Meanwhile, COTT harasses small business owners for playing the radio. I wrote something about this some time ago. COTT claimed it was ‘upholding laws’, etc – but it is selectively doing so. Any mention of COTT, therefore, will be heckled by yours truly. But then, celebrating below average performancee is to be expected in the region – the region does this consistently.

And in a political context, using COTT as a tool is just plain… political. That is sort of like using the Town and Country division in conjunction with the threat of use of the regiment to dismantle cell towers while the tens of thousands of houses which the government has put up (poorly) did not have town and country approval.

Politics is the hammer, apparently. Everything appears to be a nail. And it is the same folks running in the next election – they just moved around a little to appear like there has been some progress…

*YAWN*

(1) Jacqueline: You know how the UNC got your email address. There’s a fellow that we all know who has made a living selling email addresses, and he wears UNC on his sleeves. If you don’t know who it is, email me. I’ll tell you. I’m not on good terms with that person because of a history of underhandedness (is that a word?).

On the flip side, there is a vacuum when it comes to the PNM. Of course, the Prime Minister of T&T at this time doesn’t seem too interested in what the public has to say (the Smelter, for example), so it stands to reason that the internet be a pappyshow in that regard.

(2) I typically stay out of the soap opera of politics because it seems that so many people have dogs in the fight. I have been spared friend requests from political parties, perhaps because I have a bit of a reputation of not caring who people are – but caring what they do.

(3) Caribbean bloggers are a small group, yes, but I think the real problem is that much of the information comes from local media – which is biased, to say the least. No politician would want to be cast in the light of Adolf Hitler, but they certainly work the press in similar ways. I don’t even read local news anymore. If I liked soap operas…

Guyana does deserve special mention here. Guyana has some great bloggers, and they are taken seriously by the media. Perhaps that is the problem.

Divide and conquer seems to work for the rest of the region.

(4) There is another tool that most people in the Caribbean haven’t grokked yet – Second Life. There is a Caribbean presence within Second Life and it is growing, though it is limited to those with the appropriate levels of bandwidth.

(5) I’d love to see people take on the real elephant in the middle of the table: CARICOM. CARICOM is supposed to be good for the region, and if there is anything in the region with a big ‘Blog Me’ target on its back – it is CARICOM. If there is a way to apply political pressure, it would be CARICOM… but then, CARICOM doesn’t seem to take the web as seriously as it should either.

(6) Elections… are how we democratically elect dicators. Writing, discussion, etc… that is real democracy… and it would be good if that actually did filter through.

In the end, there is a lot of talk and no action… and because of the media haze, one does not know if the bloggers are touching the same elephant in different places, or whether there is a herd of elephants out there. :-)

And I certainly take your point, Jacqueline, about their using online tools for information and consultation. I think one of the challenges, however, is that all of the parties probably need to learn how to do this offline first!

And to address Karel’s point about online tools and demographics. I think that one of the things often ignored in similar discussions is that any organisation that seeks to target the general public is going to need to take a multi-pronged approach. If any political party in T&T thinks it’s reaching a majority of the electorate via Facebook, then they shouldn’t even bother to contest the election. But if they’re aware that they’re using that tool to communicate with a certain group of users, that’s another matter altogether.

I think another mistake that parties may be making is seeing these tools as self-maintaining, while the reality is that the very nature of online networks makes them in many ways more difficult to maintain and control that physical ones.

One of my main concerns about the use of the Internet in this election, however, is not how parties are using it but how the electorate is using it to inform and empower itself.

Blogging, Facebook and other social media tools have attracted people, and thus caused politicians to take notice of this medium. However, the key issue is the demographic that it reaches, and whether it affects the people who comprise the core of a political party’s support. For example, in T&T “the grassroots” continue to be a core voting stronghold for specific parties. Are grassroots people online, and if so are they online to check their e-mail or to read blogs indepthly? A 2003 study showed that the working to middle classes are online.

Additionally, when you look at Caribbean bloggers, we’re a small group, and the participants in conversations tend to be the same people most of the time.

There’s also the skepticism that often pervades people’s perspective of politicians. For example, Barbados’ ruling and Opposition parties have blogs. Yet some may see these as just another propoganda tool. Plus, some people are very hestitant to join Facebook groups for specific parties, since they don’t want to become marginalised because of who they support.

I think it’s great that people are using various technologies and are going online to express their political views. It also expands room for dialogue since persons from the Caribbean diaspora who live abroad can join the conversation. A definite benefit is sharing views, which will inform how people – who are plugged into the digital world – decide to give an “X” in elections.

The UNC is really big on spamming, won’t tell me where they got my email addy, and won’t remove me from their mail list despite several requests.

I’m not sure that any of them are really considerate of the privacy concerns of users. That disturbs me as we are plunging into the use of these tools without any proper legal protection. I’d be happier if they were less active in using the foreign-developed online tools for marketing and more active in developing policy to do things like narrow the digital divide, developing a strong technology sector in the economy, using online tools for consultation and information, etc.

In Trinidad, the Government is creating positions internationally on all sorts of really important standards and policies without any local consultation. That sucks.