Phyllis Haynes, Executive Director of the International Society for Panetics, asked me for some techincal assistance in setting up a weblog they call the Panetics Global Forum.

She said she found me by doing a Google search on the phrase “weblog coach” (or maybe it was “blog coach”).

Northfield News reporter Adam Johnson has a story in today’s paper titled: The Future is Now: A look at the Northfield blogosphere.

Among my clients in the piece: Ray Cox and Gary Smith.

… in 2002, Wigley and members of the NCO board decided to take the project to the next step. “The word blogosphere was kind of coming into vogue nationally,” Wigley said. “So I thought, �Why don’t we start a blogosphere in Northfield?’” The idea has been to encourage local citizens — from elected officials to residents — to share their ideas and experiences, with the hope of generating an open dialogue to create a true “online community.” “The goal is to promote … citizens as producers of content and information, not just as consumers,” Wigley said.

Eden Prairie City Manager Scott Neal has blogged about the International Local Edemocracy Symposium here.

Kingston Councillor Mary Reid has posted here, here and here (updated Aug. 1).

Isobel Harding, lead for the Local eDemocracy National Project for the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, has posted here, here, and here.

Update Aug. 1: Chuck Olsen (on the left in the screenshot with Steve Clift) has a 3.5 minute videoblog on the Symposium posted to his Minnesota Stories weblog.

Know of others? Let me know!

I’ve added a few dozen more photos to the Symposium photo album, the latest (see the album page 3) from last night’s dinnner at Solera in downtown Minneapolis.

All photos are posted in three sizes: thumb, medium, full-size original.

Left photo, L to R: Kerrie Oakes, Dept. of Communities, Queensland; Julian Bowrey, Head of Local e-Government, UK Office of the Deputy Prime Minister; Jane Ratford, Marketing Lead, UK Local E-democracy National Project and E-Government Advisor, Improvement and Development Agency. — Right photo, L to R: Derek Parkinson, newsletter publisher at Headstar; Angus Ward, Director at Election Systems & Software; Julia Glidden, Accenture eDemocracy Services.

Today’s field day for the International Symposium on Local E-Democracy took participants to the Minnesota Legislature at the Sate Capitol in St. Paul and to the town of Northfield. See the Symposium photo album for high-resolution images of these and dozens more photos.

Steve Clift, bus tour entertainer

Dylan Jeffrey, legislative photographer

In the MN Senate Chambers.

Isobel Harding with a friend from the past.

Chapati Indian food buffet line at the Contented Cow in Northfield;

Lunch on the outdoor patio overlooking the river.

Uniformed bloggers, cranky about having to wait in line for lunch (L to R): Dan Carslon, Scott Neal, Gary Smith, George Esbensen.

Yuki Ishikawa (L) and Vaman Pai, chowing down on the Cow’s upper deck.

The Northfield and Eden Prairie blogging panel.

Eden Praire City Manager Scott Neal, after receiving a Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames plaque from Councillor Mary Reid. Scott presented the Kingston Council with an Eden Prairie “key to the City” back in Feb.

See the Symposium photo album for high-resolution images of these and dozens more photos.

I’ve started an International Symposium photo album.

11 AM CT update: There are a dozen photos up.

3:30 PM CT update: There are 40 photos up.

5:00 PM CT, Wed. July 27 update: There are now 79 photos up.

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }

Image_02.jpg, originally uploaded by gwigley.

This is an influential woman in the world of U.K. edemocracy, Isobel Harding.

I’ll be at the International Symposium on Local E-Democracy in Minneapolis all day tomorrow.

I plan to moblog some photos from my camera phone and maybe upload higher quality ones taken with my camera, as I’ll have my laptop with me and the conference will have wi-fi.

I may not take many photos, though, as I hope to meet and spend time with colleagues, old and new. Being too photo conscious can sometimes detract from that.

Pete Auger, City Manager of Davison, Michigan has hired me to be his weblog coach for his new City Manager weblog.

This 4.5 minute video titled “Councillors Blogging” features ReadMyDay councillor bloggers Louise Alexander, Andrew Brown, and Mary Reid. It was produced by Shane McCracken at Big Vote.

I’ve teamed up with Collin Wigley, Melted Media, to launch a blogsite for the new United States Motorcycle Trials Association (USMTA).

Dan Brown, head honcho at the TTC (Trials Training Center – a client) is the chief blogger initially.

I put this little videoclip together today… promoting next week’s lunch at the Contented Cow in Northfield for attendees of the International Symposium on Local E-Democracy in Minneapolis.

I moblogged this photo and audioclip from somewhere in Inver Grove Heights (southern Twin Cities metro) earlier this afternoon where my radiator boiled over for the second time in three days.

It’s not about the radiator, to paraphrase Lance. Or eliciting sympathy. It’s my trying to get better at showing how moblogging can be used when one’s day goes to hell in a handbasket.

And yes, for those clients who are wondering why I’m behind on my work, it’s an excuse.

I posted this audioblog from my (parked) car on the way back the from the Cities today after meeting with a large corporation about leadership blogging. My dilemma: whether or not to start senior management with an internal blog (aimed solely at employees), an external blog or both.

This is a short test of Audioblog.com‘s Blogrecorder – the audio version. You just use your computer’s microphone (built-in or attach one to it) to record while connected to their Blogrecorder web page. When you’re done, you just indicate which one of your blogs to to post it too and voila!

It saves timeconsuming steps, ie, having to move the audiofile to your PC and then upload it to your server or weblog. I like it. The only problem I see thus far is that the image of the audio post isn’t visible in Blogger’s compose mode.