People sometimes ask me “John, why should trades unions get involved with Twitter?” No, honest, they really do, my life is *that* exciting at times…
My standard response is that it all depends. The microblogging service Twitter is potentially attractive to unions as it’s something of a liberal and Labour ghetto, and it gets a lot of column inches for being flavour of the moment and making people look modern. However, Twitter is almost a platform in search of a utility, and different people/unions might get very different things out of it, or of course nothing at all, depending on how they naturally want to communicate. (more…)
We’ve seen a whole bunch more union related blogs over the last year, at all levels of the movement (check out the lists at TIGMOO.co.uk for many of them). But one thing I’ve noticed has impressed me in particular, and that’s the first attempts at cleverly using other people’s blogs to talk to members. I’m not talking about the Gen Sec posts that pop up on Comment Is Free every now and then, or the more mainstream political blogs, but something much closer to unions’ membership – the online trade press. (more…)
If you’re involved in trade unions, you’re likely hearing a new buzzword right now: “Just Transition”. My guess is that if you’re like me, the frequent repetition of this neologism doesn’t help clarify anything whatsoever, but it’s worth sticking with, as it’s an interesting concept, and one where unions may really be able to make a contribution. (more…)
Looking over this year’s TIGMOO.co.uk league table of UK union bloggers, it’s clear that the last year has seen a lot of new activity. Now over a third of the top 25 union blogs are new entries for 2009.
Union and political blogs in the USA continue to point the way, with insider commentary from LaborNerd, effective online campaigning from SEIU blog, or comprehensive and timely labour movement coverage from AFL-CIOnow. But things are growing over here too. (more…)
Just arrived in Liverpool, ready for this year’s TUC Congress (www.tuc.org.uk/congress2009), which is worryingly my eighth one (I hope there’s some kind of medal). I’m pretty chuffed with some work I’ve been doing on a separate site Congress Voices, which aims to collate social media coverage of Congress, linking people here at the event with the millions of UK trade unionists that this parliament of unions represents.
You can find it at www.congressvoices.org , but if you are blogging, Tweeting or Flickring about Congress, it will hopefully find you! I’ve already noticed a few Tweets coming in on the hashtag #TUC09, and any flickr photos shared with user tuc.org.uk will also come to our attention. The site also provides a commentable agenda, where users can have their say on the motions under debate, which is another first. (more…)
Just finished compiling this year’s TIGMOO.co.uk Guide to Union Blogging, just in time for Congress 2009. If you saw last year’s, you’ll know what to expect from it. I’ve spent a few hours adding up all the posts, comments, Alexa traffic estimates and Google inbound links, and predicted a top 25 blogs from the 120 odd on the network.
Who has the top spot this year? I can tell you that this here blog has slumped down the rankings a few places (sob), and that a third of the top 25 are new entries since last year, so there’s a lot to be looking out for.
Thanks to AFLCIOnow for a tip on a new US union blog. LaborNerd (no relation) is a nicely digested version of labor gossip & big stories, just right for transatlantic nerds – and finding its way straight onto my RSS reader.
And also good fun for labor nerds this week is Unionblogs.ca, from activist and Drupalster David Empey. He’s done a Canadian version of Tigmoo.co.uk, scanning Canadian union blogs and aggregating into a shared feed. It looks to have a good future – he’s put on 50% syndications in it’s first week. I guess we’ll need an international aggregator aggregator soon – nerds of the world unite – you have nothing to lose but your unwieldy URLs…
At a Labour New Media breakfast yesterday, which gave a really interesting insight into how Labour hope to change their campaigning to make the most of the new environment. Also the launch of LabourList, and a chance to witness a broad section of the left blogohemisphere’s ecosystem – which I think is a post in itself.
There was a big distraction (well, enough to distract me) at the event though in the shape of an article from the Guardian, alleging LabourList editor Derek Draper was fudging the origins of his psychotherapy qualifications (studying in Berkeley, but not at Berkeley. David Hencke wrote it up, on a tip off from top right-wing blogger Guido Fawkes. Toddler-induced router damage prevented me from sticking this post up last night, and Roy ‘Splitter’ Greenslade has beaten me to much of the point. (more…)
After my post last night on the enigma that is Labourist (the fan site / attack site / alternative model demo of Derek Draper’s LabourList), I got a nice and very full comment (at least purporting to come) from the person/people behind the site, taking issue with my cynicism and offering counterpoints to a lot of what I’d said. I started writing a reply but it go so long, I thought I’d stick it here instead…
Thanks for the considered reply. You’ll forgive me for remaining sceptical of your honest intentions for a while yet though. As you won’t tell me who you are, I have to go on what I can surmise from limited evidence – which doesn’t yet give me cause to believe you. There are six main stumbling blocks for me: (more…)
Last week was a cheery one for Labour techies, with Derek Draper starting up what I think is going to be a very useful part of the jigsaw for the left blogohemisphere in the UK, LabourList.org. So enthused was the party by this project that none other than Lord (né Peter) Mandelson threw caution to the wind and set off exploring Second Life.
Well, one week on and the project’s had a bit of a double pwnage from political opponents. The Daily Mail pranked Mandelson’s virtual life by making a clone avatar and hanging about SL, behaving inappropriately. They missed the more interesting points of SL by a couple of virtual miles, but then I guess nobody ever read the Mail for sci/tech (or much beyond hell-in-a-handcart whingefests and cringeworthy reader offers).
More interesting is the treatment LabourList itself has received. A shady bunch of activists have set up a duplicate at the similarly titled Labourist.org. It’s posing as a principled objection, but I think is more likely a neat spoiler. (more…)
