PolicyByBlog

I got a chance on my DAILY SHOW appearance to mention when I first started working on my book, BLOGWARS. Here are more details--partly drawn from BLOGWARS itself. In my mind there were three points of origin of the book.

1. In 1996, a colleague and I conducted one of the first studies of presidential campaign Web sites. Our main finding was that they were mostly online "tackboards," posting information rather than developing content that exploited the hyperlinking and interactive qualities of the Internet. We stated, however, in the conclusions that: "It is currently possible, though no candidate has done this, to host an online talk show where the candidate fields questions from users throughout the nation." Then, as an afterthought, I began looking at "personal political Web sites" created not by the campaign apparatus—political consultants, managers, advisers, or parties—but by individuals who supported the candidate or some cause. Many were raucous and crude, but it did seem that personalized mass political communication was finally possible. Here were ordinary folks—dry cleaners, cops, high school juniors—grabbing a bullhorn and insisting, "Listen to me, I have something to say!" about presidential politics, terrorism, the Supreme Court, and so on. If you had Web access, you could read and interact with them for your own enrichment or bemusement.

2. In 1999, I first noticed something called a "we-blog" (pronounced wee-blog) and then a "blog." In January 1999, Jesse James Garrett (Infosift) uploaded the names and URLs of the then twenty-three known weblogs. In the spring of 1999, Peter Merholz, host of peterme.com and an Internet analyst, announced, "For What It's Worth I've decided to pronounce the word 'weblog' as wee'-blog. Or 'blog' for short." He recalled that he "enjoyed [the word's] crudeness . . . its dissonance. I like that it's roughly onomatopoeic of vomiting. These sites (mine included!) tend to be a kind of information upchucking." His readers and correspondents adopted the term.

3. Taking summer off to study pre-Caucus votes in Iowa in 2003--I was then teaching at LSU--from the vantage point of Ames, Iowa, I gauged the impact of blogs on the campaign of Howard Dean for president. (To clarify: I was researching, not working for Dean). I appreciated that something innovative and exciting was changing political communication as I knew and taught it. People were (a) bypassing regular big media, (b) creating mass communication messages without formal training (like, say, attending my journalism school), (c) reaching, in some cases, large audiences, (d) inviting others to "wiki" or coauthor accretive knowledge, and (e) producing a range of effects on contemporary public opinion, political campaigns, public affairs argumentation, and even governmental policymaking.

And so the real investigation that became BLOGWARS began…(more to come)…

Items of interest this week:

Blogged Out of a Job; Few Firms Have Rules but Posters Be Warned, Amy Joyce, The Washington Post, February 19, 2006.

A reporter in Dover, Del., was fired earlier this month for offensive postings on his personal blog. The number of bloggers continues to grow, but the number of workplace policies explaining the company's rules on blogging remains anemic. And that can cause a lot of workplace angst for both management and workers.

Activists turn to blogs for war news, Leigh Shelton, The Daily Reveille (LSU), February 14, 2006.

Recent Internet research shows blog readership jumped 58 percent in 2004, and blog readers find personal publishers, or "bloggers," to be much more credible than traditional journalists. The Iraq war debate between anti-war protester Cindy Sheehan and U.S. Marine Lt. Col. David Couvillon that occurred in Baton Rouge, La., drew, among others, a small group of war-supporting mothers and anti-war organizers with seemingly nothing in common except that they said they look to alternative forms of media, particularly Internet blogs, to get their news.

That Which We Call a Blog, DAN MITCHELL, February 18, 2006.

The rise of blogging is often cast in black-and-white terms: blogs versus the the mainstream media. But as blogs become more popular, it's becoming hard to tell what is a blog and what is mainstream media. Mr. Sifry calls Boingboing a blog -- and so it is. But it also does some original reporting, and has professional journalists on its staff. And oddly, Mr. Sifry calls Slashdot (slashdot.com), a technology site with material created mostly by users, a mainstream site.Meanwhile, more and more mainstream media sites are blogging. In the end, users are most likely drawn to sites for the quality and trustworthiness of the material presented.

Russian blog closed for publishing prophet Muhammad cartoons, Web Planet, Feder Smirnov, February 20, 2006.

An echo of the prophet Muhammad cartoon scandal reached Russian blogosphere. Russia’s Internet providing company Majordomo closed a news blog for depicting Prophet Muhammad’s cartoons. On Feb. 16, 2006, the editor of a Russian blog called BitchX received a letter from the technical director of the Internet providing company saying that the carton was temporarily taken off his blog due to an “earnest request of the Government.” The blogger did not agree with this solution. As a result, his blogging account was blocked and the editor lost any access to information posted on his blog.

I call it "BLOGGING UP": when organizations, government agencies, politicians, commercial companies, advocacy or lobbying groups or big media (print and electronic) try to use blogging for internal or public communication. The whole premise behind this website is that political blogging is coming of age as many mainstream folks and institutions try to adopt or adapt to blogs.

I will start a new feature here--titled BLOGGING UP--which will periodically survey the variety of "professional" manifestations.

A global roundup for this week:

From Japan: "LIVEDOOR'S HORIE USES BLOG TO DENY WRONGDOING." The president of a company accused of financial misdeeds starts a blog to protest his innocence. Note his youth (33) and that he is an "Internet mogul." Will 72-year-old presidents of lumber supply companies do the same someday?

The Japan Times reports:

Livedoor Co. President Takafumi Horie, at the center of a high-profile probe over alleged securities law violations and financial statement falsifications, denied on his Internet blog Sunday involvement in any wrongdoing. Horie, who has been keeping out of public view, wrote, "Concerning the matter that is suspected, I do not think I have done anything."

It is the first time he has denied his involvement.

The probe by Tokyo prosecutors is centered on whether Livedoor misled the stock market in 2004 over one of its many merger-and-acquisition deals in an attempt to boost the share price of an advertising subsidiary, Livedoor Marketing Co., then known as ValueClick Japan Inc.

The probe also focuses on allegations Livedoor falsified its financial report for the year through September 2004 to show a profit of 1.4 billion yen when the firm was actually in the red.

In his blog, Horie wrote he has been busy holding daily meetings at the company's head office to study how to cope with the situation.

"Every day, I'm moving back and forth between (my home in Roppongi Hills) Residence and Mori Tower (where Livedoor is headquartered). I'm having various types of meetings on measures (to deal with the scandal)," Horie wrote.

The 33-year-old Internet mogul said the situation is difficult as Livedoor executives have been questioned by prosecutors.

"An announcement onfinancial figures is approaching, and I'm pressed for preparations as the bulk of documents have been confiscated," Horie said. "Of course, I'm sacrificing my holiday."

Prosecutors will soon question Horie, according to investigative sources. Executives including Chief Financial Officer Ryoji Miyauchi, 38, and Director Fumito Kumagai, 28, have been questioned on a voluntary basis since Friday.

Horie normally writes regularly on his blog, "Livedoor President Diary," covering a variety of topics -- from his business plans to what he ate and purchased that day.

But he has not been updating it much since Livedoor's head office in ritzy Roppongi Hills was searched Jan. 16.

From the USA: A major law firm, Preston Gates & Ellis, has started "Government Contracts Litigation blog". PR Newswire reports:

[the blog] will give subscribers and visitors access to the latest news and trends in government contracts litigation and allow them to stay abreast of the ongoing developments in the legislative process. Visitors can also find information about upcoming events and additional external resources relating to government contracts litigation.

"This blog presents an opportunity to share our knowledge and experience in contract litigation," said Bill Shook, partner at Preston Gates and head of the firm's Government Contracts, Construction and Procurement Policy Group. "This one-of-a-kind blog is focused solely on government contracts litigation and will be a valuable informational tool for contractors and government officials alike."

The blog, which is updated regularly, is the first among the nation's AmLaw 200 Law Firms dedicated exclusively to government contracts litigation. It condenses the most pertinent information on current and past government contracts litigation into one easy-to-search system.

Then there more consolidations in the world of milblogs: Milblogging.com, the huge military website, teams with Military.com, the blog portal, "to Accelerate Spread of Soldier-Journalism."

Business Wire reports:

Military.com, the largest military and veteran membership organization, has announced the addition of Milblogging.com (www.Milblogging.com), the leading military-related blog portal, to its family of online military sites. The popularity of military blogs has skyrocketed as the military community, mainstream media and the American public look to assess progress in the Global War on Terror.

Military blogs deliver perspectives from the front lines, offering unfiltered, first-hand accounts. In addition, servicemembers and families share slices of life on duty or on the home front, covering good news and intensely personal stories that may not make the headlines. Milblogging.com organized this blogosphere, making it easy to find blogs of military interest.

Milblogging.com characterizes over 1,100 blogs from 24 countries by country, branch of service, gender and popularity. Milblogging.com offers community and exposure for military bloggers - offering traffic, commentary, recognition and in-depth coverage of the best military blogs on the Internet. In addition, this year marked the first Milblogging.com awards, the "Milbloggies," to outstanding military bloggers. Milblogging.com is the ultimate starting point to find blogs such as "Sandman Chronicles" from Iraq , "Far from Perfect - The Life of an Army Combat Medic," "My Son, My Soldier," "Grandmother in Iraq ," and "Journal of a Military Wife.

Milblogging.com was created by J.P. Borda, an Operation Enduring Freedom veteran who blogged from Afghanistan in 2004-2005 and started Milblogging.com after returning from deployment. "Its mission is to help people all over the world find the milblogs that interest them in just a few clicks," he said. J.P. is a respected voice in the military blogging community, and remains, he says, a milblogger at heart. J.P. has been featured by MSNBC, Newsweek, Army Times, The Washington Post, The Rush Limbaugh Show, NPR, BBC radio, other blogs including Instapundit.com and Blackfive.net, as well as other newspapers, radio programs, and television stations across the country.

I mentioned in a previous post about "CaptB" ("One Marine's View") that, from the perspective of a historian of the media and the military, milblogs are an amazing development. For the first time in the history of war, we have the ability to read the words of the front-line warriors, literally "live from ground zero."