[LINK] Big Bro Stephen Is Watching

[Stilgherrian]

On 22/03/2009, at 3:00 PM, Jan Whitaker quoted Fairfax:
> Opposition communications spokesman Nick Minchin
> claimed it was "extreme" to expand media monitoring activities to  
> blogs.
>
> "Blogs such as Whirlpool provide an open forum …
> and do play an important role in our democracy.
> Moves to monitor this space seem an unacceptable
> use of taxpayers' money," he said.

Oddly enough, I think Senator Minchin's wrong on this one.

Blogs, forums etc are just "what interested people are saying in  
public". This is no different from "monitoring" talkback radio to  
gauge community concerns and respond appropriately. It is precisely  
because these forums "play an important role in our democracy" that  
the government should pay attention to what's being said. If they did,  
they'd have been far more aware of the mounting technical criticism of  
the Internet filtering plans.

Major companies already do this as part of coherent "social media  
strategies". Dell, for example, phoned me to resolve a problem after I  
bleated about it on my website and Twitter.

"How Dell fixed my monitor order"
http://stilgherrian.com/internet/how-dell-fixed-my-monitor-order/

(Telstra has started doing some work here too. The other major telcos  
are completely oblivious to what's being said about them. Optus, for  
example, have yet to even notice the Twitter tag #badoptus chronicling  
people's problems with their mobile services, and their senior staff  
are essentially still in denial that anything's wrong with their  
network --despite "the people" gathering plenty of anecdotal evidence.)

It strikes me that all this is quicker and easier to d than endless  
"public meetings" of the 18th Century kind.

Of course, whether what's discovered is representative of public  
opinion or is responded to effectively, or whether people who post  
negative information about government plans are treated fairly, are  
different questions... ;)

Stil


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