Unfortunately, she was plagued by ill-health in recent years and died yesterday after a long illness.

Fellow LDO exec member, Jon Ball, has written this memory of Becky

I first met Becky online in the late 1990’s on CIX, which in those pre-FaceBook, pre-Lib Dem Voice days was where Lib Dems congregated in cyberspace. Becky was one of the team of volunteer moderators and used a mixture of her charm and toughness to carry out the difficult task of keeping the discussions civilised when controversial issues of the day such as Paddy Ashdown’s Joint Statement were discussed.

Becky always enjoyed conferences and was already organising Devon & Cornwall regional conferences. She was elected onto the Federal Conference Committee, but shortly afterwards stepped down from that elected role to fill a vacancy in the conference office in Cowley Street, where she became a colourful and popular member of Party Staff. With her slim 5′11″ figure always on the move, and her long blonde hair trailing behind her, Becky was an unmistakable figure around the exhibition and bars of Conference, always holding court with a story or a bizarre idea to make people join in with her infectious laughter.

Around this time, a small group of Lib Dems on CIX started thinking about how the online world could be used for campaigning rather than purely for internal communications, and set up Lib Dems Online to drive this forward. Despite only having started to use computers recently, Becky had the zeal of a recent convert and could see the importance of the online world before most. As VIce-Chair of LDO, Becky was the very able right-hand woman to Chair Martin Tod and then subsequently went on to take the helm herself. She did much to convince the party hierarchy of the importance of e-campaigning.

Becky also served on the Federal Finance and Administration Committee. Many initially underestimated Becky in that role, thinking of her as a dizzy blonde, but she soon proved them wrong. Despite having no financial background, she soon trained herself to delve through the Party’s accounts and find where the bodies were buried!

Becky was a mass of contradictions - practical enough to hammer together a display stand and wire the lights in but in her element in a posh frock with a glass of champagne in her hand. And whatever she was doing, whatever she was wearing - especially her Star Trek uniform - she was always happy, positive and a force for good.

While working at Cowley Street, later in Parliament for Richard Younger-Ross and while subsequently organising commercial conferences for a high-powered corporate events company in the City, Becky travelled thousands of miles commuting weekly from Cornwall and later Devon by car, train (on which she invariably travelled first class despite her standard class ticket by schmoozing the guard) or occasionally by air via Jersey picking up some duty free gin! This was so she could spend every weekend with the four children she loved so much.

Becky was an action woman, learning to ride a motorbike and to scuba dive. There seemed to be nothing she couldn’t do. Becky always gave herself 110% to everything she did, whether it was supporting Plymouth Argyll, Paganism or figuring out her new iPad.

In 2002, Becky stood for Ealing Council and threw herself into local campaigning. She nearly got elected but fell just 35 votes short. That was to be her only attempt at public office as poor health prevented her from trying again.

Sadly, her final trips to London were for regular treatment at the Royal Brompton Hospital for the brittle asthma which was the principle one of a series of severe medical problems that tragically plagued her over much of her last decade. Despite having to use an electric wheelchair - which she characteristically christened ‘Old Sparky’ - Becky continued to fight against almost impossible odds to try to attend Conference, turning her old organisational skills to marshalling the huge quantities of oxygen cylinders and mobility equipment she needed.

Friends I’ve broken the news to have all come up with different but equally bizarre memories of Becky, involving tribbles, Teletubbies and garden gnomes. The common factor is that when Becky was around, something quirky would happen and life would be more fun for everyone. She will be sorely missed.

Lib Dems Online was set up in mid-1999 following previous activity on CIX and an article in Lib Dem News (that still stands up pretty well).

We set it up for two reasons:

• To promote the use of the Internet, information systems and communications technology by Liberal Democrats at all levels, both for internal party organisation and for external campaigning, in pursuance of the aims and objectives of the Liberal Democrats,

• To initiate and recommend Liberal Democrat policies about the Internet, online civil liberties and democracy, e-commerce and the Information Society

And for several years, it made a real difference - creating a range of training materials (including the LDO Checklist) - running highly successful fringe meetings - providing the Conference Internet Cafe - funding new party campaign infrastructure - and leading the way in putting forward policy on issues like the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act.

Over time, much of what it did became mainstream. Cowley Street started producing online campaign guides and driving the innovation programme. We had a robust set of online policies in place following the 2003 policy motion.

And LDO faded quietly away.

Times have changed

But times have changed.

Our policy became seriously out of date - to the degree that a group of angry members got together and successfully forced the creation of a new policy working group.

And our online innovation has also ground to an almost total standstill. After punching above our weight in the 2001 General Elections, we were behind the other parties in 2010.

There are some things we don’t need to do:

• Lib Dem Voice has become an effective centre of Lib Dem discussion and debate
• Make IT Policy has been set up to support the party’s work on policy

But on e-campaigning, we’re off the pace and falling further and further behind. More and more people - whether former LDO officers - or newer e-campaigners - are dissatisfied with the status quo, but rather than complaining about it, there’s also a clear desire to get back together and do something about it.

As with ‘last time’, we want to be inclusive. All Lib Dem members are welcome to join - whether they’re planning to learn, write code, come up with good campaigning ideas, or whatever they may choose to do! Our goal is to get more people campaigning, not to become an exclusive clique.

Are you interested? If so, and you’d like to be kept up to date with our plans, please email ldonews-subscribe@lists.libdems.org.uk and you’ll be joined to the LDO News list.

The lives of congressional members are already mapped out in minute detail. One of Senator Jon Tester’s (D-MT) first acts on arriving in Washington was to publish his schedule online. It’s not a great leap from publishing written daily schedules to publishing daily schedules on maps. The advent of Google My Maps makes this easier than ever for congressional staff.

Some congressional members would no doubt be squeamish about revealing so much publicly, but many others would welcome the opportunity. It is possible to imagine a group such as the Open House Project taking up this cause and publishing the map on their website. Those congressional members who initially refuse to take part will ultimately be forced to in order to remove the air of suspicion hanging over them.

Could this be the best method of restoring accountability in Washington?

Mapping devices such as Google Maps, Mapquest and Yahoo Maps have been wildly successful because they provide visual context. Sen. Nelson’s Iraq CODEL map is a terrific example of this. Showing constituents where he has been and what he has done is far more powerful than merely telling them.

Crucially, Sen. Nelson’s Iraq CODEL map also provides accountability, a particular concern in the post-Abramoff era. In the wake of super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff’s conviction there was a lot of criticism of the many trips taken by congressional members, particularly those funded by lobbyists. A majority of the public perceive these trips as frivolous, but many congressional members argue strongly in favor of them because they see them as important educational opportunities who find it tough to escape the beltway bubble.

There is some truth to this, but with public trust in politicians at an all time low they are reluctant to accept this argument. Sen. Nelson’s Iraq CODEL map provides a way of justifying such trips whether they be at the expense of the taxpayer or lobbyists. By detailing his trip so extensively constituents can be confident Sen. Nelson’s trip was worthwhile.

Kudos to Sen. Nelson and his staff for recognizing this and taking this important step towards open government.

Abi Tatton profiled the map on CNN’s The Situation Room.

Funny viral videos featuring American politicians are nothing new. However, they have mostly lampooned politicians and not one has been created by a politician themselves. Consciously creating humorous viral video is very hard. Could Democrat presidential candidate Bill Richardson be the first? 88,456 views, 260 comments, 15 honors on YouTube later and still going strong…

Whatever next?

Many thanks to Simon Hanson and Jon Ball at the Harrogate end for wiring it all together.

And a big thank you to the clever people at Skype and Festoon for writing the software that made it all work!

At next Saturday’s fringe meeting, it will have one (or possibly two) speakers joining via video.

We’re intending to use Skype for the connection - a bit like the Skypecast that Ming Campbell did for the Taking Power policy consultation.

The theme is ‘Lessons from the US mid-terms’ and the confirmed speakers are Mark Pack - the party’s Head of Innovation, and Martin Tod, PPC for Winchester and one of the founders of Flock Together.

Details of time and place can be found on Flock Together.

Not another spoof video lampooning Conservative leader David Cameron, but much more seriously, a Labour MP has raised concerns about violent content after an assault which took place in his Hartlepool constituency was found online.

Another challenge to YouTube has come from Japan, where media companies complained over music and video clips that were being distributed over YouTube without permission.

To avoid a string of costly court cases, it may be necessary for Google and Youtube to screen videos before allowing them to be published, which would add costs and delay to the emerging business.

BBC reports

Google Buyout: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6034577.stm

Illegal clips cut http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6069692.stm