David Doherty of 3Gdoctor.com tells us that citizencalling.com
has been set up by the Home Affairs Committee to provide an opportunity for young people to tell MPs about their experiences, ideas and opinions on the criminal justice system.It's going to explore how mobile phones might help people and Parliament communicate with one another and is going to try and find out if sending in experiences, ideas and views through mobile phone messages can make it easier to take part.
Messages will be sent via the project’s phone number (07786 201247) and hosted on citizencalling.com
To me I would say it is a good and useful experiement. There are many reasons why this is such a good idea. For me having written the book with Tomi and now taking our thinking much further - I definitely can see that how we, the civil service and, government interact, will change.
If the world is exploding with peer-to-peer communication, communities of interest, communities of commerce, and as the younger generations grow up familiar with technology that is always two way - Any business or institution that only works in broadcast mode will simply fail. If you think about Youtube its folk culture reinvented for the 21st Century.
Come on - STOP and pause for a moment - Rupublican protest songs passed down over the years, songs of struggle with the industrial revolution etc., etc., all cultures have them. Its culture for the people where folk culture was always about telling a story - and about sharing that together. If you are American - its Gravy for breakfast, Gravy for lunch and Gravy for dinner a story about the Great Depression. Do you know where I heard that in Finland - where a American lady sang that song in a restaurant and I sang The Black Leg Miner - A song about the birth of the uniions in the coal mining industry we were both richer for the experience. Next time you see me ask me to sing it. I have a lovely singing voice
We have taken our culture back to make it for ourselves. The end game of that is an expectation in fact a demand for participatory democracy
What underpins all of this is economic, social and technological.
Without dialogue there is ignorence - with ignorence there is fear and with fear there are all the myriad ways in which others can come and try to subvert the precious freedoms we have already. And those freedoms right now are under threat.
Listening really helps - it means you are valued - dialogue is an exchange upon which trust is built. That is how democracies survive. More dialogue is a good thing. And its great the people can get to have more of their say. A word of caution though, this cuts both ways - don't like what you hear - you still have to engage, as we learn't on this site a few months ago.
I picked this up at Forum Oxford a rich lively community whichs discusses and debates all things mobile. Go and join it could be useful.
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