Kate Lundy, Senator for the ACT, ICT enthusiast and advocate has been voted 13 out of 25 for the international “Top 10 Who Are Changing the World of Internet and Politics” award, coordinated by PoliticsOnline and the World eDemocracy Forum, narrowly missing out being placed in the top 10.
While Senator Lundy didn’t make the top 10 she is making important strides in the field of politics and technology. Her recent third public sphere event on Australian ICT and Creative Industries Development drew together people from all over the country as well as Australians residing overseas.
The event had approximately 100 physical participants on the day, and another 400 people remotely watching the Live Wall, which aggregated the video, Twitter, Flickr and Live Blogging content for easy access. There was also representation from the AIIA, ACS, OSIA, ICT Illawara, Innovation Cities, the Creative Industries Innovation Centre and the Silicon Beach group present, amongst other organisations, as well as many individuals and businesses. All conversations from the day were captured at: http://www.katelundy.com.au/2009/08/31/public-sphere-3-wrapup/ All video content will be linked from the event schedule as it is uploaded over the coming days here: http://www.katelundy.com.au/2009/07/24/public-sphere-3-australian-ict-creative-industries-development/ The event made the top 5 Australian twitter tags for the 28th August 2009, and has had over 1,101 tweets so far. The briefing paper from the day is being finalised over the coming weeks in collaboration with the community on Senator Lundy’s wiki: http://wiki.katelundy.com.au/ – The draft will be available early next week. The outcomes of this public sphere will be collated into a final briefing paper which will be contributed to the Information Technology Industry Innovation Council, an initiative by Minister Carr, the Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research.“The public sphere events continue to attract a great deal of interest as a meaningful way of engaging in an online policy discussion with the community. For this reason, I was particularly pleased to have been short listed in the top 25 in the “Top 10 Who Are Changing the World of Internet and Politics” because of the public spheres. To be ranked 13th in an incredible group of international nominees is a real honour,” Senator Lundy said.
“It is wonderful to gain this kind of international recognition for the Public Sphere initiative, and I intend to continue to innovate within my office, in my role as Senator for the ACT, and as a long term ICT advocate for usisng ICT to facilitate eDemocracy.”
Australians that have previously been featured in the top ten include GetUp (2006 and 2007), the ACTU (Australian Council of Trade Unions) (2007) and Vic eGov Resource Centre (2008) http://www.politicsonline.com/content/main/specialreports/2008/top10_2008/vote.asp
Media contact: Annika Hutchins (Senator Kate Lundy) 0407 458 882
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How about the Senator does what she was elected to do and properly represent the constituents of the Australian Capital Territory instead of playing during working hours on the internet.
Thank you for your comment. Senator Lundy is facilitating these public spheres and online forums to open up communication between her and her constituency, encourage citizen engagement and facilitate discussion about public policy.
As Senator Lundy mentioned in her first vodcast, it is about dialog and encouraging a real conversation rather than just talking at people.
Senator Lundy has many examples of this, one of the most recent being her comsuper and defence pension campaign. This affects many people in the ACT and nation wide and by facilitating a forum for people to make comments about their experiences and thoughts with the assistance of SCOA and other Defence Welfare Organisations, Senator Lundy can then take these comments to her federal colleagues to back up and argue for the case.
Annika Hutchins
Media Adviser
Office of Senator Kate Lundy