An online notebook
Apologies for messing people around – if many people are out there reading this – but I have changed the URL of this blog to http://davebriggs.net rather than having it in the /blog subdirectory.
I have included an automatic forwarder in the /blog directory, so anyone following an old link will be bounced straight to the new. Anyone that subscribes to the RSS feed will need to change the feed address though.
Sorry for any inconvenience…
Interesting page on the use of blogs by MPs:
A lot of the people that you reach via a weblog will post comments on a weblog of their own and link to you in the process. Some weblogs have an audience counting in the dozens, others into the hundred or thousands. Portals that watch or monitor such link activity have audiences reaching more towards hundreds of thousands. Good stuff – important stuff – reaches many, many people almost immediately in this way.
This publishing frequency (presented in the correct format) has a very positive effect not only on people, but also on the search engines that are using them increasingly to decide what is the most important, relevant and fresh result for any given search query.
A valid weblog will have a pronounced effect on the two top search databases on the planet – Google and Yahoo. People seeking information relating to issues you think to be important will invariably find your site among the top results.
End result?
You show the people who vote for you how hard you’re working, and attract the majority of those interested in issues you care about. You may even learn an important thing or two from us in the process.
It’s wonderfully organic, and it works. And you need it.
And if the MPs won’t do it themselves? How To Run a Weblog on Behalf of Your MP
There is certainly a huge role that could be filled by politicians blogging. It presents a means by which:
Of course, the normal rules of blogging apply. Just like anyone else’s, a politician’s blog must be regularly updated, offer content that’s genuinely different from what is available elsewhere, offer a unique voice and link helpfully and regularly.
On this post I wondered what I should call this blog. I’ve stuck with The Closed Circle – from the recent Jonathan Coe novel – which was the name of my previous Blogger effort.
It is, at least, suitably vague.
Graphic to follow at some point.
Melissa at Boris Johnson’s blog pointed out this article on the BBC News site:
“A large part of the attraction of the internet is that it goes below the radar,” he said. “Generally it’s more difficult for the government to be able to control it.
“Its real value is as an open window onto what’s happening elsewhere in the world,” he said.
This set me thinking about how the internet is (ab)used in other repressed countries. After a couple of Google searches, I finally came across this page, from Reporters Without Borders. Plenty to be going on there, I feel.
You may or may not have noticed a new look for the site. The standard one that comes with WordPress is hardly inspiring, so a quick search of the WP Forums came up with Alex King‘s site.
On this page he ran a competition to see who could design the best template style for WordPress. This one, titled ‘Human Condition’ (for some reason!) came third, but it was the most suitable. It was designed by Ian Main.
Installation was very easy. Just upload the stylesheet file into the blog directory, along with the directory of images to go with it. Head into a browser, do a hard refresh and there it is. Perfect!
Now all I need to do is come up with a decent name for this thing. ‘Dave’s Blog’ is not good. When I have a name I can design a slightly snazzier graphic to go in the acre of blue space at the top of the page.
Any suggestions gratefully received.