note: article originellement publié en Anglais
I have just been on LinkedIn to check a few things including the presence of the brand new LinkedIn LION’s logo (a group of open networkers within LinkedIn) and here I see the stunning news that Barack Obama is posting a LinkedIn question to his network (I am only 3 levels remote from Senator Barack Obama).
The question reads: “How can the next president better help small business and entrepreneurs thrive?” and he has already gathered 1251 questions (by the time I had posted my response there was only 1231, 20 were added in less than 1 minute!).
If this is a direct democracy effort, then I think it’s really interesting. I am not sure about what you can make out of all these varied and sometimes contradictory comments but the initiative is interesting nonetheless, similar to what Segolene Royal had done in France earlier this year in the French presidential election, only this time it is taking place on a large social network and on a larger scale. Will it prove more successful than Royal’s effort (she lost the presidency to N. Sarkozy last May)? Time will tell.
At least I had a chance to ask Senator Obama the question directly (LinkedIn allows for direct messages to be sent to the question issuer). I don’t think he will have time to respond, but I will keep you posted on this blog if he does.
septembre 13, 2007 at 7:02
Do you not thing this kind of thing isn’t all a bit of a onesided stunt show to give the impression that participative democracy exists ? In terms of image building its great…But what’s he going to do with all the replies ? virtual politics is great but you have to admit that concrete action is even better….