Scottish Parliament debates their petitioning system

While I was away (on the 23rd), the debate on June’s report on the Scottish Parliament’s petitioning system took place:

• Petitioning the Scottish Parliament: What happens now?
  A blog entry on the Scottish Parliament’s debate on the (e-)petitioning system (34 minutes in on the video link). It mentions that several ideas are being taken forward internally eg revamp of the e-petition site, and (interesting? worryingly?) providing a facility to allow for the texting of support to petitions, improving publicity material (leaflets etc)
  (tags: scotland participation parliament report 2009 europetition)

In the debate, there is also some consideration of the possibility of Scottish local authorities having their own petitioning systems to addressing local issues (no mention of legal requirements as in England tho). Use of social networking technologies within a strategy, and crosslinking with YoungScot, youth parliament etc is also considered.

Good to see politicians taking a lead and being willing to try out new technologies – but is texting really a good approach to supporting informed engagement? Will it lead to inflated expectations and uninformed participants?

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