As part of preparing something last week about politics online, I looked up David Cameron’s website for his TV clips, WebCameron, and I must say that I was very impressed with it.

It was set up with the intention of helping people get to know him better, and I think it does an excellent job of making people feel that. Clearly what is shown is pretty carefully selected, but when formal appearances by politicians are so carefully staged and scripted, it does give a better picture of who someone really is through how they speak relatively off the cuff, and in formats other than just standing up making a big speech or in an interview.

If you’re looking at his page now, then the ones from conference week are perhaps not quite typical, but the older ones are worth a look.

Number Ten does something similar with the Prime Minister and sometimes other senior Ministers, based around their YouTube channel. They seem a bit more formal but still seem to me to be a good way of letting people see politicians and what they’re doing more directly than usual.

We’re all still learning how best to use this internet thingy to get our messages across, but I’d be very surprised if personal video clips don’t form a decent chunk of the future of politics online.