Already thought by some of our colleagues to pass our working hours in ways that are not quite serious (the internet being perceived in some quarters quite possibly as a passing fad, and in any case as at best rather frivolous and juvenile), we have just started a new line of work which will give them another stick to beat us with. Yes, we now – officially – spend our time chatting online.

Oleg Orlov chats on Facebook with Parliament's fans

It’s all about taking the social media a step further, using Facebook to put members of the public directly in touch with parliamentarians – to talk the kind of politics that are off limits to us. The formula we have used so far is the Facebook “live chat”. This is extremely unsophisticated: it just relies on the “comment” function of Facebook, with Parliament’s fans using them to ask questions and our guest star (who must therefore have a Facebook profile and be a fan of our page) using the same function to answer.  We open the chat at the appointed time with a status update, and close it after the allotted duration - or when the guest star as finally had enough.

So far, so good. We have had three such chats. The first, our pilot, was with Parliament’s youngest MEP, 25-year-old, Emilie Turunen, a Facebook native, who handled over 100 incoming comments and questions in the space of 30 minutes (still the record). She typed her own answers directly in English, so she was quick, but even so couldn’t respond to more than a relatively small number of questions.  The fans who participated seemed to love it, and certainly encouraged us to do more.

Next up was a parliamentary rapporteur, French MEP Catherine Trautmann, who is in charge of the Telecoms Package for the Parliament. This time, we therefore stuck to a single subject, one we thought (rightly) would interest an online audience, protection of freedom on the internet. Once more, we were happy with the outcome. We gave it a bit longer because there was a bit of translation to do in and out of French to be done as the chat progressed. One or two off-topic comments came in, but on the whole, the chat stayed focused.

Getting to know a Sakharov winner a little better really brings home the very real courage and commitment it takes to do what such people do

Our third and latest chat was a little different. This time our guest was not an MEP, but Oleg Orlov, representing this year’s Sakharov Prize winner, the Russian “Memorial” organisation, which is dedicated to maintaining the memory of the crimes of the Stalinist era and to fighting for freedom of the press and information in today’s Russia. This one we did with our guest still in Moscow. As luck and the wonderful multi-national nature of our team had it, we can handle translation in and out of Russian (for this purpose at least) and therefore set up a system whereby Mr Orlov could respond in English during the chat to incoming questions also in English. We scheduled 40 minutes for this one, but in the end added another ten. Some would still have liked more, but this is a high-stress activity and it is hard to go on too long. Besides, as they say, always leave ‘em wanting more, right?

I really liked the Orlov chat. He gave straight answers, answers which didn’t shy away from telling it like it is. Once again, getting to somehow “know” a Sakharov winner a little better really brings home the very real courage and commitment it takes to do what such people do.

It involves a fair bit of coordination, a minimum of technical support, potentially a considerable amount of on-the-hoof translation and a goodly dose of adrenaline

(Soon we hope to have a post on this blog describing the trip by our editor to Moscow and telling the fascinating story of an intense and productive day there.)

Anyway, back to the subject. We obviously hope to pursue this new line of professional chatting. The technique may evolve, but the principle is one which our users seem to like. It involves a fair bit of coordination, a minimum of technical support, potentially a considerable amount of on-the-hoof translation and a goodly dose of adrenaline. We think it is worth it and that it is one of the  directions we need to go with social media. Any comments anyone has on this would be more than welcome.