TWITTER ALLOWS PUBLIC TO TALK DIRECTLY AND OPENLY TO MPs
TweetMinster.co.uk is a service that makes it easy to connect the public with MPs using Twitter. The service wants constituents to find their MPs (or invite them to use Twitter if they're not already doing so) and encourage direct conversations. TweetMinster is dedicated to promoting better communication between voters and elected representatives.
London December 17 2009 – A new service called TweetMinster, www.tweetminster.co.uk, launched today with the aim of promoting better communications between voters and Members of Parliament through open conversations. TweetMinster represents a simple way of using the Internet to make politicians more accountable and give the British public a chance to make their opinions count in decisions that shape political life in the UK.
The service makes it easy for the public to find and talk to MPs using Twitter, a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?
Twitter.com is rapidly exploding as the latest Internet phenomenon counting millions of users in the UK, including global celebrities such as Britney Spears, Shaquille O’Neill, Barack Obama and Stephen Fry.
Twitter enables real-time conversations between members of parliament and voters.
TweetMinster allows constituents to connect with their MPs, filter posts by activity, party and constituency and streams all the latest posts made by MPs on Twitter. The service also allows constituents to email their MPs and invite them to use Twitter.In time, TweetMinster aims to release its data and allow third parties to use and mash it up into their own webistes, social network pages and applications. TweetMinster is already planning new features to build awareness and debates around key issues and parliamentary voting.
Ultimately TweetMinster promotes more efficient communications between voters and MPs by fostering open conversations, sharing of opinions, online campaigning and greater transparency in public life.
The service was inspired by a conversation on Twitter with an MP and was built in a day, and is a collaboration between UnLtdWorld.com (www.unltdworld.com) the online platform for social entrepreneurs, and creative agency Thin Martian (www.thinmartian.com) whose founders cut their teeth making the Labour Party website for the 1997 New Labour landslide.
Alberto Nardelli, CEO of UnLtdWorld.com said: "Following a post on Twitter by MP Tom Watson I discovered Tweet Congress, a service that connects voters and Congress in the US. I was inspired by it, and thought that it would be a wicked idea to have something similar in the UK. So we teamed up with our friends at Thin Martian and impatiently developed TweetMinster in a day. Ultimately the goal is to improve communications between parliament and people, as we feel that more transparent conversations will mean better government."
Andrew Walker, Creative Director at Thin Martian said: "Ever since working on the election-winning 1997 New Labour website I’ve been inspired by the digital democracy movement and the power of the web to give us a louder voice in the decisions that shape their lives. Twitter, Facebook and websites like that represent a political watershed…it’s an opportunity for politicians to reach the public and for the public to connect with politicians like never before. That’s the power of social networking."
To connect and follow your MP head to www.tweetminster.co.uk