Mumbles Labour ICT Update April 2017

Group meeting.

Although a number of attempts were made to get the group to meet this has proved difficult mainly due to arranging a time when everybody could make it.  In the intervening period I have met with Pete Anderson and decided to set up a set of rolling meetings on a Thursday at around 5 o’clock where those who are interested can meet to take along various aspects of our ICT strategy.  The next meeting is scheduled for Thursday 13^th April at the Techub Swansea High St. then every other Thursday thereafter. It is not expected that these meetings would last very long, an hour to an hour and a half at the most but it would provide an opportunity for those involved to catch up. We also decided that it would probably be more effective to keep the wider group informed through email etc so people could get involved in these areas that particularly interest them rather than expecting everybody to get involved in all areas.

Newsletter

Probably one of the most significant developments this month has been the development of a new format newsletter that has been circulated in both online and hard copy.  This is an attempt to keep members up to date via a more engaging format and hopefully encourage more feedback and interaction. As this is very much a new format those of us who were involved in its production would welcome constructive feedback.

Local Election Candidate Videos

Rob Marshall and I have both produced short videos to support our election campaigns.  While mine in no way aspires to the production values of Rob’s particularly in relation to soundtrack if any of the other local election candidates would like assistance in producing their own videos I am more than happy to assist in any way I can as  have access to the necessary equipment and editing software.

Social Media Presence

Our Twitter account, which has now only been established a month already has 76 followers sowe are therefore averaging well over 10 per week.  The Facebook page is also acting as a useful platform for getting out message out there and since its inception barely a month ago our blog has received 228 views. Nextdoor is also proving to be another platform through which Rob Marshall, Des Thomas, Pam Erasmus and to a lesser extent myself are using it for local engagement.  

As the elections near I would urge all local members to use social media i which ever way they can as a means of raising our profile and getting our message out there.  Face to face canvassing still has its place but as I have outlined previously many people these days look to the internet to find their information and research topics that are of interest to them and if we don’t utilise this resource as effectively as we can I fear we are missing a trick.  

ICT and Social Media Update for Mumbles Labour February 2017

In the past couple of months there have been a number of developments o the ICT / Social Media Front.  The Mumbles Labour Facebook page has become a lot more active and is now acting as somewhere where people can find out information about candidates, meetings and local Labour news. I would like to encourage those member with Facebook, Twitter and other social media accounts to Retweet and share content from the FaceBook and other Mumbles Labour accounts as this is how we will share our news and message and not end up with our accounts acting as an echo chamber where we simply speak to each other.

Additional Mumbles Labour social media accounts have been developed such as Twitter via @Mumbleslabour1 and also a blog at http://mumbleslabour.blogspot.co.uk/ In relation to the the Twiiter account obviously it would be great if all those members who are on Twitter could give it a follow  and also the occasional #FF.  It would also be great if any member who wants to would submit content for the blog it is just another way we can get our message out there.  I notice that some local members are already signing up to Nextdoor which is the new replacement for Streetlife which I also know some members have used in the past. I think using Nextdoor for getting information out to local residents will be very useful  and the Tories at Newton are already using it but I think we need to be careful to being drawn in to public spats.

On February 8^th I met with Pete Anderson to discuss and explore the potential of using Vocaleyes for branch engagement at the TechHub located on Swansea High St. During the meeting Pete and I discussed organising a introductory session for interested branch members to both familiarise members with the vocaleyes platform but also start to explore developing a branch strategy for digital activism and engagement.  I would be interested to hear from those branch members who would be interested in attending this session and contributing to Mumbles Labour groups gigital engagement/ activism strategy. I propose we hold this session at Techhub as it has good presentation facilities and Wifi access. Mike Klein also did a presentation at the TechHub on digital activism which I have written up as a blog http://mumbleslabour.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/digital-activism-why-it-is-important.html

One point I would like to make in relation to our development of social media and digital communication it is not primarily to help as to communicate with each other better, although it can help with that.  Only a small percentage of local people are Labour members and only quite a small proportion of those attend meetings.  Digital media can offer us a platform for communicating with those members who don’t attend meetings for whatever reason  and also to engage with local residents who we are potential Labour voters. Digital activism is not a replacement for good old fashioned door knocking and face to face engagement  but I feel that if we don’t use it to augment more traditional approaches we will be missing an increasingly important method of canvasing.

Digital Activism: Why It is important for Mumbles Labour

Last week I attended a  talk in Swansea given by a member of the Mumbles Labour Group called Mike Klein on digital activism. Mike who hails from the States but who now, very sensibly in my opinion, has made Mumbles his home is the former presidential campaign manager for Congressman Dennis Kucinich. I have to admit to being a little sceptical about this whole digital activism thing as I am sure some of you may be but Mike gave me plenty of food for thought some of which I hope to share with you here.

The original computer  Tim Berners Lee
used to establish the World Wide Web in 1989

Although this is a bit of a generalisation in the past life was more homogenised and centralised. People tended to live and work in one place, often for much of their lives and would get their news and information from a few sources as well: what was said at work, through the BBC and maybe the church. Today however we live in a very different world where people throughout their career often move from job to job and where populations are a lot more geographically mobile and where we are bombarded with information and views from many additional sources such as the plethora of television channels and social media platforms. In this multicultural, multifaith, multi voiced brave new world it would seem reasonable to argue that traditional forms of social and political activism need to be rethought.

In the past ten years, particularly since the launch of the IPhone in 2007, there has been a massive change in the way we use and interact with the media. In 2016 71% of the UK population owned mobile phones, up from 39% just four years earlier and among under 35 year olds the figure in over 90% and as of 2015 the smartphone is the most popular way to access the internet  

The 286 and 386 computer chips which
 led to a revolution in home computing

Research has shown that more than a third of all adults (34%) use their smartphone within five minutes of waking up, a figure that rises to almost half (49%) of those aged 18-24. It would seem that the traditional model of people catching up on what is happening in the world by switching on their radio or television in the morning or reading the newspaper on the way to work is rapidly being replaced by people switching on their mobile phones and accessing their social media accounts. Any political or social movement that fails to engage with this change is at risk of going the same way as traditional newspapers seem to be going.

Love him or loathe him, and no prizes for guessing which one I do, but President Donald Trump has utilised this change in the media to great effect. Just 7% of the US population use Twitter although nearly 90% are aware of it and although I don't have hard statistics to hand I am pretty sure I am on safe ground to argue that the percentage that have read a Trump Tweet is also around the 90% mark as his Tweets are often faithfully reprinted word for word in various other forms of media.  I'll ask you to reflect yourself; now you may or maynot be on Twitter but it's a pretty fair bet that you at some point have read a Donald Trump tweet. Twitter has given him to opportunity to bypass the traditional filters and spin associated with more traditional forms of media and talk directly to the people and whatever you think of that it has worked, he made it to be president even against the odds.

Labour and The Left in general are not in a good place at the moment, there is no denying it (particularly post Copeland) but it would also seem true that we are bound to lose the next war if we use the same weaponry, tactics and strategy as we used to lose the last one.  Times they are a changing and while there is still a place for the old door to door door knocking and face to face interaction (for as Mike pointed out in his talk quoting Tip O'Neill "all politics is local") the day of the keyboard warrior is now upon us and getting our message out there using these new forms of media is more important than ever otherwise we will become left behind and be seen as out of touch, particularly by the young who are our hope for the future.

It seems to me quite obvious that if Labour are to win back seats such as Gower there is a need to not only get our traditional voters out but also to show to those that maybe think that politics doesn't matter to them or that all politics is the same that Labour can make a real difference and using the digital airwaves is going to be  a key element in our weaponary to achieve it.

Martin O'Neill  

Welcome to Labour Mumbles

Welcome to the new blog of Mumbles Branch of the UK Labour Party.  The title of the blog is quite intentional as we hope to publish here the thoughts, ideas, hopes, mumbles and grumbles of grassroots Labour party branch members from an ordinary party branch from South West Wales, (albeit an extremely beautiful bit of South West Wales.)

The View from Mumbles

For those of you who don't know Mumbles it is a small seaside district to the West of Swansea encompassing the electoral wards of   Oystermouth, Newton, West Cross, and Mayals. The party branch here has 300+ members and we play an active role within the local community and and also in the wider city social and political life.

We hope that that through this blog outside readers and those who are maybe visiting or thinking or moving to the area can be provided with an introduction and ongoing account as to what is going on in the area and current debates and concerns.  For local party members and the wider community of Mumbles we would like to think that this blog can act as a forum where you might keep up at a date on local issues but also enable you to get your voice heard. We fully realise that local party meetings are not for everybody so by developing these blogs and other social media accounts we would like to think that we are reaching out to enable our wider community to engage with us and get their voice heard.

All too often and particularly recently with all the Brexit kerfuffle politicians and political parties have been accused, and justifiably so, of not listening to "ordinary people".  Particularly within the past nine to ten years there have been massive changes in information and communication technology that have reduced the distance and barriers between us and made it so much easier to communicate with each other. We in Mumbles Labour are keen to develop and use these new technologies to ensure that we get the voice of our community members heard in both Mumbles and Swansea.

Obviously we are in the process of developing this blog and our other social media outputs such as Twitter @Mumbleslabour1 and Facebook  http://bit.ly/2kTgnRT if you have any ideas or want to contribute or comment in any way please do.  It is easy to post a comment on FaceBook or Twitter and if you have something longer to say post it as a reply to our blog or send us a blog post of your own.

So there you have it our very first Labour Mumbles blog. Hope you've found it at least a little bit useful but please comment, we are all ears, we are here to listen :-)