Why I hope that the internet will be good for politics

Charlie Beckett reports from Demos and the reasons why he believes that the internet is good for politics.

1. It reduces the barriers to getting involved in political activism and political media - either independently or through political parties

2. It enables political parties or movements to mobilise support (eg Barrack Obama) much more efficiently

3. It allows political parties and activists to start to escape from mainstream media agenda setting

4. It allows much quicker and more open reform of political parties themselves

5. It allows Government to open itself up to the public and so become more transparent and therefore, both more democratic and efficient

I have just left a post in the comments section

I think that all the five points are valid but it worries me as to whether this is really happening in the world of politics.
The test will be next year’s election.I hope sincerely that the internet allows the majority of people to re connect with the political process and that we can have informed debate about our future options.
I think though that it will take more than a pure platform to do that.Politics needs to be seen as being transparent,democratic,open sourced for the internet to play an important role