If you’ve ever watched a Canadian political forum, it goes pretty much like this:  The moderator asks a question, and the candidates, in rotation, answer.  One by one, they either tack onto an opponent’s answer, or refer to another one to explain how theirs is different, but there is no real rebuttal process or the point-counterpoint dynamic that exists in a real debate.  Hell, even those friendly arguments at the bar about Mac vs. PC look more like a formal debate than these.

However, it is difficult to hold a real debate because, well, could you imagine the point-counterpoint complexities of a dozen candidates?  I guess you could hold debates of 2 individuals and ensure every candidate faces every other candidate… but then you would have 66 individual debates.

So how do you really get a chance to put all the candidates in one spot, let them argue with each other but also have a moderator who asks specific questions to each of them as well?  And how do you allow the audience to chime in with follow ups to individual candidates?

Enter the debate style of the social media world: The CalgaryPolitics.com Twibate series.

Alberta has one of the most active political twitter communities in North America.  Most Calgary aldermanic and mayoral candidates are on some form of social media, and many are using it to talk directly to potential voters.  The number of tweets with the #yycvote hashtag is over 120 per day, on average (Source: All Tweets with #yycvote between July 24, 2010 and August 1, 2010)

So what is a Twibate?

Loosely defined, it’s organized chaos.  The plan is to have a set of candidates all on Twitter at once, and at regular intervals, the moderator (@CalgaryPolitics) will ask pre-set questions developed by The Best Political Team in the Blogosphere™.

Candidates will answer the questions by the moderator, but will also be able to reply to each other, reply to follow-up questions asked by tweeps, and carry on lengthy discussions about policy in a public forum.

The magic of the Twibates is that everyone can participate (even the candidates who are not part of that night’s debate can chime in.  Everyone can ask questions.  Everyone can debate.  We’re hoping a lot of mini debates happen and that it leads to a lot of conversation through the electoral period.

You can, of course, only follow the candidates you want to, or follow the whole Twibate hashtag (yes, we’re giving it its own hashtag, just so it will be easy for anyone following the Twibate to follow)

Let’s be clear – this is going to be absolutely nuts.  There will be threads going every which way and lots of questions/answers. Candidates, you may be answering followups for the following weeks, depending on how these threads go.  But the point of this is to spark debate and discussion on Twitter, leading up to the Calgary civic elections.

Candidates are encouraged to have written notes prepared online and be ready to link to them.  While twitter only allows for sound bites, we want this to be an opportunity for you to showcase your plans, as
well.  Feel free to link them, and highlight certain points using twitter.

I think this is a great opportunity to showcase candidates, play to direct democracy, and show the rest of the political world what truly is possible now in the world of social media.

CalgaryPolitics.com will, in the near future, publish the details of the Twibate Series – specifically, when each set of candidates will debate, when the Twibates will happen, and how you can follow and participate.

Welcome to the future of politics.