Saturday, March 19, 2005

Rebecca MacKinnon in The Nation has an edited transcript of the Blogging, Journalism, and Credibility conference. Nieman Foundation curator Bob Giles has some kind words for the News & Record. I hear JR might be headed to Harvard soon... 2:07:32 PM    comment []

Someday all politicians might talk to us this way: Greensboro City Councilwoman Sandy Carmany on her opposition to the Truth and Rec process. But of course just putting it on a blog doesn't make it all right. Her first reason to punt is lame. Of course it is possible to compile a solid history, even from the gaping distance of 25 years. That doesn't mean this report will be solid, but to say it can't be is an excuse, not an argument. Her second reason is the bias of some involved with the process. Noted. That's one the GTRC folks have got to sell the public on. The third reason is a perceived lack of public support. She cites a News2 "poll" in which 87% of respondents oppose the project, but I think we can guess how scientific that was. In the comments to her post, Lex gets to the heart of this thing: you can't be shooting people in the streets of Greensboro just because you don't like their ideas. 1:53:56 PM    comment []

The teach-in worked. Two blogging City Council members, Phillips and Carmany, came to hone their skillz. State rep Pricey Harrison is giving it a try. A handful of other folks, too. Pricey wanted to know how to fit blogging into her schedule. My thought is that the blog actually makes her more efficient as it becomes a focal point for all of the communications she does with constituents, so that much of the email she receives and responds to gets dealt with at her blog, and her own regular email broadcasts get written in bite-size chunks over the course of a week. Lots of nuts and bolts discussions on templates and links and such in a highly-functional computer lab at the Nussbaum Center. Sue and Roch did a good thing well. 1:24:18 PM    comment []