Adopting @PeterDunneMP - A Developing TwitStory | 500 Words

Thursday, 1 August 2013, 1:02 pm
Column: Alastair Thompson

Today NZ News seems to be breaking bad (mostly on Twitter) so I will be writing today's column whilst mobile using the new medium of Storify. It will all be very internet.

INTRODUCTION

This morning the Dominion Post ( @dompost ) has three thunderous columns from heavy hitters Rosemary McLeod and Vernon Small, plus at last some words from the person at the heart of this story Andrew Vance ( @avancenz ) .

In yesterday's thoughts on this subject I concluded calling this cause celebre The Peter Dunne and Andrea Vance Affair (note the capitalisation of Affair - as in The Calculus Affair ).

I think this is a title which deserves consideration for re-use as this story develops, mainly for the sake of irony. It is a title which reflects that this is, at its core, a story about an intrusion of the State into the personal affairs of two good people in a wholly inappropriate fashion.

That it is also a matter of considerable constitutional import makes today a big day in NZ news. I have long thought that when you provide a human dimension to a story you help to make things understandable.

And so for all these reasons I have adopted Peter Dunne.

In very many ways Peter Dunne is very reminiscent of the good Professor Calculus. He certainly has similar issues with his hair.

And as Peter Dunne is a political I think the http://www.adoptanmp.co.nz/ project may appeal to his better side.

To clarify:

I have adopted Peter via a new service which is accessible to all at http://www.adoptanmp.co.nz/.

The developing TwitStory on this page (come back and hit refresh) will enable you to keep track with how that is working. So far no acknowledgement of my intentions - but hey, its early days.

INTRODUCING THE #NETHUI GCSB SESSION VIDEOS

(As you can see below) I have begun my adoption by asking Peter to watch some videos which you can access at this link to a Youtube playlist (or view below as embeds)

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5IpEpq-r4nwpWtPTtc-dHV9o4LSlDDsr

They are videos that I had the great pleasure of helping Internet NZ ( @internetnz ) make following the recent Nethui 2013 ( #nethui). This was a gathering of the NZ Internet community held on 8-10 July 2013 ( www.nethui.org.nz ) to discuss internet governance and other matters .

Scoop was an immensely proud sponsor of the event, alongside the likes of Google, Trademe and Catalyst IT.

The video was shot for r2.co.nz by a good friend Jeremy Naylor ( @jnaylor ) and edited by Richard Cooper. Leading the project was InternetNZ Policy Lead Susan Chalmers (<@susan_chalmers ).

So let's see how this goes.

If you are receiving this via email you may need to come to http://scoop.co.nz to view the TwitStory in situ as it evolves ( HINT: The link is also at the bottom of the email. You can subscribe to receive 500 Words by email at http://newsagent.co.nz )

If viewing online scroll down.

THE FULL VERSION (14 minutes)

DIGESTABLE EXTRACTS FOR EASY SHARING, EMBEDDING AND REFERRING TO YOUR ADOPTED MP

- Alastair Thompson | 500 Words | Thursday, 01 August 2013

© Scoop Media

Alastair Thompson

Scoop Publisher

Alastair Thompson is the co-founder of Scoop. He is of Scottish and Irish extraction and from Wellington, New Zealand. Alastair has 24 years experience in the media, at the Dominion, National Business Review, North & South magazine, Straight Furrow newspaper and online since 1997. He is the winner of several journalism awards for business and investigative work.

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