Politicians Speak at Ordflyt

Last week local elections were held in Norway. Knowing who to vote for isn't always so easy, but Cappalen Damm's new audiobook site Ordflyt has done its part to help undecided voters: from a week before the election, users could download and listen to audio files of the party leaders presenting themselves and their programs. The files could be shared by Facebook and Twitter as well.

"We invited the eight biggest parties to take part in the project, and they all accepted," says Håkon Havik, who was in charge of the initiative.

The longest recording was nearly 20 minutes, the shortest only four. All the party leaders could decide the length and content themselves, with one exception:

"The majority were recorded before July 22, but some were made afterwards," says Havik. "For those that were done after the terror attack we decided that the recordings couldn't talk about it, because we thought it would put things in the wrong context."

The project has gotten attention both online and off.

"We are very happy with the results and we've gotten a lot of positive reactions," says Havik. "Some mentioned it in the press, but mostly it was in social media. Some 5,000 users have been into the site and listened, and the project has expanded to 15,000 via Facebook and link sharing."

Havik explains that in the previous election a critical debate in Norway was held about tests you can do yourself on the Internet to see which party matches your opinions best.

"It feels particularly meaningful to offer for sharing more matter-of-fact information where party leaders speeak themselves about what the parties stand for," says Havik.

Ordflyt, which is still in a test phase and is under development, has some 10,000 users today.