The Political Issues Analysis System (PIAS) project sought to investigate how citizens in Melbourne, Australia used the Internet to seek political information about key political issues. It also sought to understand how citizens contacted their elected representative about these issues. Through workshops, case studies, and the development and testing of a prototype, the research uncovered some notable trends in terms of engagement with components of the formal political system online”.

http://broadband.unimelb.edu.au/resources/IBES-political-issue-analysis-system.pdf

Also, read what the media theorist, Clay Shirky has to say about Wiki Leaks.

“Like a lot of people, I am conflicted about Wikileaks”.

Citizens of a functioning democracy must be able to know what the state is saying and doing in our name, to engage in what Pierre Rosanvallon calls “counter-democracy”*, the democracy of citizens distrusting rather than legitimizing the actions of the state. Wikileaks plainly improves those abilities (link)

Cyber radicals are harnessing the power of the internet to promote social change. Illustration: Lynsey Irvine and Peter Storey for the Observer

…20 years ago, set the agenda for far-reaching transformations in the political sphere, in economies everywhere, in social interaction, even in concepts of our own identity. And Berners-Lee succeeded in doing so for one reason: he released the technology for free.This simple decision, taken by a computer scientist used to working in environments that promoted openness and transparency, eclipses any hype about subsequent Twitter revolutions, Facebook campaigns or political protests ascribed to the platform since (link to story in the Guardian by Aleks Krotoski)

This story by Aleks Krotoski is OK, if not a little dated. There are lots of links on this blog about the use of the web for political purposes dating back about a decade. But I do like the way in which Krotoski (from the BBC series on the history of the internet) highlights the importance of free, open infrastructure for everyone. How lucky Australians are to have such a large public investment in a national Broadband network and such solid investment in the broader eResearch agenda (soon to include the humanities I hope!)

• Melbourne Indymedia
• http://indymedia.org.au/melbourne
• S11.org(ant-globalisation protest movement website…on the Pandora Archive)
• http://pandora.nla.gov.au/parchive/2000/S2000-Sep-14//www.s11.org/
• Realjeff.com (1999 Victorian State Election…on the Pandora Archive)
• http://pandora.nla.gov.au/nph-arch/1999/Z1999-Sep-24/http://www.realjeff.com/index.htm
• Engage Media (Local Melbourne activist group using ‘Web 2′ techniques)
• http://www.engagemedia.org/
• The Death of Ian Tomlinson (London 2009)
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HECMVdl-9SQ
• Mash-up Australia (data sources)
• http://mashupaustralia.org/data-sources/
• Suburban Trends (one of the winners from Mash-up Australia)
• http://mashupaustralia.org/mashups/suburban-trends/
• They work for you (UK Mash-up of Hansard)
• http://www.theyworkforyou.com/
• GetUp (Melbourne activist group)
• http://www.getup.org.au/
• Major Parties
• http://www.alp.org.au
• http://www.greens.org.au
• http://www.liberal.org.au

UK.gov is calling on developers to consult the Cabinet Office on its prototype website that will open some government datasets to the public.

It wants the developer community to get involved in shaping what apps, data sources and features the website should contain.

“With over 1,000 existing data sets, from seven departments (brought together in re-useable form for the first time) and community resources, we want developers to work with us to use the data to create great applications; give us feedback on the early operational community; and tell us how to develop what we have into a single point of access for government-held public data,” reads a post on the government’s digital engagement blog (link).

Explore the potential impacts of climate change on our planet Earth and find out about possible solutions for adaptation and mitigation, ahead of the UN’s climate conference in Copenhagen in December (COP15). Choose a tour from the list below and click the play button to see it unfold, or you can also view these tours on YouTube (link).

Speaker: Lord Mandelson
This event was recorded on 14 September 2009 in Old Theatre, Old Building
With less than a year to go before the next general election there is an urgent need for progressive policy debate and discussion in the Labour party to show it has the ideas necessary to meet the social, economic and political challenges of the next decade. Peter Mandelson, one of the government’s key figures, will launch Progress’s autumn lecture series by setting out how he sees the political divide between the main parties. Lord Mandelson is First Secretary of State, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation & Skills, and Lord President of the Council. He was previously European Commissioner for Trade, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, and Secretary of State for Trade & Industry.
Available as: mp3 (25 MB; approx 56 minutes)

HeadsUp is a moderated, online space for under 18s to debate the political issues important to them. Young people share viewpoints with their peers and decision-makers up and down the country (link).

The Prime Minister has released a statement on the Second World War code-breaker, Alan Turing, recognising the “appalling” way he was treated for being gay.