A reminder of how little most people know about online campaigning

My first thoughts about today’s BBC report of the Google-sponsored fringe meeting at Conservative Party conference weren’t wholly complimentary. “Google sponsored meeting says route to electoral success is to give money to Google; gosh, shock!”

But on reflection the real lesson of the story is the reminder of how little most people know. (A common point when it comes to political knowledge, of course.)

I suspect most readers of this blog will find the ideas in that BBC story all very familiar, and there is nothing in there that they haven’t known for years. But – crucially – the fact that the BBC website (which has a good record on reporting technology issues) thinks this is newsworthy is really just a healthy reminder about how little so many people know about online campaigning compared to those who have been doing it for years.

Which, all in all, is rather good news for those of us touting our expertise to others…