Technology-planks-Conservative

==Osborne Calls For 'Political Settlement For The Digital Age'.==
Equal access to information, new social networks, and "open source
politics", are the foundations of efforts to modernise the Conservative
Party, Shadow Chancellor George Osborne, told delegates at the
'Public Service 2.0' conference, staged by The Royal Society for the
encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce in March 2007.
New technologies give citizens greater freedom, choice and power, and
politicians must respond by recasting "the political settlement for the
digital age," said Osborne .
Politicians must recognise that greater access to information changes
the relationship between citizens and government, that online networks
can be an engine of positive social change, and that collaborative
approaches can outperform traditional decision-making structures, he
said.
"Osborne's observation that 'top down politics is no longer sustainable
in a bottom-up age' is a profoundly important recognition," Stephen
Coleman, Professor of Political Communication at the University of
Leeds, told E-Government Bulletin later. "But the key test for the
Conservatives will be whether this is adopted as a rhetorical slogan or
a transformative strategy," said Coleman.
While praising official Conservative Party online services such as
WebCameron, the video blog featuring Party Leader David Cameron,
Osborne also highlighted the unofficial grassroots initiatives. These
point the way to future political engagement, and most involve
Conservative rather than Labour supporters, said Osborne.
"His claim that 'online political networks are springing up in the UK
too now - and interestingly they are almost all Conservative ones'
suggests that Conservative researchers have some way to go before
they can claim to be in fully in touch with what's happening online,"
reflected Coleman.
category:Planks_from_elsewhere
category:technology