The Inter-Parliamentary Union list of Official Twitter feeds from parliaments around the world can be found here.

The Inter-Parliamentary Union published the Social Media Guidelines for Parliament. Prepared with support from the Global Centre for ICT in Parliament the Guidelines draw on lessons learned by parliaments so far and on good practice in the social media sphere. The objective is to encourage more widespread, more efficient and more effective use of social media by parliaments.

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• Agenda and Annotated Agenda (PDF)

 

13 September
08:00 am – 09:15 am	Registration of delegates

The World e-Parliament Conference 2012 was held at the Chamber of Deputies of Italy, in Rome, on 13, 14 and 15 September. The Conference concluded on the International Day of Democracy, established in 2008 by the UN General Assembly.

 

 

 

The Reports, prepared by the Global Centre for ICT in Parliament, intend to help legislatures to harness the potential benefits of ICT for their work and establish key goals and priorities for exploiting this valuable resource. While providing evidence of the complexities of e-parliament, the Reports suggest ways to overcome some of the obstacles to the effective use of technology in parliamentary settings.

The streams, available via HouseLive.gov, include videos of proceedings dating back to the start of the 111th Congress. Interested parties can click on “Video” to watch each session. They can also click on “Summary” to view text-only versions of the proceedings. MP3 files are also featured on the page, which notes that Windows Media Player or Silverlight is required to view the videos.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressional offices are receiving between 200 to 1,000 percent more constituent communications than they were ten years ago. Despite the increase, a survey of congressional staff indicates that 90 percent believe constituent communications remains a "high priority" for the office. But sizable percentages of staff report that their offices are shifting resources to manage the increased demand.

New media platforms are changing how people communicate with each other around the world. However, there is great variation in both the kind of communication platforms people make use of as well as in how they access these platforms. Computer ownership and internet access are still the prerogative of the wealthy few in wide swathes of the African continent. All the same, mobile internet access is on the rise and if current growth rates continue, African mobile phone penetration will reach 100 per cent by 2014.

Launched in August 2011, the UK's online e-petitions initiative allows any British citizen to petition the government for an item to be debated in the House of Commons. If a petition passes muster by government standards and collects over 100,000 signatures within a year, then it becomes due for debate in Parliament during time set aside for "backbencher debates" — discourse between lawmakers who don't have a government portfolio or a prominent spot in the opposition, set up through a new committee in the Commons.

The White House unveiled plans for a new online petition system called “We the People.” Using the new service at whitehouse.gov, citizens will be able to create petitions and use email and social media to gather support. If a petition gathers enough support, it will be reviewed and answered by White House policy staff.

Connecting Citizens to Parliament - research from the Hansard Society published today - demonstrates that half the public (52%) are not really interested in Parliament and do not want to be involved in what it does. The research explores which communities and social groups are not engaging with Parliament, why and how this might be redressed.

• Electronic Communications (Personal Data & Protection of Privacy) Regulations (S.L. 399.24)
• These regulations provide for the undertaking of ‘appropriate’ technical & organisational measures to safeguard security of services provided.

Panelists

Moderator: 

Jakes Jacobs, Secretary to the National Assembly of Namibia

Panelists: 

Robert Reeves, Deputy Clerk, House of Representatives of the United States of America

Antonio Saad, IT Director, National Assembly of Panama

Carlo Marchetti, Head of the Information Systems Development Office, IT Department, Senate of Italy

The World e-Parliament Report 2010 found that after websites and email, the communication method in use by the largest number of parliaments (43%) is webcasting of plenary sessions. Reflecting the popularity of this technology, it was also selected by the second largest number of parliaments (29%) who are planning or considering using it. Given that the technology for webcasting has become easier to implement and less costly, and that plenary sessions are highly important, this finding is not surprising.

Panelists

Moderator: 

Zwelethu L. Madasa, Clerk of the Pan-African Parliament

Panelists: 

Radhakrishna Lutchmana Padayachie, Deputy Minister of Public Service and Administration of the Republic of South Africa

Jeffrey Griffith, Senior Advisor, Global Centre for ICT in Parliament

1. Governing at a time of technological changes
2. An overview of the findings of the World e-Parliament Report 2010