David Maddox: Don't tell the candidate

Interesting update from campaign trail on East Dunbartonshire Lib Dem MP Jo Swinson's facebook. Nick Clegg was in Glasgow today to support the European election campaign and a Bishopbriggs council by-election where he met his MP (pictured) and the party's Scottish leader Tavish Scott among others.

Updating from her Twitter at 12.15pm Ms Swinson wrote: "welcoming Nick Clegg to Scotland today for European election campaigning."

But then an hour and 16 minutes later at 1.31pm the Lib Dem council by-election candidate Alistair McPhee posted this somewhat surprised message: "Where are you going campaigning?"

It seems that they did not think it was worth telling their candidate to be present.

Kenny Farquharson: Obama online

One of the crucial factors in Barack Obama's US presidential election victory - apart from his charisma, his intellect, his integrity and his opponent - was his campaign's use of the internet.

It was the way he raised his cash - tens of thousands of small donations, solicited online, gave him the edge on McCain's big cheques from big business. But the real revolution was in the way the internet was used to foster a direct relationship between candidate and voter.

I joined up to his Facebook group and received regular emails from him. Okay, I know they were written by an aide and sent out in their millions, but it never failed to give me a small shiver when an email from "Barack Obama" appeared in my in-box, and the message started with "Hi Kenny..."

The remarkable thing is that now, seven weeks after the election, the emails keep on coming. And their content gives an insight into how how the lessons learned about the internet during the campaign are likely to be carried through into the Obama administration.

One email landed last night, urging supporters to hold house meetings to discuss what the administration's policy priorities should be. There was even a link to a video of one such meeting to help set the tone.

http://my.barackobama.com/meetingvideo

House meetings were one of the most effective tools of the Obama campaign - a good example of the revolution we're seeing in participatory politics in the US.

I wonder which of the UK parties will learn these lessons most effectively. David Cameron was the first party leader to start a blog, and last year the Scottish Labour leadership candidates all had a presence on social networking websites.

But we've yet to see anyone really use the net to bring politics into hearts and homes in the same way as Obama showed was possible.

Will it be the big political battleground of 2009, potentially a general election year?