The president that is never more than a few seconds away from a trend on Twitter is the focus of a new grass roots site ‘Obama Should‘

Obama Should has been set up by a group of volunteers led by Edo Segal, with the aim of providing an accessible outlet to those who have suggestions for policies. As well as submitting ideas on the site itself, users can also take part by tweeting their suggestion with the hashtag #obamashould

On the surface, the site is a positive move towards a digital democracy, providing an easy way for people to suggest policies when they might not otherwise have a platform to. One has to question though, whether this is a social media step too far.

Yes, the site is easy to use, but it might be that it’s a little too simple. Politics reduced to 140 characters? Is this really the right move? The site also doesn’t make it clear what happens with these policy suggestions. If they do actually reach the president, there should be more transparency over this. When there are official outlets to suggest policies and take action, is it right to divert people to a site where you can tweet your ideas instead? Sites such as this  (which is not officially associated with the president), can actually serve as a barrier between the politics and the people.

Obama’s own use of social media is obviously impressive, with many arguing that it got him elected. There isn’t a social network that he hasn’t touched. It is the grassroots aspect where many are still finding their feet. I’m not saying that social media channels shouldn’t be embraced, but just that there needs to be an actual purpose behind these and a strategy as to how campaigns will be brought to the Whitehouse.

Of course, it’s not just Obama that’s embracing social media. Gordon Brown’s site ‘Number 10‘ features flickr, youtube and a tweet stream. There are even series of webchats with other MPs, including Hilary Benn and Ben Bradshaw. Never has politics been more transparent and accessible, but I think there’s still a long way to go before politics and social media find a happy marriage. I wonder how many people would actually know that they can find their prime minister on Facebook or Flickr?

Social media and politics are clearly growing closer and closer together. A recent survey by Pew Internet finds that 31% of social network users ‘had engaged in activities with a civic or political focus’ , but it seems from the report that politics is still largely the reserve of those with higher levels of income and education. The fact that those with higher incomes are more likely to have access to the internet, will of course skew the figures somewhat, but there are clearly big steps to be made in a truly open and representative democracy.

On the face of it, sites such as obamashould may be the answer here, but I don’t think reducing policies to 140 character tweets is going to solve the problem. The issue is a tricky one. I’m not suggesting that social media and politics don’t fit. I think the complete opposite but I think we are only at the very tip of the iceberg. The concept of Obamashould is right, but there needs to be more education into how it can actually affect change.  When it comes to politics and social media I think there’s lots of lessons to be learned and I’m looking forward to seeing how the two grow together and move closer to a representative democracy.

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