At noon yesterday I met with two members of the Conservative party in Kingston, Paul Johnston (left) and leader Kevin Davis (3rd from left) both bloggers.

Staffers Kate (2nd from left) and Priyen (right) were also there.

Paul and Kevin are very interested in getting more members of their group blogging as well as podcasting.  I've got a meeting next week to follow up with them on this.

Later, Paul and I went out for a delightful lunch where we mainly talked about our recent world travels. I then spent an hour or so walking around the center of Kingston's ancient pedestrian-only marketplace. For more photos, see the album.

As I was heading to another meeting at Kingston yesterday morning, I happened upon a photo-op-in-the-making with a group of kids and Lib Dem Councillor Yogan Yoganathan, who also happens to be known as The Worshipful Mayor of the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames. Click photos to enlarge.

Yesterday at 10 am, I met with Robin Noble, ICT (Information and Communications Technology) Development Manager for the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames (is that a great name for a city or what?) and blogging Councillor Mary Reid. 

Our discussions focused on all the various ways in which blogging and podcasting could be implemented by both councillors and officers after the elections in May. Robin's one of those rare IT guys who not only understands the social implications/benefits of these technologies but who's excited about them as well. I'm looking forward to working with him. 

I took the train from Kingston to Blackheath Village on Friday late afternoon and then began the half-hour walk to Councillor Andrew Brown‘s house where I was to have dinner.  Halfway there, I see a guy strolling along a side street, engrossed in his PDA. Look who I found!  Of course, I had to moblog the event and a gust of wind came along at the right time to give us that perfect fluffed look that we try so hard to achieve. Right: the man in his office at the world headquarters. Click images to enlarge.

After dinner tonight here at Ian and Mary Reid's house, Mary was about to head out the door to do some campaigning when she got a text message from someone alerting her to this piece on the Guardian's website.

It's titled In praise of … the e-nation. 

The two areas where the UK was number one globally were "financial market sophistication", reflecting the pre-eminence of the City, and "e-participation".

See the World Economic Forum's 2005-06 Global Information Technology Report website for more.

Gee, I wonder if all the participation-oriented projects that have been piloted by the local e-Democracy National Project had anything to do with this?

I visited with Councillor Andrew Crisp and colleagues at the Surrey County Council in Kingston today. 

(Sharp eyed readers might notice the fakery of this photo. It's from last year's trip. Yes, despite my paparazzi reputation, I often goof and forget to take photos. Like today. Duh.)

Andrew and his Conservative colleagues are interested in podcasting as well as blogging. One of the ideas we discussed was instead of having a group weblog (one blog, multiple authors – rarely successful) for a group of party-affiliated bloggers, that the group instead produce a podcast in which 3 or 4 of them all participate in the same show.  It would be similar to what I'm doing with two appointed commissioners in Northfield for a show we call Locally Grown. Hmmm.

As Kingston Councillor Mary Reid reported on her blog last night:

I'm not yet sure what this might mean for the ReadMyDay project but I have been invited to teach blogging classes for the International e-Participation and Local Democracy Symposium ("Promoting Social Inclusion via e-Participation") that's being held in Budapest and Baltimore.

And if you've been following the weblog of Isobel Harding, lead for the Local edemocracy National Project, you'll see that she's been making the pitch to representatives for several European countries. 

Mary’s introduction. 1 minute.

Mary’s closing. 1 minute

Image_35.jpg,
originally uploaded by gwigley.

On the thames with sun!

Mary Reid and I will heading to the House of Lords this morning for a local edemocracy event hosted by Lord Erroll.

(For you clueless Yanks, the House of Lords and the House of Commons are the two Houses of Parliament located in the Palace of Westminster.)

I'm not sure what the internet access will be so random moblogging photos might be likely, with explanations to come when we get back later tonight.