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Archive for News - Current Affairs
How to Monitor the Commentariat for Free
Yesterday I said in passing that I thought that it may now be possible to deliver relatively easily much of the value added by subscription services designed to help organisations “get to grips” with the published commentary - based on the insight that the supply of news and comment is no longer an expensive commodity. I have had a go myself today, and this article is to introduce the results.
I said (in the context of Editorial Intelligence’s “Power of the Commentariat” Report):
Editorial Intelligence’s service was quoted as an example of a site helping people get to grips with online comment. I disagree - it is expensively paid for and therefore helps maintain an “in-crowd”.
I’m wondering if the Editorial Intelligence Model is now way past it’s sell by date - given that summaries of most of the stuff written by commentators and columnists is now syndicated via RSS. I wonder whether MySociety could build us something better for the whole world - not just those who can afford the subscriptions - to use if someone gave them £5k and a month.
Once I saw this morning that the domain commentariat.org.uk was available, I couldn’t resist having a go at a couple of aspects of this opportunity myself - just to see what could be done in a few hours.
At the moment I am providing these facilities:
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The brief summaries of each article or story made available for syndication on other sites.
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Search across all these summaries.
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Categorisation by author, feed and media organisation.
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Direct links to the original stories.
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A tag cloud.
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Archives navigable by date.
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Regular updates.
This is based on a sample of around 30 RSS feeds, and is therefore a strictly limited trial. A more comprehensive service would need to monitor perhaps 400-500 feeds and would take some investment (perhaps £100 a year on a better hosting service than I use at present).
The site is not intended to be a discussion site - in accordance with the Code of Practice I published last summer, it is better thought of as a combined “contents list” and “index” which exists to help visitors find out what has been published, and then to drive traffic to the original articles.
I’m not sure where this is going (there are dozens of other things that can be done quite easily), but I would welcome any comments you might have.
Later on I will publish an article looking at the possibilities for “alternatives” to other expensive services offered by “editorial guidance” companies.
Go and visit “Commentariat: Dispatches from the Glass Bubble“.
The Power of the Commentariat. Or Perhaps Not: Blog Platform
A couple of days ago I drew your attention to a seminar to launch a report by Editorial Intelligence called “The Power of the Commentariat”. Or rather, they have launched half of it and expect the public to buy the rest from Amazon
It’s an interesting document and I’d like to do a review of the whole thing. I have asked Editorial Intelligence for a review copy of the whole document. If one is not forthcoming, I shall review the half of the report that they have seen fit to release.
Listening to the podcast of the seminar, there are a number of moments of “Don Quixote” incongruity. However, if you want to skip the fun, and just hear what I think - then go to the next section.
The Emperor with no clothes gives advice on dress sense
Golly, Polly!
Polly Toynbee whinged complained about bloggers launching “vituperative” and “personal” attacks on her. Perhaps she thought noone had read her vituperative and personal attacks on numerous targets.
Has anyone read Polly on Boris these last few weeks, or Polly on the Archishop of Canterbury six months ago, or on any number of different people at different times?
That’s why she’s such good value for bloggers. If she didn’t exist, we’d have to invent her.
Charles “how dare you intrude into my private life” Clarke
Charles Clarke complaining about doorstepping by journalists.
This is a politician in a cabinet which passed all manner of unnecessary restrictions on liberty from the right to demonstrate, through DNA profiling of the innocent with no effective redress, via compliance with Extraordinary Rendition, to an Extradition Treaty allowing British Citizens to be yanked out of their daily lives by foreign judges to face trial in the United States on the basis of no evidence whatsoever.
Forgive me, Mr Clarke, if my sympathy for you is limited.
Again, Charles Clarke on the unfairness of anonymously expressed views
Charles Clarke complaining about anyone putting forward a viewpoint anonymously.
Er, sorry, Mr Clarke - but I thought that anonymous briefings (and bullying) were used relentlessly by the New Labour administration (of which you were a key part) as a tool for media manipulation.
What do they think of bloggers?
Quite a lot of ill-informed nonsense, but some people “Get it” (Danny Finkelstein and others) or nearly get it (Julia Hobsbawm among them).
Bloggers are dreadful horrible nasty vindictive followers of Guido Fawkes
Columnists are specifically described as being of “different types”, but bloggers are apparently all the same and we are all “followers” of Guido Fawkes (wonder what Professor Norm, Tim Ireland, Natalie and The F-Word would say about that).
And, regardless of the vitriol poured on him, Guido has done some superb work - my favourite is the the exposure of Peter Hain’s attempt to drive a double decker bendybus through the rules and principles supposed to govern elections in his own party.
He had also entertained us from time to time by getting the things hilariously wrong from time to time (one word: Newsnight).
Bloggers are all the same
A very, very funny comment.
Anybody who says that has not mastered their brief to comment on bloggers. It has a “whole class of Japanese students out on bicycles in Cambridge for the first time going the wrong way round a traffic island, knowing they are wrong but being too scared to go back” feel about it (ack. Bishop of Maidstone). I’d suggest working harder and getting out more.
Bloggers are Masculine
This was a statement from Julia Hobsbawm in the closing conversation. Certainly most are, but there is no male monopoly - even in politics.
My thoughts?
The Commentariat (as represented in this podcast) seem to be having a few problems getting to grips with the blogging medium - in particular coping with the diversity.
How can they cope with the plethora of blogs? Have they “got to read” all of this? (yes you do - at least enough of it enough times to develop a familiarity sufficient to make a sensible judgement).
The Internet is stuffed with automatic tools to help you get to grips with the flow of comment, including aggregators, specialised search engines (www.technorati.com, Google news and blog search), and services to try and judge what is important (www.technorati.com again, www.wikio.com).
The UK Political Blogosphere is also heavily summarised if you know where to look. How many columnists heave heard of the Britblog Roundup, the Scottish Roundup, the Welsh Blog Index, Cassilis’s roundup of think tanks, and the numerous other “signposts” that are published every week? Hopefully at least some know about these various “roundups”.
If they aren’t familiar with these tools then - again - it’s a matter of getting out more and working at it a bit. That’s not exactly difficult.
And I haven’t even mentioned RSS and RSS Readers (Google Reader, Feed Demon to name one online and one offline reader).
Even Danny Finkelstein - who writes a fantastic blog at Comment Central - quoted the “Cover it Live” chatroom service (btw, Danny, it IS moderated) as potentially useful. The fact is that chatrooms have existed for years and years and years; when I was diagnosed with Diabetes a regular chatroom meetup was one way I learnt to cope - that was in 2001, and they were old then. The problem here is mainly that there has been too much conservatism to use them appropriately. There are dozens of tools out there - sites just need the minimal knowledge to use them and the willingness to take a slight risk as to what will happen.
if I was a struggling columnist floundering in a sea of blog comment, I would make a point of taking Jemima Kiss or Chris Vallance (or me!) out for a long, expensive lunch to quiz them on how to read blogs the easy way.
Wrapping Up
Guido and Iain have commented on the Power of the Commentariat “do”.
And Guido is making a feature of holding columnists to account. A good idea, but it needs more than just him.
Iain has commented more sympathetically on the report itself.
In the meantime you can listen to the podcast here, and download half the report here.
Editorial Intelligence’s service was quoted as an example of a site helping people get to grips with online comment. I disagree - it is expensively paid for and therefore helps maintain an “in-crowd”.
I’m wondering if the Editorial Intelligence Model is now way past it’s sell by date - given that summaries of most of the stuff written by commentators and columnists is now syndicated via RSS. I wonder whether MySociety could build us something better for the whole world - not just those who can afford the subscriptions - to use if someone gave them £5k and a month.
The thing that the Commentariat actually need to do is to shatter their “bubble on a pedestal” from the inside before it gets shattered for them from the outside.
I’ll follow this article with a review of the full report, or half the report - depending on what is made available to me.
You can get the first half at the link above, and the second half of The Power of the Commentariat
And a slight apology - I have not linked absolutely everything in this article as I am away from home.
Mr Robert Mugabe’s Election Photo Album, and Sokwanele (”Enough is Enough”)
This post may well ruin your Saturday breakfast - and it is shocking. This article highlights some of the physical violence used by those working for Mr Mugabe and his friends in their campaign to retain power in Zimbabwe. Not pleasant - but neither is Zanu PF’s campaign.
I picked up a link to the Sokwanele “This is Zimbabwe” website from Paul Canning’s blog:
Sokwanele - Zvakwana is a peoples’ movement, embracing supporters of all pro-democratic political parties, civic organizations and institutions in Zimbabwe. Sokwanele and Zvakwana both mean ‘enough is enough’ in the vernacular.
The website is an attempt to chronicle what is happening, and to campaign in support of a full democratic system in Zimbabwe.
The photo on the right is Manyika Kashiri, 55, an MDC activist from Chigumbu village in Uzumba, who had his foot smashed by an axe when militias stormed into his shack at midnight on Tuesday (I think May 6).
Kashiri woke after a bang at his door and rocks smashing against his windows. When he emerged, he was hit with a log by one of the militias and another tried to chop off his right foot with an axe in front of his grandchildren, one of whom was just four.
The second on the right is of a Member of Parliament - the Honourable Nelson Chamisa, MP, MDC (Tsvangirai), Secretary for Information – attacked at Harare International Airport, March 2007 by State Agents. He was to attend the EU/ACP summit in Brussels. He sustained fracture of orbital skull and deep facial lacerations.
The West cannot realistically intervene militarily, any more than we can do so in Darfur. But we can still continue to point to events, and it is media attention in the outside world that will persuade the surrounding countries to take proper action in the end.
There is even an appropriate place waiting for Mr Mugabe - since Idi Amin’s old retirement villa in Saudi Arabia has been free for some years.
For the next few days I will be running a Flickr Photostream from Sokwanele on the front page of the Wardman Wire to add my extra bit of publicity. If you have a blog, please consider reporting this crisis once again.
The posts below are quoted from the This is Zimbabwe blog. I acknowledge the copyright in the text and the photos. If you quote any of this material, link back there to give it more attention.
Zimbabwe Election Violence
Three year old child assaulted
This is little Samson (3 years). He was beaten on Golden Star farm, Shamva. His parents are ex farm workers who remained living on the farm after their white employer was evicted.
His parents were beaten on 21st April by militia who were saying “Whites left you on this farm, you are MDC, you want whites to come back and look after you”. Their houses and everything they owned was burned.
The mother is at the hospital with Samson; her husband and other two children are still somewhere in Shamva. She does not know where.
Instant Interactivity is Back: Chatrooms on Political Blogs
One of the key benefits that came from the existence of 18 Doughty Street - whatever you thought of the overall balance (old bones that I am not interested in gnawing) - was the opportunity for political bloggers to talk and debate together, and to interact with the wider political blogosphere instantaneously.
If you like, a water cooler for political bloggers.
Cross Party Conversation
To a reasonable extent (and with all its limitations and problems), that conversation was cross-party - and recovered what (I am told) was something of the spirit of an older political blogosphere with fewer “silos”, rather than being partisan bish-bash-bosh.
Election Chatrooms
On election night Guido ran a chat room, and has now started doing them for Prime Minister’s Questions. So did Conservative Home (and I can’t find it).
Iain Dale has done a trial and is now moving into live interviews, and this evening is having a is having an Open House live chat.
Certain of the other innovations of 18 Doughty Street (of which there were a number) seem to me to have been picked up by big media, rather than feeding back into blogs. The best example is the use of video and video clips, which in my opinion is because there are no (and I mean zero) independent political blogs in this country with the resources necessary to make it happen.
Chat rooms - on the other hand - are one of the examples where we don’t need any significant resources of time, people or money.
Cover it Live
Cover it Live has provided the application used by all the examples I quote above. It has a free version, and can be installed easily.
Notionally it is an application for Live Reporting of events, but proved robust as a chat room. The only problem is that the chatroom owner can only set 10 participants to be unmoderated using the free service.
What Next?
I like
- That chat rooms are back.
I don’t like
- That so far blogs on the right are making all the running again.
I want to see
- Some Centre and Left blogs picking up on this trend, and hosting debates.
- Some real cross-spectrum debate and conversation. I think that Iain will do that, but let’s have the same thing hosted elsewhere as well.
And me?
- I’m looking at doing something, but I think that the Wardman Wire niche is probably for conversation about using blogs politically, rather than about politics; I don’t think we have the platform or profile to do - unless someone tells us something different.
The Electoral Hokey-Cokey: Out after 200 hours
I don’t normally cover day to day council politics here, but we have what I think is the first ejection of a Councillor since the Local Election last week.
If my stopwatch is working, Darren Gilbert has been a Councillor for … um …. just over 200 hours (or 8 days, which is shorter than the longest Cricket Test Match).
From Councillor John Dean, who leads the Council:
Mr Dean said: “It was alleged that Mr Gilbert had made up claims that he had cancer while working in a previous job.
“As soon as the Welwyn Hatfield Association were made aware of this we made our own inquiries.
“Mr Gilbert resigned from his position yesterday. He is no longer a Conservative councillor.”
Any more for any more?
Suggested alternative activity: take advantage of the cricket season, which has just started.
A Bar Chart for the Crewe and Nantwich Byelection
I have a leaked By Election Bar Chart from the Crewe and Nantwich byelection. I’m assuming that they won’t be using this one.
I am delighted to say that I am on blog hiatus until after the Crewe and Nantwich byelection has finished.
The point was made that the Labour figure is understood to be at least two. The reply was “It was estimated as one”.
Tags: barchart, liberal democrat, libdem, labour party, conservative party, tory, crewe and nantwich
[tags]barchart, liberal democrat, libdem, labour party, conservative party, tory, crewe and nantwich[/tags]
Rounding Up the Blogs: Senedd Circular w/b 04 May 2008
This week we have a special “link blog” Senedd Circular, as Matt has been rounding up the daffodils earlier and Miss Wagstaff had a night on the tiles (allegedly). So this is a “Matt” roundup.
Blog Snippets
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Coalition deals sideline Labour
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Lib Dem German to quit in autumn
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New language rule for 57 bodies: thou shalt deliver thy services in Welsh (I have not yet found out whether the Wardman Wire is on list, but another 57 makes 493 ). I wonder if Heinz are in the 57 organisations.
Rounding up the Daffodils cennin Pedr
There’s a big kerfuffle happening about cennin Pedr and why they should be purchased in Wales and not imported from foreign climes such as Cornwall (for example). Read these links to understand:
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Cennin Pedr in Rural Wales .
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My take on Cennin Pedr and Free Trade.
I wonder whether someone is going to appeal for a European Union Protected Designation for daffodils as Welsh. If so - prepare to get sued by the Ghost of Wordsworth .
In would be more fun if the Welsh did “red-faced nationalists on the point of exploding”. Unfortunately they don’t; that’s just Tunbridge Wells, a certain brand of Conservative, and Alex.
The Gossip
And - on the gossip front - I only just tumbled to the fact that Blamerbell the Underpants is a sibling of young Ms Jenkins from the Senedd .
Ordovicius tells me that “everyone (apart from me, apparently - pity the English) knows about “the Jenkins Clan from Merthyr Tidfil the Rhondda“.
Isaac Asimov had a race from outer space called the Jenkinsites who survived by carrying a cylinder of cyanide gas to breathe - as that was the atmosphere on their home planet. I’m sure there’s no connection - the Asimov Jenkinsites also had six legs and a carapace.
Wrapping Up
Ok - enough. Miss Wagstaff is back next week.
I’m hoping to blog-interview an AM from each party to tease out the more serious points about A preference for Local Production vs EU Procurement Rules early next week. Let’s see if they will talk to me.
