Lib Dems Huddle to improve collaboration and communication

The Liberal Democrats are using a Web 2.0 platform to enable greater levels of collaboration and communication between grassroots supporters and party central office.

Over 1,500 local party campaigners have now been connected through the Huddle platform, allowing them to securely share material from Liberal Democrats headquarters, including training documents and artwork. Implemented in the run up to the General Election in May, the platform also stored press articles to ensure everyone had access to the media’s response to the campaign.

“It was becoming increasingly apparent that the party needed to replace its ailing extranet with technology that could be tailored for different teams,” said Sam Lockwood, web & e-communications technology manager, Liberal Democrats.

“While Huddle was initially deployed for file sharing, we quickly realised that it has multiple other functions and groups across the party are now using it to manage projects, organise conferences and have discussions. Our Federal Conference Committee, which is responsible for running our two annual conferences, uses Huddle to manage and organise these events with external support staff. Huddle’s flexibility has enabled the party to realise the benefits of Cloud Computing and increase efficiencies. ”

The Liberal Democrats’ Policy Response Unit has set up an online workspace from which parliamentary candidates can access and search for required policy information. A workspace has also been established to meet the specific needs of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, so that members have access to Scottish policy briefings and responses.

“This year, we’ve already seen a big increase in government departments and organisations deploying Web 2.0 internally to boost communication and increase efficiency,” said Alastair Mitchell, co-founder and CEO, Huddle. “The Liberal Democrats have placed Web 2.0 at the heart of party communications and we expect more organisations to follow suit and deploy tools that help them to work better together and save money.”

According to its figures, Huddle currently has 60% government penetration with customers across the UK central government, including the Home Office, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. News of the platform’s use by the Liberal Democrats comes just weeks after it emerged the Belgian Federal Public Service (FPS) Social Security had used Huddle in the run up to the country taking the EU Presidency at the start of the month.