Social innovation or gimmick?

Today French politics joined the USA in adopting 'social web' media as a platform for running political campaigns & debates - only the French are using Second Life instead of YouTube. And here on these shores, David Miliband has once again posted video onto YouTube about climate change, his third such video.

Is all of this a sign of the times, a clear indicator of the burgeoning role the social web will play in our lives? Or is it merely the political PR machines finally catching the so-called Web 2.0 wave, a gimmick destined to end in tears?

Maybe a bit too early to tell, but in the cases of YouChoose '08 and to a lesser extent, Miliband's videos, the comments are what's compelling, not the highly-polished and scripted videos. There's a real disconnect between these overly-shiny productions and the questions coming from the real people watching. I also note there's no reply to any of the comments, and some of them are as valid as something you'd get from Paxman on Newsnight. I wonder what it would take to get just one politician to let their guard down enough to get some real public debate & engagement going.