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Tech News World has an article today about the role of the Internet in the energy debate. They interviewed our very own Erin Teeling about whether politicians were using the Internet to discuss energy issues with their consituents. The short answer is that they are not – most political sites are focused on disseminating information to constituents in a top down fashion, not engaging in conversations. Here's one of Erin's quotes from the article:

"In some cases, the blogs are so bad that candidates might be better off not using a blog at all," she observed. "It is evident from our research that politicians are just not ready to give up control. Opening blogs to [reader] comments and attempting to address real issues on their Web sites, such as energy and ANWR, leaves candidates open for criticism. Campaign Web sites are supposed to be a central location where supporters can go to take action on behalf of their favorite candidate, so campaigns do not want to run the risk of negative material appearing on their sites," Teeling concluded.

You can read the article here.