Sunny Hundal, editor of Liberal Conspiracy and a Labour Party member blogged earlier today that the Labour Party site was rubbish and should be shut down.
I have a different perspective:
The Labour Parrty website should inspire people to join, and remain full voting members. To this end I commend the Labour Democratic Network, and the Labour Transparency Project.
But be warned, this is not the time to throw the proverbial socialist baby out with the nerdy bathwater. I spoke to a staffer who shall remain nameless at Conference who introduced me to a facility to enable CLP secretaries to eMail their members using a facility somewhere on the Labour Party website.
I’m just about to check it out and will report back later. Lurking in the Labour Party online offering are datasets of immense value to an entirely different web presence. One that Labour e-literates will get in a flash.
I'm sympathetic, but when I asked Sunny during Conference which CLP he was a member of he couldn't tell me. As a constituency labour party (CLP) and branch (BLP) secretary, I have a different take.
This is the time to gather round and identify the datasets and the online tools that are of real value to members. To this end the Labour Democratic Network is happy to act as a broker. Just sign up and we'll keep you in the loop.
UPDATE 6 Oct 2011 0930: Sunny has asked me to assure you that he now knows which CLP he is assigned to