Blogging Pols

Following on the elections, I’ve collected some more examples of public officials who blog—and some who don’t.

Example 1: Massachusetts

John Palfrey (”One of the questions that’s always bothered me is why candidates who use the Internet to get elected seem to use the Internet much less effectively as they are governing.”) and Dave Weinberger (”There’s no place for citizens to post in public and talk with one another.”) have both pointed, with varying degrees of optimism, to Mass. Governor-elect Deval Patrick’s transition web page.

Example 2: China

Over at Global Voices, John Kennedy (via Rebecca MacKinnon) reviews blogging pols in China. Kennedy asks if blogs are “an effective way for public servants to hold themselves accountable to city residents? Or yet another empty symbol of a feedback mechanism?”

Example 3: Nigeria

Ethan Zuckerman points to the blog of Donald Duke Calabar, the governor of Nigeria’s Cross River State. (Duke is a member of the PDP, which is the party preferred by at least some of my Nigerian neighbors.)

Example 4:

Alas, here in Cook County we have no such shining paragon of openness, having offered our blogging junior Senator up to the world. Who wouldn’t enjoy reading blogs by Todd Stroger, soon-to-be ex- County Board President Bobbi Bobbie Steele, Mayor Daley or some of his pals.

We do have CTA Chair Carole Brown’s blog, which I pointed to last month. After more than a month of silence, she has a new post, and it seems she’s been listening to the comments and even breaks some news:

Some of you have asked about recent construction reports and slow zones. CTA’s new manager in charge of construction, engineering, and facilities began work at CTA in early November. I wanted to give him a chance to review some of the research I have requested on slow zones before presenting it to the board. That presentation has been set for our December board meeting.