Some blogging on blogging
First, a reminder about the blogging conference this Friday in Brisbane. This will be a conference quite different to most. Firstly, it’s free (one of my pet hates is conferences that cost $1000 a day, as often as not on some topic like ‘how to better include the poor in public debate’ or ‘inclusiveness and hearing the voices of the powerless’ or some such). Secondly, the format will revolve around discussion amongst the audience, instead of it being a bunch of speakers talking to the audience. You can even use the conference blog in advance of the day to propose issues for debate in particular sessions. I’m participating in the ‘politics of blogging’ session in the morning.
On another blogging related matter, someone pointed me to this post which reports that
the Australian Government has released an official consultation (white) paper on whether it should launch a “consultation blog.” According to the paper, the Special Minister of State the Hon. Gary Nairn states that the purpose of the paper is to discuss the provision of the consultation blog and “sets out to balance the opportunities provided by the new online environment against the challenges and very real threats emerging to the identity and privacy of individuals.” The blog itself “is envisaged as a website that lists consultations and allows people to post responses, comments and feedback against each consultation.”
So if you want to engage with the consultation paper on the merits of a consultation blog click here to access the pdf file.
Finally, I will be watching with interest to see how much genuine blogging is used by candidates in this federal election. I am still not overly sure how much of a vote winning tool blogging is, especially for major party candidates, despite the occasional breathless piece in the mainstream media about how all these politicians are allegedly getting into blogging. My feeling is it’s of more value for commentators and activists than for political candidates. However, this election may give us a bit more of an idea.
I’m aware of a few blogs from Democrat candidates (such as this one by Laura Chipp – Don Chipp’s youngest daughter who is running in the seat of Isaacs in Victoria), and I’ll start listing some of those in the blogroll soon, but if people know of some genuine ones by people from other parties, feel free to let me know.
6 Comments, Comment or Ping
muzzmonster
Given the current prevalence of politcal blogs, and knowing how tightly the old parties like to control their media, I wouldn’t be holding my breath for any good poliie blogs in the election.
However, as Andrew has already noted, I’ve seen some independent blogs, including the google one and YouDecide.
How one manages to keep up with everything is another matter. I am earnestly looking forward to the first weekend after the election so I can sleep in.
Sep 27th, 2007
Zhasper
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4215797a10.html – NZ police are using a wiki to get public input on a new policing act.
http://jamespurser.com.au/ will be running for senate in the next federal election as an independent, and has a fairly active blog.
Sep 28th, 2007
Donna
Personally, I think that it could be an overwhelming responsibility to maintain a blog site, and respond to posts.
It places individual politicians in quite a vulnerable position. They may not be able to effectively and genuinely communicate with the public, because, as we’ve seen on this site, some people have their own agenda, and that’s quite a difficult task to minimise their dominance of a forum and their sabotaging of effective communication.
Andrew does it well. But I don’t think we should expect it of other politicians or encourage it as a standard tool of communication. I think it could lead to a danger of defining the value of a politician based on their blogging skills or lack of it. By the way, I’m not referring to you Andrew.
Sep 28th, 2007
John
my prediction for the Federal Election date is at:
http://truepolitik.blogspot.com/2007/09/federal-election-date.html
Home page: http://truepolitik.blogspot.com
John
“The Analyst”
Independent politcal analysis … and no ads
Sep 30th, 2007