For well over a year, I've both enjoyed and benefited from the discussion that happen here on Kos. I bought and read Taking on the System, and have envied the strong American netroots that have really taken hold in the States and, in a major way, led to a radical change in the American system last November. Up here in Canada, we have very strong voter apathy and only a small not very influential blogging community to speak of.
I've been trying to work hard to change all that and I wanted Kossacks to be the first to know about an exciting new initiative I've started up. TweetCommons, based on the success I've seen with TweetCongress in the US. I thought that, while this is primarily a Canadian initiative, American progressives may be interested in what we are up to in the great white north.
Basically, my hope is for this site to work as a web-based initiative to connect Canadians with their elected representatives in government using Twitter. In a very similar fashion to the American TweetCongress. The blogging communities in Canada are already isolated and partisan enough that their influence is minimal and most people don't even read them. However, the brief, rapid-fire communication is perfect for staying connected with friends and public figures alike. It not only allows bloggers to connect with their politicians, but also ordinary people. As my Conservative brother-in-law put it, "This is brilliant, I would never phone my MP, but I would be willing to tweet them, and they would get the message because everyone can see that I sent one to them."
A key item, I've insisted on is that it maintain a clean, attractive, and functional home page, a page that ordinary (read: non-power users) can understand and use. I am hoping that by being easy-to-use, it will attract more Canadians back into the political process. However, features I insisted must be there were the ability for users to be able to view the most recent tweets from Ministers of Parliament (whose names, portraits, ridings and party affiliations are all clearly displayed) as well as the responses from Twitter users directed at them, and to help out even more with communication, I've also made sure that each MP also has a personal listing with their portrait, contact information, and the tweets relating to him or her specifically.
Voter apathy has been plaguing recent Canadian elections, and my hope is that such a resource will be instrumental in establishing a deeper relationship between the Canadian government and the public it serves. More importantly, that the public will be less apathetic and more politically involved in the decisions that affect them everyday.
Right now, only 35% of federal Canadian politicians have Twitter accounts, and even fewer use Twitter regularly. The hope is to make Twitter more relevant both for politicians and the public, bringing Canadian politics up to speed with technology and social media. Even prior to the official launch, TweetCommons has gained well over 350 followers on Twitter, proving Canadians to be keen on following politics in this way. Many of the followers being ordinary Canadians who are becoming excited about politics again and the possibility of actually talking to their MP one-on-one over Twitter.
Currently, The TweetCommons website is accessible at http://www.tweetcommons.com; We also maintain a Twitter account at
http://www.twitter.com/... .
While you guys are battling to get a public option into your healthcare system, the apathy in the political process has the possibility of threatening our public healthcare system. Hopefully, this new site will have some positive effect. As well, it provides a quick way for Americans interested in what's going on in Canada to see what is being talked about on a day-to-day basis. Our about page: http://tweetcommons.com/... lists other similar initiatives worldwide that we are aware of.