johninnit

"The Physical Impossibility Of v3.2 In The Mind Of Someone Running v2.8"

WordPress is as any fule kno, about three or four of the seven wonders of the Internet. It’s a remarkably elegant and flexible website platform that puts enormous publishing power into the hands of people without any particular coding skills to speak of. As a definite member of this low-talent group, I find it hard to speak too highly of it.

However, like all good things, it’s very easy to binge on it and regret it later. You can throw up impressive, interactive blogs and sites for anything, extremely quickly – any short term project, event or campaign – and soon find you’ve got a dozen defunct CMS-driven websites on your hands. (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 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.