New!! Gov 2.0 Blog A Day Special MuniGov calendar set up so each day you can visit a blog related to government and/or social media. By following this, you can learn more about Gov 2.0, support people who are involved in Gov 2.0, and learn more about the people behind this movement. What has been added is only a start, we know there are many more awesome blogs out there so feel free to pick any day, add your own, or add any of your favorite blogs to the calendar! By the end of 2010, we will be Gov 2.0 Incredible!!! Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs.
Potential Uses
Sample Guidelines and Policies
These are some blogging applications you can use to blog.
Blogger https://www.blogger.com/start
LiveJournal http://www.livejournal.com
Wordpress http://wordpress.org/
Technorati http://www.technorati.com/
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Blogging |
In Roanoke County, we are currently exploring the use of blogs for citizen communication. But about three months ago I developed an internal blog to use within the IT department. I had several purposes for establishing the blog:
- Provide another avenue of communication for a geographically and functionally divided staff
- Create an opportunity to generate discussion and feedback about information that is not necessarily "required" to do a job. This is pull technology that invites you to participate, but is not pushed down to you via email. (Essential information is always passed down as an email to ensure it is received by all).
- Being new to the organization and not always visible throughout the dept, this blog also gave me an opportunity for the staff to get to know me as someone beyond the "suit in the corner office".
So far, the feedback has been positive in general about the blog, with the only complaint being that people don't always have time to read it (which really has nothing to do with the mode of communication). I use the blog in conjunction with several other face-to-face meetings and other communication methods in hopes of improving overall info flow and camaraderie (you will see that I also include some humor and personal announcements in the blog along with the business stuff).
Please let me know if you have any questions! I've attached some sample screenshots of the different type of stuff I cover in it.
In Albemarle County, we use a blog product from codeplex http://codeplex.com called blogengine.net. We loaded it in a day and customized it over a week's time for our particular use as a collaborative tool to assist in the process of planning and building a new library. Here's a link to a screencast of the basic functionality:
http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?vid=387c9851-637b-4c05-9bb5-15861ffdb9c6
The benefit of hosting your own blog product is that you have more control and it can more easily be incorporated in your main site(s).
Let me know if you'd like more information.