Scottish Parliament debates its (e-)petitioning system

23 September, a debate on June's report on the Scottish Parliament's (e-)petitioning system took place. Several ideas are being taken forward internally, including a revamp of the e-petition site, and (interesting? worryingly?) providing a facility to allow for the texting of support to petitions, and a better approach to publicising the process.

In the debate, there is also some consideration of the possibility of Scottish local authorities having their own petitioning systems to addressing local issues, though with no mention of legal requirements that is being intriduced in England. Use of social networking technologies, and crosslinking with other relevant sites such as Young Scot, youth parliament etc are also considered.

It's good to see politicians taking a lead and being willing to try out new technologies - but is texting/SMS really a good approach to supporting informed engagement? Will it lead to inflated expectations and uninformed participation?

More information can be found at the Parliament's blog entry here

- it includes links to transcripts and a video (starting 34 minutes in) of the debate.