can blogs influence politics?
I did my Introduction of Tris Hussey of Blogging 101 (standing room only btw) and then booted it down to be in the politics panel. I’m here now. Andy Coyne gave the best insight thus far: he stops blogging for a while just ‘cuz. That explains *that* 
Brad Davies gave a good overview of how CanadianĂ‚Â political parties – well the Liberals, some of them, anyway – are starting to at least monitor and engage the blogosphere.
Paul Wells said – and I agree – that the whole blogs influencing politics thing is really early here. I wonder if or when that will change?
Posted in mesh news
8 Comments
There was some talk of listening to the blogosphere and facilitating some discussions but not many examples of actively participating in the blogosphere – outside of campaigns. One interesting case example and case study is Garth Turner. While I don't live in his riding and I voted NDP in the last election – I'm really learning a lot about Ottawa through his blog. He posts almost daily and reads and comment on the comments. Well worth a look as I believe he "gets it".
http://www.garth.ca/weblog/2006/04/13/no-horse/
Now he's podcasting too: http://www.garth.ca/podcast/
Maybe it is the mark of a good session that I left wanting more. Don't get me wrong…I am not complaining about the content, but I wish we could have carried on with more of the interactive stuff. Every question from participants sparked a few new question that I wish I'd had time to ask.
wikilaw. need i ask for more?
"we own it we should be able to parse it."
maybe a little more… =)
I think blogs can influence politics. One example for that: The NYT reports some liberal bloggers have embarked on a “Google Campaign” designed to lift negative articles about Republican candidates to the top search results. In my opinion this is a very curious development.
I think it can influence politics. Politicians can post blogs with topics about economy and hire influencial people with great skills in getting the attention of readers. Found one at http://www.tomconnellan.com
Stuart thanks for the great intro. It was a great session. I think there will be a lot of Social mesh conversations coming from it.