Interview with Phil Rogers, technology blogger.

As described by the depositor:

Phil said he has resigned from the LD Party over its policy on tuition fees in 2010. He said: “I have a blog about Cambridge politics and it has some data visualisation, I am a former political activist interested in political issues and a Software developer.

“It is 12.45, at the verification stage with the ballot boxes still but from the Gallery in the Guildhall you can see if people are cheerful or not cheerful. It is going to be evident from up here in the gallery – those empty racks that stack up later - what the result is from the numbers of pieces of paper, but we are not able to communicate that until it has been prepared and announced officially. Social media is a useful adjunct to a campaign but the election campaigns are fought on the doorstep and with pieces of paper and I don’t see that changing.

“I tend to delve into the data to see what the data is telling us and what we can find out from it. I am active on Twitter there is quite a Twitter community around Cambridge politics, the “Guildhall Groupies”, as we are called. Mainstream media do a great job in Cambridge but I am really writing for not such a broad audience but for those who are engaged in what the issues are and want to look at them in a bit more detail, such as other political activists. I do try and keep people amused as well as informed. “