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There is a good article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune today about top local public servants like a city manager and a police chief with their own blogs. It just so happens that Griff Wigley <http://wigleyandassociates.com> who is working on <http://readmyday.co.uk/blogs/> (I'm the middle man on this one for the UK government :-)) and Scott Neal <http://edenprairieweblogs.org/html/scott_neal.html> are in the UK right now on a weblogging in local government tour. You'll be missing out if you don't check out their weblogs - they really bring you along. As the StarTribune notes, the small town of Northfield, Minnesota is a local blogging boomtown <http://www.northfield.org>. The long time volunteer project Northfield Citizens Online and Griff Wigley are at its epicenter. In fact, a case study is in the works <http://dowire.org/wiki/Community_Blogging> and yesterday I produced a "web movie" <http://dowire.org/media/cases/cblogging.html> with audio commentary yesterday. The Northfield case demonstrates the power of distributed input and aggregation (blogs, event calendars) when combined with non-partisan community content/journalism and local online discussions. Cheers, Steven Clift http://dowire.org From: http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/5253036.html Local officials blogging for readers far and wide Bill McAuliffe, Star Tribune February 22, 2005 BLOG0222 Not long ago it might have been hard to find out what's been ailing the Northfield police chief, or where the Eden Prairie city manager was going on a midwinter getaway, or the latest redevelopment efforts in Rosemount. But now there are Web logs. And around the metro area, some elected and appointed officials are blogging away, maintaining Internet diaries that often go well beyond the quarterly constituent newsletter. "It just seems like a few years ago that my son Chris graduated from a training bike to the 'big kid' bike," wrote Northfield Police Chief Gary Smith on his blog for Feb. 13, describing how his son was now learning to drive a car. Within days of that posting, Smith, who said he spends several hours of his own time each day freshening up his site, also had "blogged" about other topics. "It's not just Northfield folks reading it," Smith added. "It's people around the world." Indeed, this burgeoning official blogging is receiving broad notice. Eden Prairie City Manager Scott Neal is one of several local public affairs bloggers meeting with elected officials in England this week to discuss the ins and outs of nearly daily and instantaneous communication between people and their government. Citizens of Eden Prairie and the world can read all about the trip at www.edenprairieweblogs.org and click on Scott Neal's Web log. "I think there has been an increasing disconnect between local government and its citizens," Neal said from Eden Prairie last week. "I look at this Web log as a way to personalize the city to its citizens and generate a higher level of empathy. "If we could truly communicate to citizens the kinds of issues we're dealing with, and how we have to sometimes split the baby, I think citizens would be impressed by the government they receive at the local level." Neal said he views his Web log as a way to supplement what he can communicate in local newspapers and what's on the city's official websites. It also lets him receive direct responses. Between January 2003, and last month, Neal's computer counted 2,242 visitors to his blog compared to 235 one year ago, a nearly tenfold increase. Among his readers are journalists looking for ideas. In Eden Prairie, Neal, Police Chief Dan Carlson and Fire Chief George Esbensen all have blogs. The Rosemount community development director blogs about downtown redevelopment. Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak launched a blog recently in tandem with his reelection campaign. A Northfield boom See: http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/5253036.html ... ^ ^ ^ ^ Steven L. Clift - - - W: http://publicus.net Minneapolis - - - - E: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Minnesota - - - - - - T: +1.612.822.8667 USA - - - - - MSN/Y!/AIM: netclift UK Office Hours - 1pm - 11pm - - T: 0870.340.1266 Join my Democracies Online Newswire: http://dowire.org *** Past Messages, to Subscribe: http://dowire.org *** *** To subscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** *** Message body: SUB DO-WIRE *** *** To UNSUBSCRIBE instead, write: UNSUB DO-WIRE *** *** Please send submissions to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** *** New RSS XML Feed Available: *** http://www.mail-archive.com/do-wire@lists.umn.edu/maillist.xml
