Submitted by Mike Grenville on Wed, 19 Nov 2003 23:41

As part of project called ‘Headsup’, the Parliamentary Labour Party in New Zealand is trialing an SMS-based service to interact with young people. Run The Red is providing the SMS service.

On the website built by Wellington firm Mission Hall Creative to communicate ‘what Labour has done for them,’ visitors can subscribe to a mailing list and receive text notifications of coming events and features.

People can also take part in free real time chat sessions with Labour Ministers by texting questions they’d like answered.

Justin Boersma said the ‘Headsup’ project was the company’s first work for a political party and he was impressed with Labour’s vision in trialling SMS technology.

“Young people are a hard to reach audience for political parties and anything that encourages greater participation in the political process must be a benefit.”

“The Government has placed a high importance on harnessing and fostering innovation and the use of technology and this is a tangible demonstration of that commitment to the knowledge economy.”

www.headsup.co.nz

www.runthered.com