The Wardman Wire

All about political blogging.

I’d like to start a debate – do we need a wider range of categories for blogs on wikio.co.uk.

I’ve been having a look at Wikio categories in other countries, (Spain, Italy, Germany, France, USA – see the right hand sidebar in each case), and the UK is unusual in having a smaller number of categories (see pic on the right).

Wikio rankings are not taken that seriously by most people, but they are a useful way of finding active blogs in each sector. Where a category does not exist, it is more hit and miss to find active blogs.

Equally, this is one way to draw attention to categories which are not well known.

I’m thinking about suggesting a wider range of categories to wikio.

What do you think?

The first new categories I’m wondering about about are Law Blogs (”Blawgs”) and “Local” Blogs – where there are a large number of good sites already established.

Which other niches could be made into Wikio categories?

These graphs show the posting rates of some of the “top” US political blogs, as defined by their Wikio rankings. These are counted by Wikio (US version). There is some interesting, and major, variation.

This is the first in an occasional series of bloggers who are vigorously scrutinising their local Councils.

NCCLOLs aims its magnifying glass at Nottingham City Council, and is notable for pursuing stories over the longer term. They also have the even more vigorous precedent of Robin Hood’s ’scrutiny’ of the Sheriff of Nottingham.

I went down to Ken Livingstone’s “Progressive London 2010 ” Conference at Congress House last Saturday. It was one of the longest days I have had for a long time – 21 hours, but worth it.

Sunny Hundal did one of the workshops at Progressive London 2010, with other prominent lefty bloggers on the panel, chaired by Kevin Maguire.

WINNING THE ARGUMENT – NEW MEDIA AND THE ELECTION
• Clifford Singer, mydavidcameron.com
• Helen Gardner, Boriswatch.co.uk
• Andy Newman, Socialist Unity
• Sunny Hundal, Liberal Conspiracy
• Alex Smith, Labourlist
• CHAIR: Kevin Maguire, Associate Editor, The Mirror

This article looks at some of the future directions for the Liberal Conspiracy site identified by Sunny, and places them in a wider context.