Why wasn't Maxine McKew Labor's Old Spice guy?

Renai LeMay
Wednesday, 01 September 2010 16:30

IT Policy - Government Tech Policy

This article is by Darryl Adams, a government worker and internet tragic. A former IT worker, he still pines for the days of IBM keyboards that go CRUNCH and the glow of green screens. He can be found on on Twitter or on Facebook. Check out his site oz-e-books.com for more articles about e-book readers, retailers, formats and news (or will have when Darryl can be drawn away from reading Delimiter). The views expressed here do not reflect the views of his employer, the ATO.

opinion We 'tech-heads' are in the cusp of the new age, of decentralised information delivery and up to the minute analysis and commentary of the issues of the day.

Or so we tell ourselves.

I do think that social media served us well during the election, by adding a filter to content from people collecting the information (see my previous election article here), and adding humour and commentary to the election. Part of this was shown by the fake Tweets shown on 'Yes We Canberra' by The Chaser boys, and Lakita Bourke's Twitter reports in the Fairfax Press. With the #aus2010 and #ausvotes tags, we were able to consolidate and distribute a wide variety of opinion, commentary and bum jokes to an audience hungry for that information.

However, as a tool for the political parties, it was miserable.