Pleased to see the RSC Friends (a subscription group who are fans of the RSC) starting to use their blog. I did a day of training with them last year, most were very new to the idea of blogging but enthusiasm for their subject is carrying them through. They’re planning to use it a little like an online magazine, but hopefully to share their love of theatre to more people.
I'm doing a little bit of blogging on this site, with Nick Booth, kicked off by a conference, it’s all based around the theme of environmental justice. The idea is to encourage debate on how people can "breathe new life into the poorest environments, from neglected rivers to brownfield land sites, ensur[ing] environmental improvements are community driven and owned". [link]
The answer: yes, sometimes and sometimes in conjunction with offline activity. Does offline protesting work? Sometimes.
I’ve done a quick interview for BBC Midlands Today about online protesting, they’re interested because Birmingham’s LDV van maker is campaigning for government help and while the situation is continuing the company are using a blog as well as Facebook and Twitter. It’s part communication with workers part campaign, and when seen alongside the lack of bodies at a (not well publicised, 7am) protest Transport Correspondent Peter Plisner is asking “is protesting moving online?”.
As with all TV stuff, I didn’t really have time to say exactly what I thought; that organising people (a sort of nudged self-organisation) online is easier than offline, that protests or campaigns with clear achievable goals are better online as well as offline (consciousness-raising through networks is good, but fuzzy), and that it is easy to try at least. I’ve had a more detailed look at some of the issues in the past on the Birmingham Post blog.
In short, some online protests do work — some raise the issue and show strength of feeling like the Road Pricing petition (1.8 million “signatures” and a shift in government rhetoric) and then become news. Some like the MySociety protest over MPs declaring their expenses did so with very little media attention, people took the action (online) of contacting their representatives to protest — that action worked, and “online” organised and facilitated that.
But in reality online and offline protests aren’t really different, they still need people willing to take action. Getting an idea of what action, and who’s willing to take it, is communication. And the social web facilitates communication.
In the end it got a bit confused as to why “blogging”/”twitter” is popular — we’re still at the stage of explaining the technology as well as its use. But I hope LDV’s social media campaigning does help, it’s to their credit that they are trying it.
I’ll link to the TV report when it comes online (and if it’s not too embarrasing).
Great coverage of whether "passion" for the subject is important in blogging. My take – yes of course it is. [link]
I was invited along with a group of other local bloggers to the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham this week. It’s part of the party’s plan to do more in the social media space — including the launch of a blogging platform ‘Blue Blogs‘ on their site. Head of New Media, the very affable, Rishi Saha sorted out passes and security clearance and I met him on Monday for a brief chat about what they were doing.
Apart from wandering around the Conference itself — think The Ideal Home Exhibition with less, but odder, stands and more press — I attended a number of fringe events about the Internet. The most interesting was run by The Freedom Association and was intended to be about “Freedom and The Internet”, it was really a good chance to see and hear the most famous right-wing bloggers talk amongst themselves. The panel was chaired by Iain Dale, and featured Guido Fawkes, Dizzy, Devils Kitchen and MP Nadine Dorries.
While all of the other bloggers on stage blog in what I would consider a conventional way — it’s their opinion, on their own chosen subjects, they handle comments, link to others and form part of a community — Nadine doesn’t.
Part of this comes from what I perceived as her lack of interest, she admitted not to reading other blogs “don’t have the time” and also doesn’t have comments on her blog — again in part due to lack of time. The other issue is what I would think a lot of other politicians suffer from, a lack of understanding.
Nadine’s blog is useful to her because of the speed and unmediated way it can get her opinion to those that matter — in her case journalists. That is a blog’s great strength on a “narrowcasting” level, although (in this instance at least) the same could be achieved by emailing the text to the people that are interested.
It was intimated that Nadine’s blog got her “in trouble with the Chief Whip” — something that she interpreted as her “honesty” being incompatible with high office. Her blog was even cited (in another panel session) as a reason more MPs don’t blog.
She’s “thinking of giving it up” — it isn’t proving worth the effort she’s spending on it (which considering she emails her “blogs” to someone to put them up for her isn’t too much).
Lloyd Davis on why PR people have to think differently when dealing with bloggers – “I’m not thinking “I wonder what to write by the end of today to fill that page?” I’m thinking “How can I find enough time to write about all the things I’m excited about”" [link]
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Blog for The Birmingham PostEverything I Do
An interview with an anonymous blog commenter by Joanna Geary
Jo, Development Editor of the Birmingham Post, talks to Richard who "regularly comments on The Birmingham Post blogs under the pseudonym “Clifford” and, it is fair to say, has developed quite a bit of a reputation as a curmudgeon. But, despite his criticisms of The Post, he has stuck with us even when we didn’t quite get things right."
He gives a good example of what it takes to keep people coming back to blogs [link]