Wigley and Associates

I put up a couple of campaign signs in my front yard last night, one for Ray Cox (who’s running for re-election to the Minnesota House in 25B) and the other for Mark Murphy (who’s running for Rice County Sheriff).

Yeah, I’m biased, since they’re my clients. Plus, I’m hoping that when they blog about my yard signs, they let people know that the house in the background has a blog: Wigley House For Sale. That’s an additional conflict of interest.

I used my Olympus WS-100 Digital Voice Recorder to record yesterday’s Citizens League forum at MPR. A couple of my colleagues asked what I used (”surprisingly good audio capture from your device”) so I thought I’d blog it here… trying to practice what I preach (answer your email with your blog).

What immediately attracted me to the device was the USB connector. And just like any old flash/jump/thumb drive, it can be used to store any files on it. What keeps me liking is its ease-of-use and quality audio. I paid $99 for it at my Northfield area Radio Shack store.

Click the photos to enlarge. I thought I’d do my Ferris Bueller singing ‘Twist and Shout’ imitation since I had the shirt on. Be thankful there’s no audioblog of it forthcoming.

Citizens League Executive Director and chief blogger Sean Kershaw (left) launched this morning’s Summer Policy series event titled The Future of the Web and Civic Engagement: What Happens When MySpace Meets Our Space? held at The Forum at Minnesota Public Radio. (Click photos to enlarge.)

I recorded the forum. Click play to listen. 1 hour, 5 minutes, 22 seconds.

I found myself a little disappointed with the event. I wanted to hear more stories… stories that would illustrate the what the future of the web could be for civic engagement, public problem-solving and policy-making. I don’t remember much about the discussion but I do remember two stories: Jean King’s story about Gov. Al Quie and Roger Moe; and Steve Borsch’s story about visiting the Eden Prairie public library.

I also was hoping to hear more about the forces — systemic or otherwise — that are both helping and impeding the constructive use of these Web 2.0 technologies in the public sphere. That would’ve generated more discussion about what steps could be taken by citizens, civic organizations, and yes, policy-makers to address these forces.

Left photo, L to R: moderator Jack Uldrich, panelists Jean LeVander King and Steve Borsch.
Right photo, L to R: panelists Garrick Van Buren,Tom Swain, and Jen Alstad.

During the post-event schmoozing, I had a chance to talk with (L to R) Steve Borsch, Steve Clift, and Garrick Van Buren. And then Mr. Clift and I retired to the MPR lobby to chat further in the way-cool audio-enhancing pod chairs. Amazingly easy to hear one another. And yes, that’s an apple core in my mouth.

Aug. 22 Update: Victoria Ford has a set on Flickr of 60 photos from the event.

Aug. 23 1 pm update: AAAARRRGGGGGHHHH!! I mistakenly deleted this blog entry earlier today and had to ask my beloved webhosting company, Tiger Technologies, to restore the site from a midnight backup. They’ve done it but two comments were lost so I’ve manually replaced them. Apologies to Steve and Mike.

I’m heading out this morning for this event:

The Future of the Web and Civic Engagement: What Happens When MySpace Meets Our Space? It’s part of the Citizens League’s Summer Policy series and is being held at The Forum at Minnesota Public Radio.

Featured presenters include Tom Swain, Jean LeVander King, Jen Alstad, Steve Borsch, and Garrick Van Buren.

I hope to be capturing some audio and photos and might do a little moblogging from the event.

3:30 pm update: I did moblog one photo but it was blurry so I deleted it. One or more posts on the event — with some photos — to come.

Mark Murphy is a sergeant with the Northfield City Police Department and he’s running for Sheriff of Rice County. I’ve set up (using WordPress) a website with a weblog for him — Murphy for Sheriff — and he has started blogging. I snapped this photo of him (yes, he was actually blogging at the time) on Friday morning at the James Gang HideAway after one of our coaching sessions.

I regularly visit the City of Eden Prairie’s bloggers and yesterday stopped by office of the Fire Chief, George Esbensen who’s maintained an active weblog since January, 2005. If there’s another fire chief who’s got his or her own weblog (not a departmental PR blog), I’m unaware of it. Attach a comment here or contact me if you know of one.

George had just finished giving a fire station tour to the Woodard family of New Prague so I asked them to pose (center photo - their children plus one) as they were heading out the door.

When I met with George a few minutes later in his office, I knew he’d need a respite from all the smiling and fun of hanging out with kids so I asked him to scowl (left photo) for my camera. It appeared to be quite difficult for him but he managed quite nicely.

The image on the right is a photo I took of a framed poster on the wall outside George’s office. The inscription on the hat reads:

“Opens a lot of doors. And gives you permission to knock down others.”

At the bottom of the poster it reads:

“Changes lives. Starting with yours. Volunteer. Eden Prairie Fire Department.”

Cool. Keep on scowling blogging George.

I took these photos of Tom Dawkins last week. (Click to enlarge.) He was one of presenters on the Innovative Ideas to Stir Citizens panel in Baltimore..

He’s the founder of Vibewire Youth Services in Australia and, according to this post on Steve Clift’s Dowire.org blog, this month he’s:

“… travelling around North America during August as part of a research trip to learn more about work being done around … digital/indie/youth media; online community; youth spaces (as in physical spaces, not virtual - specifically those designed to engender creative expression and/or enterprise development); digital arts/creativity; youth and citizenship; e-democracy.”

I just got an email from a UK colleague who I met in Budapest, Alice Chicken at 21Consultancy, alerting me to the fact that Tom just launched a weblog called tomd’s blog. In his initial post on Monday, he writes:

I’ve wanted to start a blog to give people, Vibewire.net members especially obviously, an insight into some of the background to Vibewire and our projects, a taste of some of the ideas floating around or projects which haven’t officially launched yet, more of a sense of the people behind the site and the Vibewire organisation and an opportunity for dialogue and feedback.

… in Baltimore last Thursday August 3, the day after I wearily arrived in the US. One of the sessions I went to was on ‘Leadership blogging’ (as opposed to perblogs, news blogs, opinion blogs, etc) by which he meant blogs kept by people in a leadership role (CEO, elected reprentatives, etc) which allow them to bring people into the decision-making process, to record a record of their thoughts, think through issues and so on. It all sounded exactly like what I’d been contemplated so I vowed to myself that at the next opportunity I really would start one this time.

Welcome to the blogosphere, Tom.

Sean Kershaw, Executive Director of the Citizens League, has joined the blogosphere under my careful tutelage! I’m also working with the League on another blogging related project… details on that forthcoming.

In today’s StarTribune business section: A blog can work for a business.

I’ll take a closer look and comment more when I have time but I really disagree with this statement from the attorney interviewed:

“Blogs are about having your customers talking to one another.”

Update Aug. 10: Julie Finch, an attorney with Rider Bennett law firm in Mpls, was interviewed for the piece, evidently not long after her presentation about blogging at a recent technology conference.

The quote above may not be accurate — I’ll check with her and the reporter, Janet Moore. But if true, it’s a startling assertion for Finch to make, and I think it’s possible that it might discourage businesses from using blogs.
I see business and leadership blogs as primarily a one-way communication tool, with degrees of interaction that can be throttled up or down. I’m guessing it’s somewhat rare, at least for small business bloggers, to have their blogs become a primary means for customers interact with one another… that’s more a definition of a message board or web forum, a tool I definitely support using assuming there’s a skilled moderator in charge.

Finch cites the Strib’s blogs as good examples, but I don’t think that’s helpful. I think of those as media blogs, a subset of business blogs, distinctly different than a blog that most businesses might set up. Better examples (among my small business blogging clients) the two that have been blogging the longest: Knecht’s Nurseries and Landscaping; and Northfield Construction. And neither have comments enabled.

MN State Senator Tom Neuville has joined the blogosphere. I’ve used WordPress to incorporate the other pages of his old web site and then inserted a weblog on the home page.

He’s no Ray Cox yet, but he’s catching on fast.

Before I departed Baltimore yesterday, I snapped some photos of the inner harbor, just a block from our hotel. Just like my favorite shots of Budapest, here are my favorites from Baltimore. Click photos to enlarge.

Wondering about the costumes worn by the people by the pool and fountain in the last photo? They’re attendees from the annual Otakon convention, which includes a costume contest. According to the Wikipedi entry, “Otakon is a fan convention focusing on the art of anime and manga, East Asian culture, and its fandom.”

The Public Forum Institute was a partner for the Symposium and in Baltimore, they took over all the tech tasks for all the presentations.

L to R: Jonathan Ortmans and Mark Marich, Mark and Jeff Jendel, and Jonathon. Click photos to enlarge.

They also deployed their eForum audience response system which, as described on their website,

“… transforms audience members into fully engaged participants, enabling them to make a valuable contribution throughout the course of our forums. Forum participants are given wireless, handheld units to anonymously respond to questions posed throughout the day by speakers, moderators, panelists, or each other. Results are immediately tabulated and displayed on monitors or screens for all to see - providing instant citizen feedback for policymakers and timely statistics for reporters covering the forum. Keypads help the Forum turn a dry, one-way flow of information into a dynamic back-and-forth between hundreds or even thousands of motivated participants.”

Antonia Bance is a blogger and a Labour councillor for Rose Hill and Iffley ward in Oxford, UK. She was an attendee in Budapest last week (far right in left photo; far left in right photo - click to enlarge).

When she returned home, she posted a note to her weblog detailing her reactions to my session on Leadership Blogging.

“The workshop that I enjoyed most at the Budapest conference was the masterclass on blogging/vlogging/podcasting, hosted by Griff Wigley.”

Thanks, Antonia.

My UK colleagues and I took time out yesterday afternoon to tour downtown Baltimore and its inner harbor via the Ride The Ducks amphibious vehicle.

In the evening, we and 44,000 others watched a baseball game between the Baltimore Orioles (yay) and New York Yankees (boo) at nearby Oriole Park at Camden Yards. In an exciting, back and forth game, the Yanks won 5-4 with a 9th inning home run.

See this Flickr photo set for a dozen+ photos of the day.

I got notified via WordPress pingback that someone had linked to the ICELE blog. I checked and saw a blog post by Budapest attendee Ben Rogers titled I have Started to blog because… in which he wrote:

I have started blogging because i was sent to budapest by the British Government in order to learn all about e-Participation, Social Inclusion, Democratic Engagement. After a talk about the power of blogging and how to do it… i am now joining the ranks as it were!!!

Ben plans to use his weblog to chronicle his year as a Deputy Member of Youth Parliament (DMYP) in the UK. (See more about Ben on this 2006 MYP Profile page about him.)

I noticed that I didn’t have a good photo of Ben from the conference, other than one of him taking a photo which I cropped from the group shot on the left. (Click photos to enlarge). So I emailed him and asked for another photo and he sent me the one on the right, along with an email reply that included this:

I have set up the weblog and will build on it very shortly — but have been busy and i’m off on Holiday tomorrow (only in the UK) so will really get it going when i get back!

Thanks once again for e-mailing- it is so nice to keep in contact with different people from all over the world- so many times i have come back from places and everyone goes quiet! And this is what the Internet is all about keeping in contact and making a difference.

Ben Rogers DMYP
Lichfield & Chase constituency
UK Youth Parliament

Welcome to the civic blogosphere, Ben.