De stem van
www.destemvan.nl
Destemvan.nl was initiated by a few (former) journalists.
They were ascertain that in the coming years the digital presence of politicians would increase enormously – via their own weblogs and websites, and via websites of a
third party – and that these sources of information, communication and
discussion were hardly covered structurally. That’s why they started the weblog www.destemvan.nl by the end of 2003. They followed about 400 (Dutch) political sites, of which
300 by Dutch politicians. They wanted to give politics a face. The politician’s
vision and deeds received a platform and the voter could engage in a debate with
him or her. With the help of Digital Pioneers an extensive managing module has
been introduced with new functions.
Final products
www.destemvan.nl is no longer online. It was expanded with a response possibility, a discussion forum, an interview/chat
tool, and a political directory. For this project Mambo open source was chosen. For MOS a great amount of modules are available with several functions. Mambo
has an extremely user-friendly CMS; new modules can be added rather simply and
cheaply. With the interview/chat tool one-on-one interviews as well as group
interviews/chats can be held in audio and flat text.
Impact
The project has led to research about weblogs among
politicians. This was done among the association of members of City Councils.
Out of the results one hopes to deduce a manual for politicians who are about to
start a weblog. From this an income may emerge that can contribute to the
continued and independent existence of the site.
This project was executed between May 2004 and March
2005.
Contact
Destemvan, Deventer
G.J. Meijboom
www.destemvan.nl
