Blog off

Update: you need to look at Big Smoke and my personal site for my latest work. Thanks.

A few eagle-eyed regular readers have pointed out to me that I haven't blogged in a while. I know. In fact there has been a three-week gap. That's the longest gap there has ever been in this blog's entire history - including the time I had pneumonia - and every high and low of my life over the last four and a bit years.

Well, there's a reason for the break. I'm switching the blog off, but wanted to give myself a little thinking time before telling everyone in case I was going to change my mind a couple of days later.

To be precise I'm archiving the old girl. This is the very last post and in a couple of weeks I'll turn off the comments - and that will be that.


It's been fun but I'm moving on. I've set up a Jim Jepps website where you can keep up with any interesting bits of news, articles I've written and projects I'm supporting. I've got a few things in the pipeline so watch that space!

If there are two thoughts I'd like to leave with I suppose it's these. First, that the internet can be a civilised place if people treat it in the same way that they treat their own day to day 'meatspace' lives. That means the same self-regulation and the same willingness to not put up with the kind of behaviour that at work or among friends would be unthinkable but appears to be commonplace in some places on the net.

I think writing this blog has proved to me at least that it is possible to disagree with someone on the net without demonising them and to be critical of your friends without falling out.

The second is that the best of the web is where people think, not where people are fastest with the news. The blogosphere is full of people blogwarring with each other, jumping up to comment on the news the moment it comes out and knee jerking their politics just so they get in first. That's pretty unhealthy and it's led to parts of the blogosphere mirroring the worst parts of the 24-hour media rather than enhancing it or, even better, holding it to account.

I think we need to be more conscious of the risks of becoming an echo-chamber caught in a self-referential circle.

Twitter allows us to, for example, name a Tory MP arrested for sexual assault within an hour of it happening. What it does not seem to allow for is to not out that person until we know whether any charges will actually be brought. In our daily lives gossip is seen as a bad thing, and gossips are people we are generally wary of - much of social media encourages us to unthinkingly exhibit behaviour that most of us would regard as reprehensible in other circumstances.

Why else would a perfectly decent person serving jury duty think it's perfectly acceptable to contact someone whose case they've heard about a co-defendant? That's something I'm sure she would never have dreamed of doing before the ubiquity of social media but, in reality, is just as wrong as walking up to them face to face and discussing the, as yet unfinished, case.

I'm just thinking aloud really; it's hardly as if I've personally come a cropper of any of these tendencies nor have they been a theme of this blog particularly, but I am concerned at how the medium is distorting how we do politics and what we think is decent behaviour. The fact that these new technologies seem to by-pass that area of the brain where our integrity lies is a tendency I firmly believe we can counter if we work together to do so.

At least that's the way it seems to me.

Returning to the subject of signing off though, it's been an educative experience. I first set the blog up as a purely temporary measure as I wanted to test whether I could write a post a day for a month, but at the end of the month it was oh so easy to carry on. And here we are. It turns out that once you have momentum it's easier than you'd think.

Thanks to all the lefty, greeny, decent people who've been following The Daily (Maybe) for the last few years. Do stay in touch and good luck with the future - we're all going to need it.

A few blogs to highlight

• I've been reading a week is a long time for ages now, Jo felt I should show it some love. Happy to oblige.
  
• I may not have linked to Ann Pettifor's blog, Debtonation, before but well worth following.
  
• Matthew Butcher blog's at A place to write. Do check it out.
  
• A scanner dispairingly is new to me but looks really good.
  
  
• Labour's Dave Harris in Colchester has a blog that is a useful example of how a hard working local councillor can use their blog for solid local news.
  
• And last but not least women of the sky a fun little blog on astronauts, aeronauts and assorted interesting people.
  

Updating... archives, feminism, blogs and cats

This week I'm going to be engaging in two blog series here at the Daily (Maybe). One stems from the fact that I've discovered how to find archived material from the bowels of the internet even after the page they originally sat on no longer exists.

That means I'm going to do a little series of 'from the archives' of pieces I wrote some time ago in other places.

Some I still agree with - others are more like historical curiosities, although I've decided not to repost my article against proportional representation. I'm letting it lie. Generally though it feels like I'm rescuing my past work from oblivion so please bare with me.

Incidentally, is that the right bare, or is it bear? I'm never sure.

The second series is an ABC of feminism that's starting tonight. This consists of five guest posts from feminists attempting to give a bit of a beginners' guide to, well, feminism. Thanks to all the contributors who've submitted their pieces and to those who are still polishing theirs to perfection.

This follows my ongoing interest in gender politics. See, for example, my article why feminism has been good for men.

I'm also pleased to announce that the cat of award goes to Caspar, the public transport cat, who passed away early in 2010. I genuinely find this rather moving... I really must get out more. Caspar only just pipped at the post Bob, the streetwise cat, God bless them both.

Caspar the public transport cat	31%
Bob the streetwise cat	30%
Alfie the resurrection cat	13%

Talking of online projects you can read my piece on the welfare bill at new anti-capitalist group blog here and my piece on Pakistan was cross posted at Liberal Conspiracy here.

How was 2010 then?

Pretty rubbish to be honest! Just taking a quick look at my "blogging resolutions" from last year makes me think I may give up resolutions.

I said I'd try to improve my use of twitter. Well, I'm still using it, find me here, and enjoy it in an unfocused sort of way - but God alone knows whether I'm using it "a bit more intelligently".

I also said I'd get back into more non-partisan blogging. I don't make any secret of being a Green Party member but I was very conscious that there was a big election coming up and it was going to be hard not to over blog on the Party. Certainly I managed to tone down the partisan-ness after the election.

My ideal would be for people new to the blog to be unaware, from the content, that I'm a Green Party member at all until they become regular readers... but this may well be an impossible dream (short of leaving the party, which seems a bit drastic). Generally I think I achieved this as long as you leave aside the fact that whether I was a member of a party or not I'd still be disgusted with the Lib Dems.

Blogging projects: I tried my hand at local blogging, not particularly satisfactorily, and although the Carnival of Socialism still walks among the living (Luna 17 will be hosting the next episode any time now!). My gut feeling is that the political blogosphere is going to undergo some radical changes over the next year and any new projects I'm part of (watch this space) are going to undergo a trial of fire I reckon.

The Best Blogging is toughening up and in the process the old style midnight underpants blogging is beginning to slip away. By the end of this year I think it will be hard to tell the difference between the biggest blogs and straight online publications with comment facilities. At least that's the way I see it.

I also wanted to host more interviews and guest posts which I have done. I've got a few plans for more collaborations, which is nice, although I wonder whether the tension between an individual blogging voice and an online publication with many voices works. Certainly group blogging is one way I think things are going (as well as hyper-local hyper-specific blogging).

At the end of the day I still just blog for the enjoyment of it and never check my stats or care about where I appear on any chart or table - blogging is not a competitive sport - although appreciation is always nice.

If I have any blogging resolutions for next year I think it is these;

1) Do more to continue help promote other bloggers.
2) Take part in more collaborations and group blogging.
3) Comment more on other blogs, and lastly,
4) If I give up blogging at the Daily (Maybe) this year, to make sure I don't leave myself with no online outlet once I've hung up my mouse.

Total Politics Top Green Blogs

The votes are counted, crunched and spat out again at an alarmed public. Total Politics have announced the top twenty five Green Party blogs. I'd like to thank everyone who voted for The Daily (Maybe) making a very welcome hat-trick, winning top place three years in a row.

You're all very lovely and you shall get your reward in heaven, or some other suitably ethereal location. Well done to those who made the top ten, which looks like this;

1 (1) The Daily (Maybe)
2 Bright Green Scotland
3 (2) Two Doctors
4 (5) Barkingside 21
5 (4) Another Green World
6 Gaian Economics
7 (21) George Monbiot
8 (8) Rupert's Read
9 (11) Mabinogogiblog
10 (9) Ruscombe Green

Congratulations particularly go to Bright Green Scotland who've leaped straight in at number two, making two of the top three based on the chilly side of Hadrian's Wall. I also note that two of the top 25 are recent defectors from the Lib Dems (the excellent Jane's Political Ramblings and A Week Is a Long Time) showing you don't have to have been a member for years to make a valuable contribution.

Obviously this is all a bit of fun and games rather than anything too substantial. Politics is a team effort, not a competition, and that also goes for political blogging. Well done to everyone who is part of the right-on blogosphere, whether or not you're on this list or any other. Still, thanks again, it's nice to know people appreciate you.

Annual Total Politics blog awards

For me blogging is just a bit of fun really. I don't check my stats, I don't write posts based on what I think I 'ought' to write on or what might be popular - although I don't avoid doing that either if the inspiration comes. Blog awards are a little bit of fun within that bit of fun, although I only really take part in one, the Total Politics blog awards which are decided entirely on popular vote.

Awards like this don't mean anything much, but as a means of raising the profile of the best blogs and helping create a blogging community I think they're a very useful device. Last year shamefully the Greens only had two blogs in the top one hundred which was, I suppose, twice as many as the year before so I'm hoping that we see a few more Green blogs up there and more of my non-Green Party favourites do well too.

Personally I don't vote just for Green bloggers and tend to have an eclectic mix in my pick - although it's always hard to choose just ten. I don't want to recommend a list of blogs as that's quite verbotten under the rules however, because you need to vote for at least five blogs, in a spirit of eco-helpfulness I thought I'd remind people of the top three Green blogs last time, The Daily (Maybe) http://jimjay.blogspot.com, Two Doctors http://www.twodoctors.org, and Peter Cranie http://petercranie.blogspot.com.

There's also our top ranking woman blogger Sue Luxton http://greenladywell.blogspot.com and a new member and very strong blogger from Leeds, My Political Ramblings http://janespoliticalramblings.wordpress.com. Lastly I thought I'd highlight possibly our only group blog, and a very fine one it is too, Bright Green Scotland http://brightgreenscotland.org.

Even if you don't vote for them they're all worth a visit I reckon. You can find the full instructions by clicking the graphic below;

Happy Birthday Daily (Maybe)

Four years of blogging with an average of over four hundred posts a year it was on this very day that I started blogging. My aim was to blog for one month, but I wasn't so sure I'd be able to keep it up - hence the maybe in the title.

I've changed a fair bit as a blogger since I started out. I learned not to care about site stats and, although it probably doesn't look like it, I'm more relaxed if I haven't posted for a couple of days. I just let it come. I've also come to realise that this blog doesn't have to be 'for' anything - it's just something I do.

Now, I was going to book St Paul's Cathedral for the celebration party, but it turns out they don't allow pyrotechnics or foam machines so I had to scratch that idea. So Plan B is that over the next few days I'll lay on what passes for a treat, at this blog anyway.

That means I'll be hosting some guest posts from a hand picked elite of people I know, I'll also be going back into the archives and recovering some long forgotten gems and giving them a dust off. Add to this a couple of interviews and the regular mix of World Cup round up and huffing and puffing about the Tory Coalition and we're talking about a real blogging blitz.

Hope you don't find it too much to take. I've also started work on a mini-series of posts on the direction of the Green Party in very changed circumstances, I might leave that until the celebrations are over though, as they're reasonably serious.

Blog nation: it's the economy, clearly

I went to the Liberal Conspiracy blog nation event today which was, generally, very excellent and my commendations to Sunny for putting it all together. Frankly I could have done with a few less Lib Dems trying to justify their shoddy government and their shoddy budget, but that aside very good.

I missed most of what sounded like a very useful discussion on abortion rights under the Tories but one of the interesting themes that came up that I didn't miss was about how to most effectively oppose the budget cuts, as bloggers.

As always with Liberal Conspiracy there was a bit too much of a focus on 'framing' and 'narrative' for my tastes, but I'm not criticising that - it's just I find that kind of language a little bit alienating. Anyway, just to riff on the theme for a moment it seems to me that there was a kind of soul searching about whether we should be presenting things in a far more emotive way, which could be accessed by more people. Someone characterised this as a left-wing Daily Mail style.

Of course the Daily Mail tells lies and goes out of its way to be controversial for paper sales, both of which are the hallmarks of political bankruptcy and, more importantly, make it particularly ineffective at speaking to the middle ground. You really do have to be a gullible, reactionary fuck to believe everything you read in the Mail and there's no value in copying that method if we're hoping to win over those not already within our ranks.

More interestingly some people were talking about using anecdotal "stories" that help personalise the cuts and demonstrate the effect they have on people's lives. I think there is value in that, but it can only go so far. The problem is that both the Lib Dems and the Conservatives are happy to admit that cuts are painful and cause hardship - this is not contested. What is contested is whether the cuts are necessary. That's economics, not story telling - which may help illustrate your point, but it cannot be the point your making.

What we need to articulate in a more accessible form is the case against cuts, which is broadly a debate between the economics of Hayek and Keynes, certainly in the mainstream of the debate. However, in 'our' camp we have three different approaches to this question. First we have the approach that the cuts are too deep, too soon, but deficit reduction along these lines is inevitable. These people want to slow the cuts, and ensure they don't hit critical services.

Second we have those who oppose cuts as a deficit reduction measure on the basis that we can use equality and growth to combat the crisis. Savage cuts will wreak the economy, at a time when we should be investing, boosting jobs and raising extra funds from progressive taxation and schemes like the Robin Hood tax. These people argue that cuts full stop are bad for the economy, that laying people off as the dole queues grow is a recipe for a vicious cycle of decline.

Lastly we have anti-capitalists. This group steals arguments from the other two but essentially places the blame for the crisis on the economic framework itself and seeks to challenge that in a more fundamental way. Splenetic venting about bankers and fat cats is part of that, but it actually goes far further. The crisis was not caused by Leaman Brothers or Freddie Mac but the priorities of a system where profits come before people, and the millions come second to the millionaires.

Actually many people are mix of the three, but I think the categories stand.

How to find a unified voice then? Well it's not as tricky as it sounds as long as you don't expect everyone to sing from the same hymn sheet all of the time.

As of right now there are probably hundreds of campaign groups set up, formally or informally, up and down the country to defend local communities against specific cuts. All these groups will be alliances and, on the whole, they are an embryonic eco-system of resistance. Bloggers can be part of linking those campaigns, putting them in touch with each other and creating a more conscious movement against the cuts.

Those campaigns will be providing the arguments on the human cost of the cuts, these are useful for us all to remind us what we are fighting for. What that network of citizen journalists and campaigners should be doing is providing a digestible economic alternative that shows not just why cutting public services in dangerous and painful, but also why it is the wrong economic strategy. They can also provide resources, some fun some serious and weighty, that are useful campaigning tools that can be used and adapted across the country.

To my mind this approach needs to be supporting those resistance campaigns from the bottom up, rather than attempting to create a national army of clone campaigns under the auspices of a central command. I don't think that will work and it's not necessary because those community groups are already springing up 'organically'.

The left Keynsians and the anti-capitalists (I hope you forgive the crude generalisations there) can actually unite pretty easily on this and the wet left who think cuts are being managed poorly will find it harder to fit into that framework than they will when they become involved in the local campaigns to defend specific services. We can't play to the lowest common denominator so they'll just have to catch up.

Internet bashing

Just listening to the radio wheel out old, lazy cliches about the internet making people more isolated and lonely. Personally I think this is rubbish, people have never communicated with each other more, just because we do it in new ways does not make it a social problem.

I'd like to remind these people that isolation and loneliness is not new. Exhibit one, The Members wrote and performed this song long before anyone knew they'd be such a thing as the world wide web.



The idea that making it easier to keep in touch with those you know and create social networks of people you'd never normally get to meet is an isolating experience just seems strange to me.

It's far too easy to look at the past through rose tinted glasses and underplay the impact of poverty, rural isolation or what people with sociology degrees call 'social deviation' (not as fun as it sounds) could have upon people. All problems that are mitigated through the rise of social media, although obviously not eradicated.

I think it's true that today we have communities with little sense of community, but this is a process that began long before the internet came about and while there were lots of upsides to strogner community cohesion this came at a price where people were expected to conform to social standards far more tightly than they are today.

I suspect being trapped in a marriage because it's the thing you are meant to do was a far more depressing experience than anything Bebo has managed to conjure up.

Six blogs

A few blogs I'd like to link to;

• Capitalism creates poverty. A Weaver Vale Green. I wonder where Weaver Vale is?
• Congratulations to Winston Smith who has just won the Orwell Prize for blogging.
• Then there is the blog of Operation Black Vote which is very interesting.
• People may not know that Caroline Lucas is blogging here, and tweets here.
• I've got a feeling I've never linked to Dr Petra. Very remiss of me.
• The British Ecological Society is blogging too.
  

Orwell Prize for blogging long list

A number of excellent blogs have got through to the long list for the Orwell Prize for blogging. I'm particularly pleased to Dave's Part and Madame Miaow in there as they are both regular reads of mine.

The full list is as follows, good luck to them all;

• David Osler: Dave’s Part
• David Smith: Letter from Africa
• Gideon Rachman: rachmanblog
• Hopi Sen: Hopi Sen
• Iain Dale: Iain Dale’s Diary
• Jack of Kent: Jack of Kent
• Laurie Penny: Penny Red and others
• Madam Miaow: Madam Miaow Says
• Mary Beard: A Don’s Life
• Morus: PoliticalBetting.com; Daily Kos
• PC Ellie Bloggs: A Twenty-First Century Police Officer
• Ray: The Bad Old Days Will End
• Tim Marshall: Foreign Matters
• Winston Smith: Working with the Underclass

Also good luck to the Spirit Level which is up for the book award.

Not boycotting those who will not boycott

From time to time little blog spats take place which become heated, personalised disagreements of no interest to anyone outside the blogosphere. I have to say these are the one aspect of the blogging that I have absolutely no time for, and absolutely no interest in. They are tedious in the extreme and only appear political because it is political people who indulge in them. Just this once I'm going to mention one, just to make it clear why I'm not getting involved.

Iain Dale, who is a Tory blogger of some renown, is heavily involved in Total Politics, a magazine that goes out to all sorts of political types. Iain has recently interviewed BNP leader Nick Griffin for the magazine. This gives Griffin a platform and presents him the opportunity to pose as a respectable politician.

This is a bad thing and I wish Iain and Total Politics had not done this, in my view they are playing a dangerous game. However, almost every news source I use has interviewed Griffin and his BNP henchmen at some point so Total Politics is hardly forging new ground here.

However, over at Though Cowards Flinch, they decided this was too much to bear and issued a call for every political blogger to boycott the Total Politics blog awards because the magazine carried the interview. They explicitly do not a call for a boycott of the Guardian, or the BBC or Channel Four News, who have all interviewed Griffin, but target Total Politics because it's small enough to push around and Dale is a Tory.

That's not good enough.

AVPS points out that the boycott achieves the reverse of it's intention; "By advocating action against TP, the TCF comrades have ensured Iain's interview will receive wider circulation than would otherwise be the case. Inadvertently, calling for no platform in this case means Griffin gets a broader platform."

That, in fact, those who issued the call are more interested in emphasising their political differences with a Tory than they are in minimising the amount of publicity the fascists receive. They have ensured that this interview, that they say they wish never happened, is read far more widely than if they had never mentioned it. The success of the boycott call will be judged by how much harm it does a Tory blogger even as it helps the BNP get its message out which, in reality, is a side issue to the call - which is a big part of why I don't trust this initiative.

I don't believe Iain was right to conduct and publish this interview but I've never before heard that it is a principle to no platform or boycott people who don't believe in no platform - I think the idea has always been to try to persuade them they are wrong, something this boycott is not going to do, in fact it will entrench those who oppose no platform in their position.

Blog wars of this kind have nothing to do with real politics even when they work, which this one doesn't. I love Liberal Conspiracy, for example, but its personalised attacks on Iain Dale come across as puerile and tribal, something that I have no interest in and always makes me think less of what is, more generally, an excellent site.

I wont be taking part in the call for boycotting Total Politics. Nor will I be mistaking the fact that I despise Tory ideas for the need to despise individual Tories. The few times I've met Iain Dale I've rather liked him and don't feel the least bit bad about it, I just don't want him running the country is all.

Inventing new principles that we have to boycott people who don't agree with no platform for fascists risks weakening the no platform principle itself. No platform relies upon the idea that we specifically deny a platform to fascists, and only fascists, because of the threat they pose to democratic politics. We do not boycott people because they don't agree with us, at least grown ups don't.

Blogging Resolutions for 2010

Sometimes I post a set of blogging resolutions which I'm usually pretty good at keeping to, although last year I posted up some predictions for this year just gone by instead, which seem to be about 90% right. Back to the resolutions this year I think as I dread to think what the coming year may hold.

Twitter: I'll try to figure out how to use the thing a bit more intelligently. I do like twitter and, despite the fact some people seem to despise the very name with a passion, I think it's rather fun.

What I don't do is pay any attention to gathering new followers or being consistently useful/funny/lovely in my 'tweets'. I'll try and improve this year.

Follow my progress here.

Non-partisan blogging: I don't make a secret of being a Green Party member but I do hope that this blog doesn't read like it's issued by central office. I'm an independent minded chap when all is said and done and I've made no secret of disagreeing with the party sometimes or admiring others in rival organisations when the mood suits me.

Being a general election year there's going to be a certain amount of self applied pressure to be a more down the line party loyalist, which I don't think would be good for the blog or good for me more generally. There will be the added complication that more of my time will be spent doing very specifically electoral work so it's likely that's what will be on my mind.

So for my next resolution, I'll try to get the balance right.

Blog local: I've been doing a touch of blogging at Green Crofton Park, where I've been selected to stand in this year's local elections. I've got a lot to learn about good local blogging that connects to the community so this is going to be a steep learning curve for me.

One of the things I want to do this year is really crack the art of the useful, informative and fun local blog. Lewisham is the place to do it too as there is a veritable hive of strong local blogs in the area to learn from.

New group blogging projects: There's some potential group blogging projects that may emerge in the next few weeks for me. Group blogging is certainly one of the strongest form of blogging and although I'd never give up my own space I am feeling it's time to take group work more seriously.

Now the new year is about to beginning revitalising the Carnival of Socialism with new admins should help to get it back on track but there will be at least two more magazine style projects (one ongoing that I'll be joining and one new that I'll be helping to launch) that will be a refreshing departure for me and I'm really looking forward to.

More interviews: I do enjoy the interviews and guest posts that I host here but they can be hard work for the subject and so they don't appear as often as I'd like. I think I'm going to have a renewed push to getting more guest posts, more interviews and ensuring they come from a good spectrum of people.

I'm going to be running a series of interviews with Green PPCs up to the election so I really do need to ensure that this is balanced out (see above) with other good sorts who hail from other traditions or perspectives. All suggestions more than welcome.

Parallel ethics

I went to my first 'Westminster Skeptics' meeting tonight which was on science activism and new media. Really excellent, speakers and audience with lots of food for thought. One thing in particular, that the Holford Watch blogger (name?) said, as an aside really got me thinking.

He described bloggers as having "novel ethical norms". Now if you were being cruel you might say yes, locked away in the darkness, hunched over a tiny screen it's no wonder many bloggers develop such unbelievably stunted manners. But let's not be cruel, let's be nice.

I think it's an interesting point because there are clear differences in what is seen as ethical and unethical online and where the borders are in meat space.

If you compare the way a newspaper article and a blog piece use links for example it is expected of a blogger to link to their sources, in a similar way to academics if less formal, whilst there's no expectation for journalists to link to source material so the reader can judge for themselves whether the journo is getting things right.

More importantly the only context where I would have a discussion with anonymous people is on a blog (not this one, I don't allow anonymous comments, although people still use pseudonyms, which is fine). I certainly wouldn't put up with the rudeness of some online commentators in a face to face meeting - although it's usually pretty civilised round here as I don't allow that sort of thing to grow.

However, it's still true that the net frees some people up to their inner bore who's lurking beneath the surface and they think nothing of exhibiting behavior that, if they saw it in their day to day life, they would be horrified at.

So why is this? Well, I think it comes down to basic material factors rather than any new exciting 'social media philosophy' or some such.

Linking is easy. Anonymity is possible online, it is not face to face. More than that it is easily done, which is why anonymous hate mail in real life is rare (but sadly does exist) and online is a way of life for some. Even being unpleasant to people is encouraged because it is so much easier to come across people you despise.

I've never been to a Tory meeting in my life even though, theoretically, it affords me the opportunity to start screaming "Remember the Belgrano!" and tipping water over the branch secretary. However, if I was so inclined, I could open a new tab in firefox, bring up a Tory blog and verbally piss in it, all without leaving my chair, risking physical attack, or any awkward questions from the old bill.

The fact that the majority of people who read political blogs do not do these things is a credit to the human race, but the fact it's made easy by the technology increases the likelihood no end. Of course, cunningly, the web has corralled most of these commentators into a few vile, bear-pits of blogs where everyone else knows not to go - but they do escape sometimes.

Anyway, norms. What happens in society when we transgress norms?

There are formal sanctions: We might be put in jail. We might be physically attacked. We might lose our job. We might be thrown out of the pub. Your boy/girlfriend might dump you. Online the equivalents are so much weaker, although we are still subject to the law, even if people forget it sometimes.

There are also informal sanctions: people might tell us we're a wanker. They might stop talking to us. They may raise their eyebrows and stop inviting us over for scrabble. Seeing as online these behaviors are generally directed towards targets that they don't even see as people where's the loss in any of those?

There are certainly parts of online ethics that are to be celebrated. The constant linking and referencing of other people's work for example, the culture of sharing of videos and recommending interesting 'stuff', the ultra-social side where you keep in touch with people you rarely get to see in real life. All made possible through the technology, but the darker side needs to be recognised too.

It's not just that people do things online they'd never do elsewhere, it's the fact that it's generally accepted that makes it a 'norm', related to the ethics of wider society but somehow parallel to it, with it's own rules and nuances.

Lewisham links

As you may know I'm cutting down the amount of linking I'm doing in the right hand column to make it all a bit more user friendly. Anyway, in order that I don't throw the baby out with the bath water I've decided to set up a Lewisham links post which I can link back to in order to make sure there's a way of supporting the local community.

If you have a site you'd like to promote please let me know in the comments box. Thanks.

Green		Bloggers
Cllr Dean Walton Green Ladywell Lewisham Green Drinks Lewisham Green Party Lewisham Greens' Twitter		853 Bob from Brockley Brockley Central Dizzy Thinks Transpontine
Resources		Community
Lewisham Council Lewisham Local History Society News shopper Wikipedia entry		Brockley Cross Action Group Brockley Jack Theatre Brockley Max Festival Brockley Society Croftton Park Community Link Crofton Park FC Jam Circus Rivoli Ballroom Telegraph Hill Society Voluntary Action Lewisham

Beware the bloggers, they kill councils

This is one of the strangest blogging stories I've ever read - and I've seen some corkers!

It seems that 15, yes 15, councillors have resigned on mass from Somerton council leaving the body unable to conduct any more business. It seems they were hacked off with being criticised on the internet. really.

The Guardian explains that "The walkout came after blogger Niall Connolly branded some members "jackasses" and referred to one leaflet as being "like a Nazi call to arms"."

Which seems to be about the strength of it, which suggests to me that the councillors were a little bit too uncomfortable with democracy and scrutiny. Surely if the blogger was telling lies they could take legal action, but if he just had an alternative vision of what they should have been doing with their positions, or simply telling the world what they were doing, well, it seems like a poor reason to take their ball home to me.

I took a glace at the photos of the councillors and a more internet friendly, non-backward bunch I could not possibly imagine. Mind you, I have a very poor imagination. I will allow Muck and Brass to recount in their own words how it felt when the councillors caved in (my emphasis);

"The Dunny hasn't had many meetings where the car-park was absolutely crammed and that was the first clue to tell you that something was afoot. Inside it was much the same with all the seats taken and standing room only. A rough head count suggested that 160 people had turned up for the meeting and they included a pretty broad spectrum of the community... then, about 33 minutes into the meeting, it all started to go Pete Tong.

"The Vice Chair stood up, put on his jacket and started a brief speech about how he was sick and tired of something or other and how he was going to leave it all up to the Town. At that point it seemed like he was presenting his resignation and this stunning news was greeted by the audience with rapturous applause. This seemed to trigger of a convulsion of action on the part of most of the rest of the council. As one they rose up and the Chair was subject to a proverbial avalanche of resignation letters before he himself resigned. Clearly a rather well orchestrated action but whose point was rather lost on those who were watching with a growing sense of wonderment. As the sheep filed out, a euphoria spread through the hall and everyone there shared their own 'Berlin Wall' moment. Freedom. Heady days indeed."

Sounds glorious!

I've been flicking through the archives and for the life of me the blog simply seems to be a site dedicated to proper scrutiny of the town council. I've not read the entire thing, obviously, but if Somerton council does not like being compared to a "clown council" then I suggest it does not explore more deeply into the internet where rather harsher language resides.

Let this be a warning to all those other councils out there. The bloggers are coming - better run and hide!

Green blogging moving forwards

Well, we've doubled the Green representation in the top 100 blogs in the Total Politics awards from one to two (well done number 52) and Peter Cranie was within spitting distance at 104.

It's all a bit of fun of course so let's not make it out to be anything other than that (which is why I've never understood the way some people seem to get so grumpy about these things). I've moved up to 34 (from 84 last year) which is all very gratifying but seeing as we're comparing apples to steamrollers here I wont start thinking I'm better than those below and worse than those above, particularly as there are blogs I very much enjoy both sides and blogs I think are tedious balls both ways too.

Anyway, thanks to everyone who voted for this blog, that was very kind of you. I hope next year we'll see at least one green blog in the top ten and a host of us cramming our way into the top one hundred, we can do it people!

Best Green Blogs Announced

Total Politics has announced the top Green blogs for 2009.

The top five or 'golden circle', chosen by popular vote, are;

1 (1) The Daily (Maybe)
2 (2) Two Doctors
3 (9) Peter Cranie
4 (3) Another Green World
5 (10) Barkingside 21

The number in brackets indicates the place in the same poll last year.

Good choices one and all. Special mention should also go to Sue Luxton who came in at number seven and is therefore our top blogging councillor. Your commemorative plaque is in the post!

A special thanks to everyone who voted for me, I'll try to reward your kindness with the best blogging I can provide over the coming year. It's all just a bit of fun of course, but heart warming none the less.

Well done James

Get in! Well done James.

Iain Dale has published the Total Politics list of top Scottish Bloggers and Two Doctors has achieved even further greatness moving up to number five.

He's the only Green to make it into the Scottish top ten so far and it would be good to see the green blogosphere in Scotland become strong enough to hold two or three of those top ten places in future years.

There are some good green bloggers north of the border like Adopted Domain and Suitably Despairing, I also believe Euro-blog Thursday Briefing is written by a Scot. All three of these deserve to gain a bit more profile for their splendid efforts.

Let's hope that we'll also see Patrick Harvie add a blog to his existing stunning website. He's possibly the only person I follow on twitter whose tweeting has reached the news so just think how effective his macro-blogging might be - hmmm.

Well done James. All power to the existing and future Green and left bloggers up round your way.

Twitter is froth - so what?

Much excitement in the BBC news room as they announce that twitter is "40% babble". Babble being the technical term for 'tweets' that the 'researcher' didn't care for. All I can say is, so what?

So the research company has labelled 40% of what people say as "pointless babble". Alright, what percentage of what people say to each other face to face is "pointless babble"? More or less? Because if it's more (and it might be if we used the same guidelines) would that make Twitter more highbrow than everyday conversation?

Also I'm rather intrigued as to what criteria they used. At what point do we cross the line from chit chat to babble? In my case it's normally after the fifth sherry, but obviously everyone has a different tipping point.

"Almost as prevalent as the babble were "conversational" tweets that used it as a surrogate instant messaging system. The study found that only 8.7% of messages could be said to have "value" as they passed along news of interest."

So conversation is not of "value" and linking to something is automatically worthwhile? Are we sure about this?

Yet more bullshit social media bashing by people who don't understand it's just people talking to each other using a new means. That new means has its own unique contours, strengths and weaknesses. You don't have to like it and I certainly don't think we should buy the hype that the revolution will be twitterised, or that now is the age of the Twitter Tsar but we shouldn't just go along with stories who discard sites like twitter because people use them to talk to each other, which is what they were designed for.

Surely the point is that if people find it has value for them they will use it, if not they will go elsewhere. Telling people that their conversation bores you isn't research and it doesn't tell us anything of value. If you've monitored our conversations and found them inadequate it's time for you to get a new hobby, not us.