Bummer. I was suffering from conference overload and zoned out long enough to miss the bulk of the international panel which was one of the things I was most interested in. Right now Jeremy Heimans, one of the people who ran SÈgolËne Royal’s campaign is answering a question from a guy who was on Sarkozy’s campaign. The French are way ahead of the US in innovative political videos, and French political videos have far higher viewer numbers (proportionally) than equivalent videos in the US. Have a look at SÈgolËne’s website, he recommends, and look at how she presents the videos. Political television advertising is banned, so there’s more hunger for video content online.

A question from the audience – so far the most innovative candidates in online, participatory sense haven’t won (not Howard Dean, not SÈgolËne Royal). Molly Webb: the goal of politics isn’t simply for the candidate to win but to increase participation in politics. Jeremy Heimans: We’re still building this, we’re just starting to create the infrastructure. Online petitions may not matter on an individual level, but it’s about engaging people.

Jeremy Heimans: If modern political parties were better able to satisfy people’s hunger to be involved in politics, we wouldn’t need organisations like getup.com.au.