FYI:

2005-10-31T15:30:00.000-08:00

The Links section has 2 good reference manuals-->

Mark, thanks for taking the time to meet with me this afternoon! Here are links to the government-related blogs we discussed: Jerry Brown (Oakland, CA mayor), Loni Hancock (CA state assembly), St. Helena (CA) Town Hall and Manama (Bahrain) Municipal Council. Plus, I've included links to some of those celebrity blogs: Brian Williams (NBC), Arianna Huffington, Barbra Streisand and Dave Barry.

U.S. Congressman John Conyers (D-Michigan) has written that the Democrats saw how effectively Howard Dean used his campaign blog for fundraising and assumed that any blog could be used as a cash machine. But he feels that blogs are much more useful in another area: "The MSM [mainstream media] simply will not report on the actions of a party that lacks the White House or majority control of either house of Congress. Indeed, the same reporters who write that Democrats lack an agenda refuse to write about our legislative proposals no matter the number of press conferences, calls and press releases. Blogging lets me bypass that filter and take my message directly to many voters."

In the words of journalist A. J. Liebling (1904-1963): "Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one."

A blog can be immediately updated, in contrast to: Indio quarterly newsletter and Rancho Mirage quarterly newsletter... or even Indian Wells monthly newsletter and Palm Springs monthly newsletter.

Business Week wrote: "Go ahead and bellyache about blogs. But you cannot afford to close your eyes to them, because they're simply the most explosive outbreak in the information world since the Internet itself. And they're going to shake up just about every business - including yours." [Corporate blogs: GM, Boeing, World Bank.]

The Reporters Without Frontiers organization has written: "Blogs get people excited. Or else they disturb and worry them. Some people distrust them. Others see them as the vanguard of a new information revolution. Because they allow and encourage ordinary people to speak up, they're tremendous tools of freedom of expression. Bloggers are often the only real journalists in countries where the mainstream media is censored or under pressure. Only they provide independent news, at the risk of displeasing the government and sometimes courting arrest." [Iraqi blogs which later became books: Salam Pax and Baghdad Burning, plus Soldier Blogs.]

Suggestions for jump-starting an Indio blog: [1] you, Glenn, the Mayor and the City Council could tell "cocktail party" stories about our town (interesting or funny experiences at the Date Festival, Powwow, etc.); [2] formulate a writing contest and open it to the public (stories like those above); [3] create an Indio Photo Competition; [4] post a Weekly Calendar of entertaining activities.

I have extended blogging invitations to both you and Glenn - please feel free to experiment with posting various messages here. You can delete and/or edit them, even after they're published. This is not a public blog; the URL is known only to the three of us. Also, please ignore the formatting: this is an off-the-shelf template from Blogger.com. The final product can be formatted to your specs (see the Blogger.com-powered blog I created to match the Palm Springs Writers Guild website's look and feel).

PS: Our activities here actually illustrate another valuable use for blogs: collaboration on internal projects.

The Indionian (sample blog)

FYI: