Always one step ahead of his political counterparts, Greens
senator Bob Brown has joined social networking site Bebo, setting up an account
under the name ‘Greenblooded'. "While other politicians go for the glitz and
glamour of MySpace or the slick, corporate look of Facebook," he said in the
‘Me, My Life And I' section of his profile, "I chose an environmentally
conscious alternative."
Although Senator Brown's primary reason for setting up the
Bebo account is to connect with the voters of Australia,
he has also used the opportunity to make contact with some of his heroes. "I
have a friend request pending with Al Gore," he said. "I really want to
tell him how much I enjoyed An Inconvenient Truth."
Visitors to Brown's profile can not only read up on the
senator's current policy initatives and political beliefs, but also learn that
his favourite band is Rush and he likes cowboy movies, as well as see ingthe extent to
which he is looking forward to reading the next Harry Potter book.
"It's great to see international leaders using our site as a
platform to speak to the public," said Bebo founder Michael Birch. "It's
exactly the kind of thing I had in mind when I came up with the Widget
application."
Brown is quick to sing the praises of the website: "I've
always been a fan of direct democracy, and Bebo offers instant feedback from
the public on my humanitarian legislation ideas and amateur photography.
Besides which, it doesn't kill as many trees as how-to-vote cards and ballot
papers do. My only complaint with the site is that my first account name
choice, ‘Green4Life', was already taken."
According to his profile's ‘What are you doing?' status,
Brown has been "working on a three-year plan to ban coal imports and listening
to 2112".
