The man who helped Barack Obama develop his online donation campaign is set to advise the Rudd Government about how it can use the internet to engage voters.
Ben Self, founder of internet strategy firm Blue State Digital, told The Age that by the next federal election the parties will have no choice but to use the internet to engage in voters. Self used the Obama campaign to develop an online donation drive, netting over half a billion dollars in total.
“We are going to be talking to the Labor Party as a part of this,” he said. “People want to be engaged with their government and either fix it, change it or be a part of it, and so you just have to give them a way to do that.”
Self also said that the two parties will have to use the internet to create conversations with voters, and help maintain websites were the public can voice their concerns. But don’t ask Self to help the Liberal party: “The conservative parties tend to be much more top-down and less open to new ideas,” he said.
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
