have offended you, but as a self-identifying geek (in your profile) and a blogger, surely you recognise the influence that individuals can have?
Look at the recent e-mobilisation of public protest on issues such as MPs’ expenses and the third runway at Heathrow. No one, whether at Cowley Street nor indeed at Greenpeace said, “Ah, finally, here’s a use for all that technology we’ve got lying around: let’s communicate with it.” Rather, there was an existing strength of feeling that was quickly and effectively voiced through modern media.
The Lib Dems’ 3-D approach to problems is another thing that marks us out – we don’t polarise or compartmentalise: Just as the Liberal Democrats have “a green thread” running through all our policies, so IT and comms are integral to our work. Therefore it makes sense to have a “broadband link” running through all our policies too (or, I dunno, an Ethernet cable, sprinkled with a few 8p8c’s... you get the analogy...)
There’s a marketing adage, “People don’t buy drills because they want drills, they buy them because they want holes.” It’s all a means to an end, a tool. Councils, political parties, etc first need a grasp of the problems themselves rather than chucking more IT at them because it makes them look modern.
The appeal for volunteers with technology skills is a great idea. While not a hacker myself, I think it’s an admirable approach. No doubt there’d be criticism if such appeals were never made.