Rialtas.net – Government 2.0

Brian Cowen is the current Taoiseach of Ireland (pronounced tea-shock – this is the position of head of government)

Cowen addresses the nation in a series of new videos , addressing seven questions posed by members of the public (selected from several thousand submissions).

The videos are embedded in the government’s party website www.fiannafail.ie  and are embedded YouTube videos, which of course means that they  can be seen and commented upon on YouTube. The website has recently been redesigned , apparently by some consultants that worked on the Obama website, and indeed it does look very derivative of Obama’s campaign website.

This morning several commentators in the media have been critical of the move , arguing that the Taoiseach is saying nothing new in these videos and is merely using YouTube as an additional mechanism for the delivery of the party line.

And this may be true.

However what will be interesting, will be to see the comments left by the public on the videos, and  the interactions between members of the public using YouTube video comments.

And it is this point that most of the media commentators are missing – Fianna Fail may be using YouTube as an additional channel, but unlike traditional TV and radio outlets, YouTube is a two way channel and members of the public are empowered to respond to Cowen using the comment facility, this is a key difference..

Here Cowen discusses the Irish economy

It would have been very progressive for Fianna Fail and the Government to include video comments on their own website or even more so to include a forum where people could discuss and debate issues, thereby Fianna Fail could harness and be aware of the  collective views of the public allowing the government to interact with a large group of people on a meaningful level.  This interaction would also naturally be very transparent and would therefore also increase trust in the government.

Anyway.. hopefully they will leave comments open on YouTube and we will see some debate start to develop around the government’s plans.

UPDATE – FALSE ALARM

I just tried to post a supportive comment on the Fianna Fail you tube video, praising them for allowing feedback when I discovered comments are disabled for these videos.. so apologies to the other media commentators this morning, this is not at all progressive and is just more of the same…. there will always be lamers and flamers and abusive posts, but the government HAS to open itself up to this two way  communication or it will lose all trust and credibility..