Gov 2.0 is thriving during Australia's federal election

Commentators have said that major political parties have "failed to harness the full potential of social media in the 2010 Election" or broken the "cardinal rule of social media" due to only engaging in one way (outbound) communication.

This is despite recent global examples of the effectiveness of online engagement in shifting votes, such as in Colombia's Presidential election wheresocial media has been used to overcome a 12 point deficit in 50 days)

However, irregardless of how Australian politicians are presently using social media, Gov 2.0 has been thriving during the Australian election.

At least 20 Web 2.0 sites have been set up by individual Australians, not-for-profit and commercial organisations to monitor, engage, influence and support election-related community interaction online.

There's even been an iPhone application developed to support voting decisions.

I've listed all of these sites at the Government 2.0 Best practice Wiki on the page Australian election-related sites page.

I'm sure it's not an exhaustive list and will continue adding to it as I discover new sites.

If you're aware of other Web 2.0 election-specific sites that I've missed, please add them directly to the wiki.