Blogs

A weblog or blog is an on-line journal that can be read on a web site. The author can easily add new diary entries, which appear at the top of the page.

In consultations, blogs can be used in three different ways:

1. To publicise a consultation or explain an issue (Telling the public)
   • This is the common one-to-many usage of a blog
   • Civic Leadership Weblog Project - Councillors' Blogs
     • Mary Reid, the Mayor of Kingston-upon-Thames. This is one of a number of councillor blogs set up under the UK Local E-democracy programme, now run by ICELE
2. To collect stories from the public (Identifying issues)
   • The Wheel's Active Citizenship Consultation collected personal stories about, and views on, active citizenship.
   • Instead of one author, many people submitted entries to a collective blog.
3. To discuss issues (Deliberation)
   • by allowing others to comment on blog entries.
   • Mick Fealty writes news items on the Slugger O'Toole blog and invites people to leave comments on each.

To start a blog, you can:

• Sign up to a blogging site, like Blogspot or Live Journal, or
• Install blogging software on your own web site, e.g.
  • WordPress (ask us for a password then try blogging here)
  • Blogspot