I was forwarded an interesting e-mail today. It was an invitation to a “virtual press conference” with officials of the Institute for Solidarity in Asia. The press conference will tackle the scheduled unveiling later this month of The Philippines 2030 Roadmap and the Public Governance System. The press conference will be held at the “Presscon Room” of Yehey.com.
Using teleconferencing facilities for press conferences is nothing new. Many government officials do it when they are out of the country. Corporate officials do it. But many of these teleconferencing setups are controlled, reporters are still gathered in a room and the organizers typically use a high-capacity line to make sure the teleconference goes smoothly.
The coming virtual press conference, however, will be decentralized. I don’t know how Yehey! will be doing it as the room is still being set up. I don’t know if they’ll be doing it “chat” style or via a message board. This is a great idea. It allows us in the “provincial media” to attend press conferences, albeit virtual, that would otherwise had been limited to Manila reporters. And why limit it to reporters in the first place? If I were ISA, I’d invite bloggers who discuss governance issues in their sites.