Communication is at the heart of politics. As new ways of communicating emerge, politicians must embrace them if they are to remain close to their electorate. Back in the late 1980’s when a group of us decided to fight City Hall we took to the streets. We used megaphones, leaflets and the first fax machines to communicate our concerns. Cheap photocopying also allowed us to copy hundreds of flyers that we delivered by hand.

By 1997 most political parties had websites but they were fairly static affairs. When I ran for Dáil Éireann in Dún Laoghaire in 2002 I used an email program called Netscape Messenger and accidentally discovered a website program Netscape Communicator  that was included as part of the package. That allowed me to develop my own space on the web. I could then tell more people about the Green Party’s policies and about my ideas for Dún Laoghaire. I also posted details on where I intended canvassing each evening, and my friends and volunteers could find out where we would be meeting in advance, so it saved on phone-calls.  My website expanded over the years, and I set up sister sites for the Civic Forum on Climate Change that Eamon Ryan and I hosted last December, (ClimateChangeIreland.org) and a Conference that I held to discuss Dublin Bay (DublinBayFutures.org) last spring. Being a Green I was able to recycle the former site when the Green Party hosted a screening of Al Gores’s film ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ recently.

Two years ago I started my own blog ‘CuffeStreet’.  A blog is a website where entries are made in journal style and displayed in a reverse chronological order. Essentially it’s an online diary, where you can post pictures, words and video or audio files. Anything goes, as long as it’s electronic information. Readers can usually submit their comments providing valuable feedback on your postings. A Blog allows you to break away from the narrow confines of a press release, or a press conference in Buswell’s Hotel. In the blogosphere people expect less formality, and more emotion. It’s a ‘tu’ rather than ‘vous’ world.

I started out using Microsoft Frontpage, the same program that I run my websites with, but quickly switched to Blogger, a weblog publishing system owned by Google. I always try and include a photo with the posting, as it draws the reader into the story. A blog posting makes it easier to give the human side, from family recollections on the 90th anniversary of the Easter Rising, to the Afghani hunger strike in St, Patrick’s Cathedral last May. My colleagues Dan Boyle and John Gormley are now blogging regularly. Cllr. Damien Blake from Donegal blogged his way through his year as Mayor of Letterkenny and at the age of 25 is one of the youngest councillors that blogs.

In the United States political bloggers often break the news.  Markos Zúniga, an immigrant from El Salvador runs www.dailykos.com, a blog that dissect the issues of the day from a liberal perspective. Here in Ireland Richard Waghorne promotes market based solutions on siciliannotes.blogspot.com and recently joined an Irish daily as political correspondent. Richard Delevan's sicNotes describes his musings as ‘a straight shot of socio-political blog with a surreal chaser, from a stray Yank in Ireland’, and also writes for the print media.  Some blogs such as Tuppenceworth.ie are collaborative efforts, allowing a handful of columnists their own input. Interviews tend to more candid in the blogosphere and I was chuffed when United Islander asked me for my views on issues of the day.

The Tao