Reading Roars!

The Tech Savvy/Luddite debate is hotting up.

The Evening Post published an article this morning on Richard Willis’ blog entry, Tech Savvy or Luddite?, featuring a comparison by the councillor of local parliamentary candidates and MPs’ online activities.  Martin Salter MP didn’t score very highly in this analysis and was labelled a “Luddite”.

In response, Martin suggested to the Evening Post that the blogosphere is “the last refuge for tragic  insomniacs who lack social skills”.  Strong words.

Obviously, I don’t agree with that view (not fully, as I could use more sleep).

The way I see it, Martin doesn’t have to blog, especially if he feels uncomfortable with the idea (though I have an inkling he might be good at it, as he has a way with words – whether you agree with them or not), or set up a Facebook profile or group.  Ultimately, blogging and/or Facebook don’t work for everyone.

The opportunity to engage online mustn’t be ignored, however.  There is an array of tools to consider, with new ones emerging all the time. If  blogging doesn’t feel right, then look for an alternative (keeping objectives and target audience in mind).

The increasingly significant Twitter, for example, is dead simple to use: no need to worry about constructing long articles with links, images and so forth.  A simple sentence can be fashioned and sent in seconds (e.g. “I am meeting x and y”).  No technical knowledge required.  And it’s hip (or hipper), with Jonathan Ross and Stephen Fry joining the party recently.  Meanwhile, Labourist.org published their first “tweet” four days ago – and now have 118 followers.

Other responses to the “Luddite” story were published as follows:

• Jane Griffiths’ posted her thoughts in an article headed tragic insomniacs
• Richard Willis updated his blog with Salter Confesses to Luddite Tendencies

It’s probably worth stressing at this point that we mustn’t get too carried away!  As Richard Willis himself said, “It’s just a bit of fun”.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 20th, 2009 at 5:47 am and is filed under Local Government, Parliament, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.