The Political Weblog Project is a collaborative effort designed to encourage MPs, Councillors and other elected officials to communicate more effectively online via the intelligent use of weblogs. Elected officials who wish to take part in this scheme must follow these simple rules that exist primarily for your own benefit:Rule #1 - You must own (or be ready to purchase) your own domain name.
Rule #2 - You must use the technology to engage in two-way commmunication
Rule #3 - You must fund/source the weblog with your own money or resources.
Those who pledge to follow these rules will be provided with all the necessary assets and expertise at an extremely competitive rate.
What is a weblog? | Why two-way communication? | Why do I need my own domain?
More politicians need to be using weblogs properly. Maybe you can help.
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CONTACT DETAILS
manic AT bloggerheads DOT com
If you click on any of the 'Blogs' categories below, you will find that these entries have been individually backdated to correspond with the launch date of the blog that entry references (in order to provide a categorised and sequential history of these blogs).
CATEGORIES
Blogs: All (31) Blogs: Campaign (2) Blogs: Councillors (Labour) (1) Blogs: House of Lords (1) Blogs: MPs (Conservative) (1) Blogs: MPs (Labour) (5) Blogs: MPs (Liberal Democrat) (2) Blogs: Proxies (20) Designers and Providers (4) Education and Seminars (2) Fighting Ignorance (6) General (1) News (2)« Julie Morgan | Main | New Statesman wins 2005 N00b Media Award » May 14, 2005 Kate Hoey (Proxy Blog)Labour MP for Vauxhall Proxy blog by: Richard Pope and others Launched: May 14, 2005 Format: Movable Type (custom template with snarky header) Comments: Yes Set up after the 2005 election in response to Kate Hoey's apparent technophobia, this proxy-blog is a mix of passive reporting (via Google News, Technorati and Theyworkforyou.com), the occasional stir, and links to her declared interests and voting record. This proxy-blog is unique in its use of a domain name, but there appears to be a valid reason for this... Kate Hoey represents an area stretching from London Waterloo to Clapham Common (which includes the area around Brixton and Stockwell stations). Not the most affluent part of town, but it's certainly wired throughout - and by no means a distant backwater where electricity is hard to come by and Teh Interwebs is a distant dream. However, Kate Hoey's heart and mind appears to be in the countryside, rather than with her constituents. In late July 2005, the author of the proxy-blog set up this pledge at Pledgebank: "I will contact Kate Hoey, MP for Vauxhall, asking why she has time to become chairman of the Countryside Alliance when she only attended 55% of votes as our Member of Parliament. but only if 10 other Lambeth residents will too." (The author got his 10, and 6 of the resulting letters can be read here.) This disregard for her constituents extends to communication. Despite living in an urban area where a great many of her constituents have internet access, Kate Hoey has completely failed to establish any kind of online presence beyond a profile page at the Labour website. And she's been an MP for this same area since 1992 (the first website for an MP was built in 1994). The site has an open offer on the front page for Kate Hoey to take up the website herself, and this offer has been reinforced here with a further offer to cover hosting costs. Personally, I don't think they have a snowball's chance in hell. Kate Hoey would first need a desire to address her constituents, followed by the will and intelligence to do so online. Sadly, she seems to lack the required desire and any kind of will beyond her own agenda. As for intelligence... well, the less said about that, the better. The use of the katehoey.co.uk domain name can in no way be considered a cybersquat - especially when you consider: 1. There is an open offer on the table for her to take control of it via the established proxy-blog Posted by timireland on May 14, 2005 12:22 PM in the category Blogs: Proxies CommentsLambeth Labour's response to the proxyblog: We have no intention of creating a 'blog' for Kate. Whilst this may be your preference for on-line engagement from MPs this is Kate has been committed to creating a website for some time now, however for Posted by: memespring at January 14, 2006 3:31 PM Post a commentThanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out) (If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.) |