I went to the Labour List launch event this morning which took the form of a ‘bloggers breakfast’; the above video was played out prior to Mandelson speaking. As well as Mandelson, there was a range of speakers all asserting the case for the Labour Party being the party of new media.
A more informal format that allowed the congregation of bloggers and politicians to converse would have been far more useful and exciting. What’s the point in gathering an element of the bloggersphere if you’re going to simply give them pastries and talk at them? It felt very broadcast and not very social.
Peter Mandelson highlighted that the most important factor in winning the battle of ideas in online political communication was having the most interesting / humorous / inspiring content. As has been pointed out on this blog before, the Labour Party have not produced any decent content since the advent of web 2.0. I have never forwarded on anything the Labour Party has produced to any ‘non-political’ friends of mine, as if I did, they would think I was terminally dull.
This is the party’s biggest challenge: coming up with a big, compelling, believable idea which inspires party supporters to start producing diverse political advertising that people will be willing to send on to the ‘undecided’ masses.