Stephen Hale

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Saturday 04 April, 2009

The London Summit broke new ground for digital media. I feel sure that the debate that took place in blogs and forums influenced opinion around the world in the lead up to and during the summit, and that digital debate has contributed to the way in which the outcome of the summit has been received.

We've played our part, running the UK government web presence, but a lot of the debate has taken place spontaneously elsewhere. I've been really excited about the work of G20 Voice, bringing 50 bloggers from 22 countries to the summit venue. I played a very small role in helping to make some connections, so I know that the 50 bloggers owe their place at the summit to the vision and perseverance of Shane, Karina and the rest of the G20 Voice coalition. Their legacy will be that it will probably seem perfectly natural for bloggers to have similar or greater access to the next summit.

And it almost passed me by, but I think there was a historic moment for blogging in the Excel Centre when Richard Murphy - one of the G20 accredited bloggers - was called to ask the Prime Minister a question.

Here he is asking it:

And here he is reflecting on the moment afterwards:

Posted at 01:04 04 April 2009 by Stephen Hale | Comments[5]

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A great effort, and a fantastic piece of work. Hope you enjoy the weekend! Just wondered, are you writing up some kind of analysis of traffic, debate, coverage etc, part of which you could share here? It would be interesting to see the kind of levels of participation you achieved and some of your lessons learned for the future.

Posted by Steph Gray on April 04, 2009 at 09:56 AM BST #

You are right the fact that G20 voice got fifty bloggers into the Excel centre and one even got to ask Gordon Brown a question is to be welcomed. This marks the start perhaps of the recuperation of bloggers into the mainstream. Bloggers are now making their way into positions of power in newspapers, LA Times being one. Access to the Excel centre and for some the notable excitment of making their way to the centre is telling. To paraphrase Matt Johnson's song Heartland 'it ain;nt written in the papers but its written on the wall the way this country is divided to fall'. The future could belong to the disrupters not the constructors by that I mean those who are without access to the Excel centre. The future of capitalism or the new ideas proposed to replace it will come not from within the tent but from somewhere quite different.

Posted by shane dillon on April 04, 2009 at 10:01 AM BST #

Steph, yes - I'll post more on the evaluation. Watch this space.

Posted by Stephen Hale on April 05, 2009 at 10:12 AM BST #

The London Summit website was excellent; I have already placed a comment on the London Summit editor's blog, but I just wanted to repeat it here!

Posted by Joe Smith on April 06, 2009 at 01:34 PM BST #

but if bloggers become 'recuperated' into the mainstream and or are 'accredited', won't they lose some of their 'power'...won't we just hear the same old 'experts' but in a different form? not that i'm against expertise ...its just it seems to me that the excitment of blogging has been that it hasn't been mainstream or 'accredited' that it has allowed for voices that might not have been heard in other more traditonal forums...atleast sometimes. will blogging now be co-opted by the powers that be and used to further their agenda. ie., is the idea of an 'accredited' blogger kind of an oxymoron? isn't the whole point not to be accredited? or atleast who gets to determine who the accredited blogger should be, the government? the 'experts'? the mainstream media? and whats the criteria? or do the 'bloggers' get to decide...but, of course, bloggers are not all of one mind, which is also kind of the point...anyway..cheers

Posted by Steve Mc (Canada) on April 07, 2009 at 07:43 PM BST #

Stephen Hale

Head of Engagement, Digital Diplomacy

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