News Story

WeGov on the BBC

Harith Alani, Thursday 13 September 2012 | Annotate

Hansard Society, one of the partners in WeGov, lead the organisation of an event in Westminster on 11th of September to debate if and how can social media inform policy-making, and what are the various issues associated with this emerging field.

In a coverage of the event, the BBC highlighted the growing field of using social media to inspire policy making, and the contencious issues of privacy and trust that were debated at the event.

The BBC pointed to the WeGov project, describing it as an EU funded software that is "specifically designed for politicians, enabling them to monitor debates, filter out the background 'noise' and zoom in on what people are saying about them and their policies in a particular geographical area."

The event was attended by more than 80 delegates, and involved a keynote on WeGov project, delivered by its coordinaotr Dr Paul Walland from IT Innovation. Others who spoke at the event are:

Kevin Brennan MP - Social Media MP of the Year, 2010
Rory Cellan-Jones - Technology Correspondent, BBC
Nick Jones - Deputy Director of Digital Communications, Prime Minister's Office & Cabinet Office
Deborah Mattinson - Director, Britain Thinks
Nick Pickles - Director, Big Brother Watch