Comments on: It’s better by blog: why councils should embrace blogging

By: Links and CoPs | W3wb.com Blogs

Links and CoPs | W3wb.com Blogs — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 14:36:17 +0000

[...] And why Mark Pack of LibDem voice thinks that councils (i.e. officers) should embrace blogging. It’s better by blog: why councils should embrace blogging Rethinking Open Data – O’Reilly Radar Thinking about open data – focus on the useful. [...]

By: Weymouth Relief Road | Quite sociable

Weymouth Relief Road | Quite sociable — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 20:38:18 +0000

[...] I found out about this blog from Mark Pack at LibDemVoice in a post where he explains why councils should embrace blogging. [...]

By: Mark Pack

Mark Pack — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 19:14:33 +0000

Techomist: there’s certainly often much to criticise about how councils go about information, but letting people know what’s going on is a key part of many services. Take the example of road works: letting people know what road works there will be, where and for how long, is something that councils should do and is part of ensuring the disruption and inconvenience for people is kept to a minimum. Serving the public includes talking to people.

By: Gez Smith

Gez Smith — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 14:10:49 +0000

Odd if the end National Project report did end up saying that councils should get blogging, as the focus of the project was much more about councillors blogging than councils doing it corporately. Some officers did try it, but there was a real reticence about that.

Indeed, as an officer working on the project for one of the participating authorities at the time, I was actively prohibited from blogging when I tried to sign up to do so. I suspect it’s this culture that the project missed, in its odd focus on technology over content, and it’s a culture that, with notable exceptions, pervades to this day.

By: Tony Theaker

Tony Theaker — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 09:26:36 +0000

An idea I fully support, sadly looking at the poor standard of some Council websites, a pet bug bear, I doubt that the quality of blogging would be much higher for these Councils who tokenise. I have though, seen some good examples of websites and also some Councils using Twitter. I think that with the demographic of who are councillor’s will make this innovative approach a generation in the making. Public money should be spent on services and I think that keeping residents informed about their council and what the council is doing, is a service of the council.

By: Mary Reid

Mary Reid — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 23:55:42 +0000

As part of the blogging project sponsored by the National Project I encouraged our Director of Community Services in Kingston to start blogging. After a couple of false starts he finally discovered the value of the medium when he led a community bike ride from Lands End to John O’Groats in aid of the Pakistan Earthquake appeal. He blogged about the trip every day, with photos, and raised enough funds to build a new rehabilitation centre in Lahore, as well as build his reputation within the council.

By: Technomist

Technomist — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 23:02:21 +0000

Councils should stop wasting public money on spin, publicity for mediocre local politicians and propaganda, whatever the media or attractions of looking sexy with yet another technology. They should instead get on with what they have been entrusted to do, which is run their services properly and honestly. Enough of this pravda-inspired nonsense of ‘corporate comms’ talking at people, just concentrate on serving the public.

By: Tony Greaves

Tony Greaves — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 14:57:12 +0000

So who on earth is going to blog “on behalf of the Council”?

Tony Greaves