Stap isi

27 September 2008

A friendly introduction to blogging in local government

A British campaign to encourage civic leaders to use the internet to communicate with their constituents has produced a short film aimed at councillors and senior staff.

The 14 minute documentary […] follows 3 Norfolk County Councillors as they learn to blog. We get to see their transformation from sceptical novices to enthusiastic, successful bloggers and can compare them with the views of some of the most experienced UK civic bloggers such as Cllr Mary Reid, Tom Watson MP, Steve Webb MP, Richard Brunstrom (Chief Constable of North Wales Police) and Andrew North (CEO of Cheltenham Borough Council).

The accompanying 32pp booklet complements the film and informs readers how to start a blog and gives tips on becoming an effective online communicator.

Last week I showed the DVD to my senior managers and the outcome was positive, with lots of questions asked and a good discussion ensuing. The film gave them a real world example of how blogs – in fact, any form of social media – could work in a government or municipal context.

(I think some of the arguments for blogging by civic leaders apply also to council staff – and I will try and make an argument for staff blogging in a later post.)

Should councils host and support blogs for councillors?

Some in the UK do – Brighton & Hove is one example – and it’s likely that elected members will request it once their interest is piqued.

CivicSurf point to one issue that’s already arisen – and argue neatly that politicians need a space where they can be political.

Council web teams could of course advise Councillors of hosted blog services.

And give them this DVD!

Source code

Contact shane (at) civicsurf.org.uk for a copy.

It’s also available on YouTube – Part 1 and Part 2.

— b3rn   blogging, civicsurf, councillors   Sep 27, 08:10 PM   #

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