Tag Archives: technology advisory board

E-campaigning mentors needed

By Rob Blackie | Published 18th May 2009 - 10:20 am

Do you need advice on e-campaigning? Or do you have experiences that you’d like to share on e-campaigning?

If so look no further.

The hearts & minds group of the Technology Advisory Board are setting up a mentoring scheme to match people who want to give advice on e-campaigning to people who need advice on how to campaign better.

We already have a number of experienced local campaigners ready – just click here to see more on the forum, follow the instructions there and they’ll get back to you.

Rob Blackie is a former Lib Dem Director of …

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Posted in Online politics | Leave a comment

What can the party do to encourage better e-campaigning?

By Rob Blackie | Published 2nd April 2009 - 10:20 am

In early March 2009 renowned Lambeth bakers De Lieto applied for planning permission for a new bakery. Lambeth Council astoundingly decided that the local residents would be distressed by the smell.

In stepped local Lib Dem councillors Rob Banks and Andrew Sawdon. There followed a rapid online and offline campaign to get residents to sign a petition in favour of the bakery, with over 100 petitions through De Lieto’s front door in less than 24 hours. A combination of leaflets, emails, Rob and Andrew’s superb blog and the council rapidly u-turned. More on this story can be found here.

This simple …

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Posted in Lib Dem TV, Online politics | Also tagged | 4 Comments

Opinion: Why we should be learning lessons from Howard Dean

By Lynne Featherstone MP | Published 18th February 2009 - 10:08 am

Howard Dean is coming to town! Barack Obama certainly has two up on him in the Presidential election stakes – Obama got the nomination and got the Presidency – but for many interested in the question of how best to engage with the public and with active supporters in the internet age, Howard Dean is the real inspiration.

What Obama did last year was truly impressive – but impressive in quality and scale and eloquence rather than in innovation. When it came to breaking new ground in picking technologies to use and structuring a campaign around involving people rather than ordering …

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Posted in Conference, Online politics | Also tagged , , | 1 Comment

Liberal techie wizards, please form an orderly queue*

By Alix Mortimer | Published 26th January 2009 - 12:32 pm

“The revolution doesn’t happen when society adopts new tools. It happens when society adopts new behaviours.” – Clay Shirky

This has become Lynne Featherstone’s quote du jour since she took on the role of Chair of the party’s new technology board a few weeks ago. I’m really pleased with this as a guiding principle, because I think it will enable the board to keep the right balance between the medium and the message.

And that’s just my opinion – judging from the messages Facebook groups and discussion boards and the emails to Lynne, a huge number of people, both medium-specialists and message-specialists, are …

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Posted in News | 9 Comments

More on the party’s technology plans: Lynne Featherstone interviewed

By The Voice | Published 19th January 2009 - 5:43 pm

Lynne Featherstone has been interviewed by the Wardman Wire blog on the party’s plans for a new Technology Board, answering the questions:

1) What is the Technology Board for the Party for, and what is your remit as its Chair?

2) The Liberal Democratic Party is a federation of organisations. How does the Technology Board fit in locally and regionally?

3) How does your role compare to that played by Mark Pack?

4) What do you think needs to be done differently in the UK to Obama’s online campaign, and (briefly) why?

5) Would you list 3 specific things you would like to achieve during

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Posted in Online politics | Also tagged | 2 Comments

CommentIsLinked@LDV: Lynne Featherstone – Politics and the internet

By Stephen Tall | Published 16th January 2009 - 6:50 pm

Over at the New Statesman, Lynne Featherstone, recently-appointed Chair of the Lib Dems’ New Technology Board, reveals her attitude to politics on the web. You can read it in full here, but here’s an excerpt:

I’m quite taken at the moment with a quote from the American writer Clay Shirky, which makes this last point in a slightly different way: “The revolution doesn’t happen when society adopts new tools. It happens when society adopts new behaviours.”

In a way, it’s an explanation of why my website and blog (finally about to get a much needed overhaul) haven’t been changed much from

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Posted in LibLink, Online politics | Also tagged , | 1 Comment

+++ Clegg reshuffles Shadow Cabinet

By The Voice | Published 8th January 2009 - 12:39 pm

Highlights from the full story:

Simon Hughes: Shadow Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change
Steve Webb: Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
David Heath: Shadow Leader of the House
Jenny Willott: Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
David Howarth: Shadow Secretary of State for Justice
Susan Kramer: chosen to leave the shadow cabinet to take up a new role leading the party’s campaign against the expansion of Heathrow Airport
Lynne Featherstone: Chair of the New Technology Board

Reactions include:
Steve Webb on his blog
Lynne Featherstone on her blog
The Guardian

Posted in News | 24 Comments

The report you’ve all been waiting for…

By Alix Mortimer | Published 14th August 2008 - 5:18 pm

Jo Christie-Smith wins a cookie for being the only blogger to spot my half-reference this morning to the executive summary of the Bones Commission report, now on general release as part of the conference material. It’s here and some choice quotes follow.

On “achieving coherence, alignment and focussed resources”:

In the vast majority of voluntary organisations in the UK there is an established difference in role between the top governance body, the volunteer organisation and the professionals they employ. Our constitution reflects this as a principle but in its separation of powers it effectively

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Posted in News | Also tagged , , , | 25 Comments