Iraq Enquiry end of an era - time for social construction in public enquiries?

Is the current Iraq Enquiry the last one of its type?

The idea of an Enquiry of the "great and the good" asking polite questions of the "great and the good" with limited aspects of inquisition has surely passed its sell by date.  It is looking somewhat old fashioned and tired. The format has been given a general pasting by the media and the latest incident with the Chairman cutting off TV coverage because some mild comments were made about US intelligence makes the whole process look even more bizarre.  Certainly I don't think any one on the Enquiry is going to have their reputations burnished by this process.  In fact, if one was responsible for PR for the "British Establishment" currently one would be worried - MPs and expenses, the City and financial crisis, the "great and the good" - they all look so tired and unimpressive. 

But is there a different approach?  I think it is time that consideration was given by the authorities to allow people to comment on this and future Enquiry web sites in some form of moderated forum or web comment. Yes, the Enquiry did take views from people initially but why not develop this process further online.    After all Enquiries are a form of seeking out the "truth" and to date they have been a vehicle in all countries generally to allow an "establishment" version of the "truth" to be created.   Now it is surely time and with social media entirely possible, that different versions of the truth can be discussed and aired and people can make their own minds up.  This is the form which online media is moving towards with social media commentary at the end of main articles and blogs.  It is interesting that the BBC has set up a forum site to ask people's opinion on what they want from the Iraq Enquiry. 

In other words a social construction of the "truth" should be part of the agenda of government Public Enquiries and the discussion can take place around each one as well as in the media.   Interestingly both PR and marketing are currently very interested in social construction of brand and reputation as traditional approaches to construction of brand and reputation are seen to be too controlled and lack authenticity.

In fact from an archive perspective, the web site and commentary along with the final report can become part of the permanent record of the Enquiry online.   A decision might be made to allow commentary to continue for a further two months after publication and then it is closed down on that site as representing a full and complete record at that moment in time.  It might be that retrospective comments say at 5, 10 and 20 years on the various sites become a pattern to allow for new thinking and discussion on the subject.

Anybody got a good example of a public enquiry running alongside social media?