TweetMP Blog – Twestion Time

@Tanya_Plibersek Joins Twitter…. Finally!

Damien Donnelly — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 11:00:20 +0000

After much debate, cajoling and consideration, Tanya has joined the Twitter party.

She actually wrote us all a very nice email.

“Dear TweetMP,

Over the past few years I have received many requests to join Twitter from your website. In all of the emails I received they asked that I contact you if I were to sign up in the future.

I am happy to inform you, and those that have contacted me using your site, that I have now joined Twitter. You can find me at the following link: http://twitter.com/#!/tanya_plibersek

Thanks for providing this service and I look forward to seeing you in the Twitterverse.

Best wishes,

Tanya

The Hon. Tanya Plibersek MP

Federal Member for Sydney”

Tanya, we would like to say thanks for opening up and sitting down for a chat, if you ever want any Twitter tips, feel free to drop us a line again – we always have time for our elected representatives.

Regards,
TweetMP

@damiendonnelly

New media sheds light on leaflet war

Damien Donnelly — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 23:08:28 +0000

James Massola has written a great piece about how sites like http://Www.electionleaflets.org are bringing transparency to the current election. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/new-media-sheds-light-on-leaflet-war/story-fn59niix-1225898932520

Apologies for the lack of hyperlinking – I’m testing WordPress mobile to see if we can post a bit more regularly.

Joe Hockey leads the way and gets TweetMP some ABC love

Damien Donnelly — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 22:49:52 +0000

Joe Hockey recently copped some flak from Wayne Swan for tweeting during Question Time. Obviously, we support Joe’s right to tweet and actually think that this kind of engagement is good for democracy. ABC news and Jason Wilson, from the University of Wollongong agree. Well done Joe, you’re a national hero! (Sorry, I had to reference that appalling movie).

Tanya Plibersek responds to a Tweeter

Damien Donnelly — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 22:43:30 +0000

A concerned citizen recently sent us Tanya Plibersek‘s response as to why she doesn’t tweet.

Her response is below,

Dear @henaredegan,

Thanks for your email asking me to sign up to Twitter. I absolutely agree with you about the important of open, transparent and accountable government but unfortunately I just don’t have the time to properly maintain a Twitter account. I am on Facebook already and I’d love to see you there – or you can email me anytime.

Best wishes,

Tanya

The Hon. Tanya Plibersek MP

Federal Member for Sydney

While there is some logic in not committing to tweeting because you won’t do it justice, which is Seth Godin’s rationale for not tweeting, it doesn’t really apply as much to public officials who are there to represent us, and should be making communication between us and them as fluid and efficient as possible. Twitter is that solution. Hence, the TweetMP response is the following.

The two major objections to her response is that:

1. The efficiency of a tweet as a communication tool far outstrips any other communication method. It even rivals TV as a broadcast tool when considering influence and quality.

2. Facebook does not have an open data framework, there is very little accountability and transparency there.

So we would like to thank Tanya for engaging the public via Facebook, but we also strongly encourage Tanya to reconsider joining Twitter.

Cheers,

TweetMP

TweetMP addresses the Public Sphere

Damien Donnelly — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 08:32:12 +0000

Update: I neglected to mention – A huge thanks to @piawaugh and @katelundy for making Public Sphere happen, and for providing great support for something so fundamental to Australia’s Democratic progress!

———————-

@cvertex and @damiendonnelly (accompanied by @mfuntanilla) just returned from Capital Hill after what was a very inspiring meeting of minds, seeking to bring about “Government 2.0”.

Lindsay Tanner did a very good speech announcing the Government 2.0 taskforce (I’m not sure why that isn’t a .gov address) and we had a brief talk to Nicholas Gruen who seemed very open to the ideas presented at the conference.

One of the most noteable lines came from the Google Geo spatial division’s Raul Vera (@orbitist) “There should be public access to data that was paid for by the public”. Following this, Open Australia’s @matthewlandauer continued

to trail blaze and solve the problem of citizens trying to solve their problems, and presented a pretty logical model.

We made a very short 5 minute debut (which apparently lasted 7 minutes) where we laid out a road map of how we are going to try and make all of this Twitter communication more efficient for MPs, and how we can empower groups to achieve greater leverage through organising, and acting.

The Tweetdecks were furiously tweeting, to the point where #publicsphere actually trended higher than the now infamous #utegate. As far as I can tell, no fake emails originated from the crew below.

Unfortunately @vandelizer couldn’t be with on this trip, despite doing some digital coordination for us from afar.

As for outcomes, we met a lot of people keen to help us on our way. The SA Premier’s office is going to give us a little help getting the SA MP data together, because Premier Mike Rann seems to be tweeting like it is going out of fashion (1,365 Twets at time of posting – keep up the good work!) – and the inside word is that Nick Minchin is very close to joining Twitter.

Stephen Conroy endorses @StephenConroy (fake Stephen Conroy)

Damien Donnelly — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 08:40:19 +0000

TweetMP made their way down to the Digital Technologies Summit 2009 where the Hon Senator Stephen Conroy, Federal Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy was speaking. We managed to briefly catch up with him after his speech on the National Broadband Network to ask;

“Given your position in Government, would you consider joining Twitter?”

Stephen responded jokingly –

“I’m already represented on Twitter, the fake Stephen Conroy is doing a wonderful job”

TweetMP:

“Wouldn’t you like to take control of your identity on Twitter”

Stephen Conroy:

“Seriously, for security reasons I try to keep a small [digital] footprint”

TweetMP:

“Wouldn’t it make sense for somebody in your position as a public figure to use Twitter to engage your constituency rather than keep a small footprint”

Stephen Conroy:

“I really don’t have the time to engage in yet another channel”

TweetMP:

“Thanks Stephen, we’ll see you on Twitter next election”

Following this brief encounter, of what seem to be fairly common excuses…except maybe security? ;Tim Marshall, the media manager for Senator Conroy came and had a brief chat about the video and pictures we shot, and where he was likely to see them. The answer is that you’ll see one picture here, but the rest would probably have been better shot by “Joe the cameraman”. We had a brief talk about the efficiencies, and benefits for Stephen to use Twitter, but he didn’t seem completely sold on the idea – maybe a few more petitions may do the trick. For now, everybody seems content to let fake @stephenconroy be Stephen’s Twitter mouthpiece.

Who will be the last MP to join Twitter?

Damien Donnelly — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 14:51:57 +0000

Here is an interactive timeline indicating when each politician joined Twitter, understanding the potential it had in enabling them to communicate more efficiently.

Already, from a few Senators – John Williams and Ursula Stephens have both idicated that the do not have the staff, nor the time to update Twitter. Neither got the memo that 50% of users tweet less than once every 74 days. Not that this is something they should strive for.

However, it seems that there is some misunderstand of how this could help them better represent us, and I think they get the feeling “not another social network” which is understandable as we are all undergoing social network fatigue.

Here is a quick list as to why this time it is different – exceprt from my email to Senator Williams.

“1. You can update it from anywhere via your mobile phone

2. Messages are as short – 140 characters Max, and there is no need to update if you have nothing to say

3. Twitter is open, so anybody can read it, Google can crawl it, and they can read it from anywhere – Gmail, Desktop Apps, Facebook, iGoogle etc

4. You can integrate it with your webpage meaning you can update it very easily – see the sidebar on https://tweetmp.wordpress.com/

Twitter will help you become a better communicator, and more effectively enable you to share your ideas in less time with less staff. It will also allow people to more easily engage you.

For the same reason you wouldn’t be able to do your job effectively without email or a phone, it is fair to say that you can’t be as efficient as you otherwise would be without a Twitter account.”

1. You can update it from anywhere via your mobile phone

2. Messages are as short – 140 characters Max, and there is no need to update if you have nothing to say

3. Twitter is open, so anybody can read it, Google can crawl it, and they can read it from anywhere – Gmail, Desktop Apps, Facebook, iGoogle etc

4. You can integrate it with your webpage meaning you can update it very easily – see the sidebar on https://tweetmp.wordpress.com/

Twitter will help you become a better communicator, and more effectively enable you to share your ideas in less time with less staff. It will also allow people to more easily engage you.

For the same reason you wouldn’t be able to do your job effectively without email or a phone, it is fair to say that you can’t be as efficient as you otherwise would be without a Twitter acco

Democracy is spreading

Damien Donnelly — Tue, 19 May 2009 23:38:51 +0000

Since TweetMP launched into the Twittersphere we have been growing steadily, with names on the petitions slowly adding up. We have been getting lots of support from many other tweeple in the Government 2.0 space, everywhere from Tweet Congress to the guys at Open Australia here . Still, we have a long way to go to turn all of our politicians into politwitians.

Hello Australia! – Tweet MP Launches

Damien Donnelly — Tue, 12 May 2009 12:24:02 +0000

Hello Australia,

Thanks for stopping by and supporting the launch of TweetMP.

We thought that now that we have the communication technology to quickly, easily and efficiently have much closer one to many relationships on Twitter; that we could have a much more open dialogue with our elected representative. It would be a shame to let this opportunity go to waste, and we are sure that the heroes that so passionately represent us are as excited about this opportunity as the many Tweeple currently joining the Twitterverse.

To help give them the support and encouragement they might need to join this newfangled trend on the Internets, we have launched TweetMP.org.au . Join the movement, and invite your members to get tweeting with us so they can let us know what they are doing, and what we can do, to make Australia even better tomorrow.

Let us know what features you like in our poll (we’ll have more of these, of a political nature in the future)