As a former politician, I really don't love this.

It's already difficult enough to get people of the capacities that most of us want to see (good, smart, could be employed elsewhere, empathetic) involved in politics as it's so negative and divisive.

There are, as other comments highlight, loads of legitimate and reasonable reasons why somebody would be using a phone mid-debate: rebuttal research, communicating with colleagues in chamber, communicating with their own office/staff, the list is fairly long and reasonably legitimate.

This seems to be an art installation, but I see no explanation of what it means. Is there subtext that's obvious to someone from Belgium (e.g., politicians on phones is a known hot issue)? Or is the viewer supposed to interpret?

BTW, if the main complaint that you have about your politicians is that they sometimes look at their phones while in meetings, you're doing really well, count your blessings.

He (oh he is you, OP) has got a lot of different projects, including one that was tracking people on EarthCam streams and trying to find their Instagram post (or the other way around):

https://driesdepoorter.be/thefollower/ , which went sort of viral: https://mashable.com/article/instagram-stalking-ai-facial-re...

I wonder why you self-promote and repost your "old" stuff though..

Living in a country that doesn't speak my first language, I use the dictionary all the time during meetings and presentations. I hate it when people tell me that’s rude.. Okay I'll just sit here and not understand what was said to keep up appearances?

Woah i like his other sideproject: https://driesdepoorter.be/product/shirt/ .

> A shirt whose price increases by 1 Euro with every purchase. The price is embroidered on the shirt.

Current price is 183EUR ! (EDIT means he made almost 17k EUR on this so far)

If it is anything like the UK parliament, what goes on in the chamber is less important than the WhatsApp groups the UK Gov runs on.

Fun fact: this is quite likely illegal to do in the EU. If it should or should not be legal is a different question, but my understanding of present day law makes this not permissible.

What I found more amusing when in meetings with government officials is their constant use of two phones, one officially issued and one personal. There is a lot more use of the personal phone in official meetings than there should be. They have been trained to do as little as possible on the phone more likely to be subject to a subpoena.

This is useless, if you don't know what they're doing on their phones.

Fact checking the speaker? Playing candy crush? Who knows.

Whoever wrote this must really like taking pictures of electronics.

Please do this for congress!! It would be fascinating to see stats posted for each person, etc. BUT more interesting would be the response of the politicians. Will they use their devices less, or will the cameras be ordered turned off and the live stream halted?

Looks like the last tweet was from 2022? https://x.com/FlemishScroller

This has prompted some interesting points around the value of using a mobile in a chamber which I've enjoyed reading. However, I wonder if the tool could be re-purposed to catch drivers using mobile phones whilst driving? I imagine there are privacy concerns here, but it might be interesting to explore it.

Need a predictive version of this that tags politicians in tweets expressing my stance on whatever is being debated, right before they use their phones on livestreams.

Fun, but also kind of a dick move to apply bossware to more people; the phone is where the real politics happens.

Tracking their stats is a great idea!

this kind of surveillance is childish and a bit creepy too

Any chance open sourcing it? :)

I mean if it wasn't the 21st century, they would be having a snooze or reading a newspaper or magazine probably.

Having a politican 100% committed and listening all the time would be great, but they would quit in no time I'm sure, at least I would.

I really like the minimalistic design of the website, but I was disappointed to see Wordpress used. Does anyone know if something similar exists whether free or paid - as long as it's available as plain CSS/HTML?

Dumb

A tool which simply invites superficial condemnation intending to anger and divide us even more than we already are. SO, congratulations on your negative contribution to society!

"37% legislative efficiency? That's bad! Let me call my supervisor."

"Hey @JanJambon, what's going on, man? You're in red!"

"It's just been a rough day."

"Rough day? More like a rough month."

(the reference: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43180133 )

This is beyond silly.

You could be using your phone to factcheck something that relates to the ongoing discussion. Or having a side-chat with another member, privately expressing/requesting an opinion to provide context. Or to take quick notes. Or, nowadays, you might even be using an AI to keep a running summary of what the speaker has been rambling about in the last 50 minutes, translated from 'buzzspeak' to 'humanspeak'. All legit uses of technology, which enhance the politician's attention rather than detract from it.

I'm not saying I'm having a hard time believing people 'could' be checking out 9gag instead during parliament, but unless you give me an AI that can detect people who are on their phone AND verified to be slagging off, then you're just bullying people for having phones and being able to use them.

Also, I like how laptops are somehow exempt from this bullying for some magical reason.

It feels like a lot of people are interpreting this as a cheap attempt to drum up populist angst for "lazy politicians". That's one obvious take-away, and it's legitimate. I see that it's generating a strong emotional response: discomfort with the idea of being monitored; fear that the data is misinterpreted. I see this as very powerful, because a lot of the "nicer" government orders, such as those in Western Europe, are also the most aggressive surveillance states. I like that the artist has come up with a way to drive home the potential impact of the decisions that may be debated and decided in this very chamber. It has a nice symmetry, and I see that as cool art.