Youth Text 2004

Youth Text 2004 is a political tool developed by The Dominion Institute and the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA) that began on April 19, 2004. It provides people the ability to engage in politics through their mobile phones via short code numbers for 4 (Conservative, Green, Liberal, and the New Democrats) of the 9 registered political parties in Canada.

Through this initiative, Canadians can interact with the parties and express their views on important political issues. Send a text message to the political movers and shakers of Canada and tell them what you think!

The beauty of a text message campaign is the fact that it is a medium in which responses can be instantaneous. If users, such as blogger Gene Smith don’t get a response right away, the whole premise losses its appeal and most likely discourages youth participation instead of attracting it. There is simply no reason for the Conservatives and the Liberals not to respond as agreed within the 48 hour allotted time period.

To get the 4 main Canadian political parties truly involved, Nokia teamed up with the major party leaders a designated a day, when Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper, Green Party leader Jim Harris, NDP leader Jack Layton and Liberal Party leader Paul Martin personally answered text messages. This does fix the instantaneous problem Gene faced, but only for one day.

I think it would have been better if each party set up a bot to answer text messages by searching within each question for keywords. It would be easier, quicker, and better for the users.