Social Media 1 : Democracy 1 (after extra time)

More fascinating fall out from last night's DEB debates: via a random tweet, Phil Gyford writes

"On the plus side — let’s end on an up note — I was cheered by some aspects of all this. I was pleased that there are MPs, in all parties, who understand these matters and try to change things. Too few, too late, but even so. Quite aside from this particular bill, seeing MPs stand up against their party whip and speak out against what they believe is right was encouraging. My opinion of MPs couldn’t have been much lower recently, and this glimmer of light was welcome. More of that please.

I’m also feeling positive personally about all this. I genuinely enjoyed spending two evenings watching the House of Commons. I found it interesting and would like to do that more. For the first time in a long time, after months and years of my opinion of politics and MPs and government withering away I’m interested and want to get involved somehow. Even if that just means paying more attention, a fraction of the attention we payed to this bill, that’s an improvement."

I feel a bit the same actually. So is democracy dead or isn't it? Discuss!

Anyway , I've realised this is the second half of my projected inaugural lecture, "Anti-Social Networking", on May 21.

First half: anti-social networking - all the stuff we Internet lawyers go on about in relation to the social networks people love: loss of privacy, data collection, targeted advertising, stalking, pedophile grooming, bullying, fraud, you name it.

But second half - PRO social networking - what we did last night. Common cause. Creativity. Information sharing. Community building. Future planning. From representational democracy to personal responsibility.

I think I have a lecture!

ps TV still on - it's a bit funny to hear mention of Tom Watson and realise it's a golfer:)