The Catalonian Parliament at the forefront of politics 2.0
The Parliament has begun a new website which represents an advance in the construction of a different type of politics. Parlament 2.0 is a catalogue of tools and initiatives which favour dialogue between citizens and politicians, and between the Parliament and the public.
This new form of communication is a step towards that the citizen can participate anonymously, openly and dynamically in the different public institutions. In this way politicians and citizens have the opportunity to construct a new relationship separate from the media which can become a new journalism 3.0 (somewhere between “citizen journalism” and “collaborative journalism”), with the generalised use of blogs by both citizens and politicians who explain their ideas about the economy, society, culture, sports and politics, thereby fomenting democratic participation.
Some examples are the parliamentary blogs of José Antonio Donaire and Miquel Iceta of the Socialist Party of Catalonia (PSC). Another well-known blog is that of the President of the Parliament Ernest Benach i Pascual. The President of the Catalonian government, José Montilla will periodically answer questions from the public.
In the portal of the Parliament it is possible to directly access the personal file of each parliamentary member, organised by groups, as well as consult their blogs (if they have one). However the success of this initiative doesn’t just depend on technology, but the interest of MPs and how it is used by citizens.
A Virtual tour
The new website of the Parliament of Catalonia integrates YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Netvibes amongst other things:
— The YouTube channel of the Parliament which contains parliamentary sessions, interviews, events and reports, and complements the Parlament Channel
— Parlament on Facebook
— Like the UK Parliament, the Catalonian Parliament has an account on Twitter which makes it possible to get updates on the webpage, mobile, Messenger or in Twitter itself. At TweetParlament it is possible to follow the tweets of MPs.
— Each user can personalise the Parliament homepage according on their interests
— The site offers a number of widgets, such as iGoogle or Netvibes which can be embedded in webpages or blogs
— syndication mechanisms and syndication tools
— Facilitates queries by the public directed at the President of the Parliament, citizens or services of the Parliament
— The educational activities of Parliament have also been developed in an active way. In the the 2.0area teachers and students can access the moodle tools which have been created by the Chamber
— The portal includes Google Translate so that the official language of Catalan can be translated to that chosen by the user
