The Labour Party home page is up . From there, anyone with access to a Web client will be able to read the final text of all the motions at Conference, including the results of the "compositing" process.

This takes place during the weekend before Conference: votes are traded as batches of motions are munged into texts to be voted on. (On-line smoke-filled corridor simulations are not, apparently, planned.) Since the resulting conference papers can easily weigh as much as a small lap-top, and be more intricately cross-referenced than a unix manual, this service may be of use to those physically present in Blackpool as well.

The prepared texts of speeches will be available, and summaries of decisions will be posted at the end of each morning and afternoon session. Policy briefings and press releases will also be "published" to the Web and distributed directly to selected news organisations. The complete list of fringe meetings is available now.

Party computer manager Roger Hough says that on-line feedback will be dealt with during Conference and passed to the appropriate people by email.

Andrew Miller, MP for Ellesmere Port & Neston and President of the Computing for Labour group, says that the point of the experiment is that "Any political party which ignores [the Internet] needs its head seeing to... It's another form of communication which we cannot ignore... it's all about opening [Conference] up to the outside world in one more way."

The Web server is experimental, and the Internet is not quite the most dependable entity known. As a back-up, anyone with an account on a GeoNet system will also be able to read the information in the "bulletin board" GEO2:LP-CONFERENCE. Others who have difficulty accessing the information should send email: they will be added to a mailing list for direct distribution of the texts.

Puzzled responses may be expected as those who are familiar with the argot of email and Usenet newsgroups meet the very special form of English used at Party Conferences, and vice versa. But, as Andrew Miller says, "that's something that all people who believe in open access are going to have to deal with."

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Written:
25 September 1994

An edited and doubtless thus improved version of this article appeared in the Guardian OnLine section.

This version is © copyright 1994-96 Mike Holderness; moral rights are asserted.