Blogging by Local Government Officials - A New Kind of Transparency
Once again, California is in the vanguard. This time, it's blogs
by mayors, city managers, and other local government officials (for
list, click<span></span> <a href="http://californiacitynews.typepad.com/californiacitynewsorg/cityblogs.h…; target="”_blank”">here</a>;
not all of these are government officials' blogs, but many are and it's
not hard to tell them apart).<br>
<br>
This is a risky approach to transparency, but by opening the blog to
citizen comments, it certainly sends a clear message to citizens that
their government leaders want to know what they have to say. It opens
up government to community discussion on an ongoing basis, supporting
participation, dialogue, and diversity of ideas.<br>
<br>
Of course, such a blog can be abused. The one kind of abuse people
really have to watch out for is the rejection of comments that are
critical of the blogging official.<br>
<br>
<a href="http://californiacitynews.typepad.com/californiacitynewsorg/2007/08/blo…; target="”_blank”">Here's
an article</a>, by a California mayor of course, on local government
official blogging. Thanks to Judy Nadler (a former California mayor) and <a href="http://www.scu.edu/ethics-center/ethicsblog/herhonor.cfm" target="”_blank”">her
blog</a> for alerting me to this phenomenon.<br>