The Winners of the New Statesman New Media Awards 2005 (UK) were announced last week.
In the Elected representative category, ReadMyDay bloggers Cllr Andrew Brown, Cllr Mary Reid and this Read My Day project were nominated.
But alas:
For the first time in the history of the New Statesman New Media Awards, the judges have decided not to award a winner in this category. After much discussion and thought, they agreed that none of the shortlisted nominations deserved the accolade. Some of the elected representatives have made massive efforts in creating an interesting online presence. But it was recognised that they have done so with little official help, and mostly by being in a fortunate enough position to draw upon the technical and communication skills required. The result is a postcode lottery for citizens who wish to discover and communicate with their elected representatives online. There have been some efforts to redress this balance: ReadMyDay and Councillor.info are just two examples. But there is still more that needs to be done. The judges believe that elected representatives need more support, training and advice to help them use this media more effectively. In doing so there is a real opportunity for the UK to lead the way in communication between the representative and the represented.
See Mary Reid’s No winner blog post for more. Tim Ireland at Bloggerheads (aka Manic) has a post, too.
