It’s an area all bloggers would rather not get involved in, but it is best to be aware of the principles of libel and how it applies to you as a blogger.  Mike Butcher, has written a very useful and informative guide to Libel and Defamation Law for bloggers.  Read it and bookmark it.

Councillors should of course pay equal attention to the Standards Board Code of Conduct and your own council’s code of conduct.  ICELE produced some useful guidance which you can download.

Council officers might also refer to the Civil Servant social media guidelines recently published by the Cabinet Office.  They are succinct but useful.

The Cabinet Office released “Participation online Guidance for civil servants” today. It has been some time in gestation but the really good news is that it is only one page long. In fact the guidance has been boiled down to 5 main points and a paragraph on how it relates to the Civil Service Code.

Mary Reid has pointed out that David Buckle, CEO of South Oxfordshire District Council has started a blog to keep people informed about the by-election caused by the standing-down of Boris Johnson.

Hats off to David for starting a blog at a time that will no doubt be busy and very high profile.

Rob Rees from Gloucestershire Trading Standards has started a blog to lead the debate on food.

Fantastic! At last one central point for the county to have a say about all the food issues of today and the future.

This is civic leadership even though it isn’t senior management or an elected representative doing it.

Channel 4 News carries an intriguing story from Malaysia:

Candidates contesting some posts in Malaysia’s ruling party will be required to set up blogs, an official has said.

The move was a surprising turnaround for governing politicians who until recently derided online political writing as lies and rumours.

Abdul Rahman Dahlan, secretary general of the United Malays National Organisation party’s youth wing, said all those vying for national youth posts must have blogs to introduce themselves and their programs ahead of party elections in December.

“All candidates must have blogs,” Abdul Rahman said. “If not, they are not qualified to be leaders.”

Cllr Tony Tomkinson, from Clavering in Norfolk, started blogging in January 2008 as part of the civicsurf project.  His main objective was to use his blog to maintain communications with the 25 parish clerks in his constituency.

He used the blog to inform readers of developments from Norfolk County Council that affected his area.  In March he wrote about the possibility of a gravel pit in the village of Haddiscoe. He had been to a public meeting the night before attended by over 100 people from the village.  Over the following week Tony had 400 people visit his blog and within four weeks 37 comments had been left on the post.

I’m sure some of the people leaving comments had been to the meeting but by using the blog they are able to ensure their views are in the public domain.  Possibly some had not been able get to speak at the meeting. Also of interest is that people from outside the village were able to contribute including those with experience of gravel pits.

The post is a superb example of how using a blog a civic leader can gather considered and in-depth views from a wide range of people with a wide range of views.  The blog hasn’t replaced the village public meeting but it has complemented it very well.  Although Tony is prevented by his position as a councillor from expressing an opinion before the Planning committee meeting, he is providing leadership by encouraging discussion and opinion through having a place for that discussion to take place.

Interviewing Tom Watson

Originally uploaded by G J R

Tom Watson was an interesting chat this morning. He had a lot to say about blogging and is clearly fired up about the whole social networking thing.

We also filmed Steve Webb, Member of Parliament for Northavon and Lib Dem Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Energy, Food and Rural Affairs, who was maybe a little more reserved about the process of blogging, but who also had seen in his year of posting how it can be an effective new tool for reaching both his constituents and a wider audience.

Cllr Mary Reid x 2Originally uploaded by G J R

We interviewed Mary for the documentary today. Shane gave us a lead on a top floor staff room, so we got a much nicer location for the interview.

Mary talked eloquently and positively about blogging, gave some tips, and told of her experiences.

Mary took some pictures too, looking forward to reading her post on her blog!

I’ve been following the Lord (Clive) Soley instigated group blog for a few days now and despite the awful design, name, and technical set-up it is working well at the moment. In my opinion it is because the blogging Lords are writing in a very natural language.

Of the nine participating peers only two were previously MPs and perhaps this helps contrast them against my particular perception of the House of Lords. And, since one of their stated aims is to change the image of the Upper House, they are succeeding.

Congratulations, Lords, keep going, but please do ask someone to do some work on the design and techie side - you’d have thought a title for the RSS feed would be right up your street. Boom boom.

[cross-posted from gallomanor.com]

Colin McKay, a Canadian Government communicator and blogger and social media pioneer extraordinaire, has written The Secret Underground Guide to Social Media for Organisations. It is not a technical guide. More a cultural, managerial guide to avoid the roadblocks set by IT and legal departments. Colin has blogged about it himself.
At 23 pages it is a quick and enjoyable read.