Yoosk engages the audience

Yoosk from David Wilcox on Vimeo.

One of the most interesting and versatile online tools for public engagement presented at 2gether08 was Yoosk, which enables people to pose questions directly to politicians and other major figures. Participants can vote on the questions to indicate those they feel really deserve an answer, which makes it all that bit more democratic. (read more...).

Potential revisited

The first day of 2gether08, Lloyd Davis wrote an enthused blog entry about its potential and voiced his concern for it may not get realized, and this unconference may end, as so many others, lacking a resolution of that potential. His closing line was “Irony Alert: this post lacks a real resolution.” (read more...);

Is our politics big enough to cope with the web?

One of the highlights of the first day of 2gether08 was a debated host by Matthew D’Ancona, editor of The Spectator, with guest panellists: political blogger Mick Fealty who writes as Brassneck and Slugger O’Toole; Sunny Hundal, Liberal Conspiracy; Rory Sutherland, Vice Chair Ogilvy Group; and Tom Steinberg, founder of MySociety.

There’s another 20 hours or so of video recorded at 2gether08, and we’ll bring you more soon..

On the changing politics of the media

 
Charlie Beckett from David Wilcox on Vimeo.

Years ago I had a friend who was endlessly frustrated that the Guardian newspaper never published his letters. He took it as a personal slight and the media’s general allergy to small people crying in the wilderness.

In fact, it was more likely that my friend would never compromise the integrity of his arguments for the sake of fitting his work into the tiny space allotted to the editor’s letters page.

The emergence of the blogosphere has allowed people like my frustrated friend to give full vent to their views, be heard (by those who want, or need, to hear them), and ultimately connect to those big unhearing (as opposed to unlistening) media organisations. (read more...).

‘People power will become an explosive force in history’

Matthew d’Ancona’s Coffee House quote from Gordon Brown’s lively and energetic speech to the Google Zeitgeist conference could stand as a strapline for the 2gether festival. If the key to understanding and harnessing the promise of the web in being at an authoratative centre of a innumerable series of open conversations, d’Ancona reckons (read more...)!