Understanding the politics of blogging

During his bid for reelection in April 2005, Round Lake, Ill., Mayor Bill Gentes discovered “blogging.” “I thought it was a great way of getting my point across and explaining what’s happening in the village,” Gentes says.

A contraction of the term “Web log,” blogging has become one of Gentes favorite means of communicating with the people he serves. Every day between 2,000 and 3,000 people visit Gentes’ site where he posts serious and humorous comments, and photos from community events.

Gentes says the timeliness of blogs adds to their appeal. “Blogs are a venue that allows me to be immediate and topical,” he says. Despite that, Elburn, Ill., Mayor Jim Willey, the man Gentes says inspired his blog, points out that blogging also opens officials to more criticism. “There’s always a risk to blogging because if you are being sincere and authentic, not everyone is going to agree with you,” Willey says. Gentes, however, says he likes “spirited conversation.”

City and county administrators, council members, assembly members, police, fire and public utility workers also use the accessible technology to reach their communities. “If you want to read about why we’re flushing hydrants on your street, you can go directly to the director of public works’ blog and find out,” Gentes says.

In the Miami suburb of Sweetwater, Fla., Firefighter Danny Hammontree posts information about fire rescue and EMT protocols and profiles of firefighters on his personal blog. His site is not official, however. “I just felt that a blog-style Web site was the best way for communicating with the community,” Hammontree says.

Greensboro, N.C., Councilwoman Sandra Carmany uses her blog to educate the public about the inner workings of Greensboro’s city council. “Most people … haven’t a clue about all of the committee meetings, ribbon cuttings and liaison roles council members play,” Carmany says. She considers public input on city issues, uses comments to support issues she advocates, and alleviates resident concerns. “So far I have found it a useful tool,” Carmany says.

Tina Arbes, Director of Special Projects for the Atlanta Development Authority needed a more organized and comprehensive tool than blogging to use for a recent project. Near the end of March, she had less than two months to get public comment on the first-phase work plan of the 25-year, $2.5 billion BeltLine industrial landscaping project in downtown and midtown Atlanta. For the project to be successful, the city needed a fast and easy way to garner feedback from the community to develop the work plan and budget allocations.

Arbes turned to an online method for collecting, analyzing, and reporting public comment from Naples, Fla.-based Neighborhood America. “Before we could get any money to execute the project we had to get community buy-in,” says Stacey Abrams, consultant on the project. Arbes and Abrams’ team set up a Web site with an online toolkit and survey, and in two months they received 10,000 responses to the survey, mostly electronic.

The information from the survey helped develop the Phase I plan and has been restructured to be used for Phase II. “While blogs are very useful and could be a component in the future, this system provided us with a more refined tool for tracking and guiding community input,” Abrams says.

Lori Burkhammer is a Washington, D.C.-based freelance writer.