Order in the court! (Week 9)

For my final paper I was planning to focus on vote-exchange by using social media, it is very interesting, people who live in different countries of Europe created this social network where they exchange their votes. Apparently same thing applies to Canada and US too. This way people get to preserve their right to vote for their homeland and territory, according to their political preference. 
My lovely (!) embassy (Turkish embassy) directs me to a website which always says "server is too busy" is it their fault to fail using social technologies or does it all come from the top? 
From my personal point of view, I don't see governments integrating with social media technologies, they are more mechanic and egocentric organizations which are conflicting with the values of social technologies. 
In terms of democracy, we have seen the Egyptian riot and how people used twitter to create conversation in an oppressed system. Information is more transparent, people are more aware of things going around, just like Chinese earthquake and people finding about the irregularities in constructions, forcing government members to resign from their posts. Yes, as much as when in Chine if you type Tienanmen square in Google you get flower picture however, it is a better functioning model in most of the world.
Just like our guest speaker mentioned us in the lecture (I can't remember her name, but she was lively) for governments, it is important to be able to talk to people, supporters and opposer. So In terms of creating an environment for discussion, they should create forums. With good moderation, I am sure people would love to contribute, just like Obama example, when he refused to vote yes for a bill and people started protesting him on his website. He didn't step back, but he acknowledged the voice coming from the people and responded to them, which is I believe the best for of leveraging web 2/0 technologies to meet needs of people.




Related Question: Are social technologies creating a shift towards a better functioning model of democratic involvement? Or is this just an illusion? According to the articles, how can governments best leverage web 2.0 technologies to meet the needs of their communities?