Votepods - An epilogue

So the election is over, the horse-trading has begun and the Votepods team are piecing together the evidence we collected about public participation through our Ten Big Lottery and BT sponsored debates.

• Did music make a difference by attracting non-anoraks and relaxing the meeting so exchange was more full and frank ?
• Did we attract people who'd never been to political hustings events before?
• Did postings audio on itunes and video highlights on YouTube extend proceedings to an online audience?
• Did we fill halls or attract a minimum of 200 people every time ?
• Were audiences generated by voluntary agencies and pressure groups representative of the general public? 
• How well did politicians perform?

We hope to have an analysis online next week. But if you attended a votepod debate and want to give some feedback which doesn't have to be complimentary but should try to be constructive! please email us here.

Meantime, many thanks to the ten event organisers who marched out of their comfort zones to hire big venues, dispelling their own fears about public apathy and thinking big to place their issues at the heart of the Holyrood election campaign. Thanks to the video students at Napier and Abertay who stood filming for hours through each debate and then sat up into the wee small hours -- voluntarily -- to excise the juiciest moments from masses of video and put the highlights online. Thanks to the musicians who helped us professionalise every event with brilliantly chosen songs and tracks and in the case of the Big Student Debate and our sole comedienne Janey Godley, pinpoint accurate jibes.

Thanks to politicians who travelled sometimes for miles and hours beyond their constituency boundaries and therefore well beyond the limits of their own self interest. Thanks to our media partners the Herald, our main sponsors the Big Lottery and BT, to the Joseph Rowntree Trust who funded our use of electronic votepads, the Chartered Institute of Housing who funded the Big Neighbourhood Debate in Leith and the Federation of Small Businesses who sponsored the Big Islands Debate on Skye.

And finally, thanks to Chris Smith, Neil Fraser and Jim Piggott who formed the core of the Votepods team together with myself. We've been planning, travelling, up-loading, posting, blogging and talking for the best part of four months to find out one thing.

Is the public is fed up with politics or just with un-entertaining events? Did we succeed? I'm sure you'll let us know.

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