He is very keen to get some of those councillors online. The benefits could be enormous.  Not only would it help the councils start conversations with their communities and boost their profile, but it would also help the councillors network amongst themselves.  Blogs and social networks would be a quick and easy way for town and parish councils to share information, success stories and help each other achieve what they want.  This peer networking aspect of blogging is useful but not often mentioned.

To help NALC along the way we sent them 40 copies of the CivicSurf DVD to go to each of the 38 county associations that filter information down to the town and parish councils.  Hopefully it’ll get shown and a few more of our democratic representatives will benefit from blogging.  Maybe some coaching might be in order.

I normally don’t say much about the many private meetings that I hold in Seoul, but this morning I called on Kim Dae-jung, former President of Korea and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.  I went to see him to thank him for his continued attention to the imprisonment of his fellow Peace Prize recipient, Aung San Suu Kyi, and specifically for his contribution to the website set up for ASSK’s 64th birthday.

We discussed Secretary-General Ban’s visit to Burma tomorrow and the sad fact the ASSK’s trial is to resume the same day.  It was encouraging to see the very clear focus that President Kim has on the plight of ASSK and his strong support for pro-democracy elements there.  Coming from a man who did so much to bring democracy to Korea, I found it truly heartening.
President Kim kindly agreed that I could mention our conversation and his staunch support for the people of Burma.

Martin has crammed an enormous amount of into two short paragraphs that probably took ten minutes or less to write.

• He meets Heads of State as part of his job
• The former President supports the plight of fellow Peace Prize Recipient, Aung San Suu Kyi
• ASSK is 64
• There is a website supporting her
• Her trial is to resume tomorrow
• It is all about promoting democracy

It’s well worth following the FCO blogs.  A little rough around some edges and not every post is of interest, but there are some gems.

A comment was posted this morning on the IDeA’s Policy & Performance blog:

The CivicSurf DVD is a fantastic introduction. And that’s not just my opinion. We invited our councillors to a 45 minute session and showed the film after a very brief introduction about online communities. The fact that they saw ‘people like them’ in similar circumstances got the key points across very effectively, and it generated some great questions and comments. I prepared a document that gave links to social media tools, blogs by elected representatives and online community websites to encourage further investigation and play. One councillor is now blogging regularly. But all who attended now have a better understanding of the possibilities for online engagement. Long story short, thumbs up to CivicSurf.

It was written by an Australian Local Govt Officer who requested a CivicSurf DVD a few months back.  I’m really delighted that the film helped convince his elected representatives within just 45 minutes.  It is exactly what it was made for.

You can follow the councillors (and some others) on Twitter: @OzGovLocalClrs

Martin is one of the DFID bloggers that we’ve been coaching.  He’s recently arrived in Kigali, Rwanda as Head of DFID Rwanda.  He’s just published a post called Dear Olly that drives home the human nature of the work that DFID in the developing world.

The post is really well written. It is personal. It links the UK with Rwanda.  It explains part of DFID’s important work in the country. It gives you hope that things are improving.

Please go read it, tell your colleagues to read it and tell your bosses to read it.  Then read some more of the DFID bloggers.  They are doing a fantastic job of telling the story of DFID’s work in a real and human way.

(Cross-posted from www.gallomanor.com)

Dull to you and me perhaps, but to Tony it is very interesting  indeed, because it shows what his constituents are interested in and for a civic leader that is the way to get re-elected.

Politicians are catching up rapidly.  No.10 Downing Street passed MC Hammer in popularity today and two services in particular help us find the more obscure users in the political sphere.

• Tweetminster follows MPs and Prospective Parliamentary Candidates
• CllrTweeps is building a list of Councillors who tweet

Both seem to be developing fast and are worth checking up on from time to time.

This evening they announced via Twitter that they’d set up a new blog to share information based on the emails and calls they receive. It’s really basic stuff. Someone emails or calls the embassy about something because they can’t find the information elsewhere. So publish that information on a Google friendly website AKA a blog. Next time people find without having to call or email. Everyone’s time is saved.

It’s great to see the US Embassy using Social Media tools this way. It’s not clear if this is a rogue experiment coming out of Grosvenor Square or an international thing. Either way it’s great to see.

The idea of providing coaching does seem to be gaining traction amongst local authorities. We’re putting together two proposals for community engagement sites this week and both have asked for coaching.

There is more information on this site about the coaching programme we offer.  Use the menu link or the rather large button on the right.

There are three ways to keep in touch with what the CivicSurf project are doing:

1. Visit this site regularly - once a fortnight might do you, but you might forget
2. Add the RSS Feed to your subscription list  - Plain English video on what in the world is RSS
   
3. Sign up to receive emails whenever we publish something new - click link or use the form top right

The best way is number 2.  It means you won’t miss a thing, you’ll get the information when you want (rather than by an email cluttering your inbox), and you can share it via an intranet or your own blog.  FYI RSS feeds are covered in the CivicSurf Blog Coaching Programme.

It was interesting to read that he had the self-discipline to run the blog unpublished for 6 weeks or so to build a few posts and to be sure in himself that he wanted to launch the blog.