A new way to connect

The Baltimore Sun

Annapolis will become one of the handful of cities nationwide to enter the blogosphere when Mayor Ellen O. Moyer begins chronicling her European voyage this week.

The launch of "The Mayor is In," which follows last month's debut of a weekly podcast, will give Moyer a chance to have some presence and a voice in the city during her travels to sister cities in France, Ireland and England.

"It's not going to be 'Letters From Ellen,'" said Ray Weaver, spokesman for the city. "People will get to see her thoughts as she moves from city to city and talks about how people are solving problems abroad and to get a fresh perspective on what she's doing."

It's an approach a growing number of people are taking in the county. There is the anonymous "Blog Arundel," Annapolis resident Paul Foer's "Capital Punishment" and Greg Kline's "The Conservative Refuge." Foer's left-leaning blog is a look at hot-button issues in Annapolis, such as crime and transportation. Kline's site offers analysis of Anne Arundel County from the right.

Municipalities and officials are now starting blogs, a tactic that in some ways is a spillover from the campaign trail, where blogs are nearly de rigueur. Anne Arundel County Councilman Josh Cohen has "The Cohen Bulletin" and Councilman Daryl Jones has started a blog on his travels in Africa. At the state level, Dels. Samuel I. Rosenberg of Baltimore and Richard B. Weldon Jr. of Frederick County also have blogs.

Such blogs represent a tiny fraction of the 60 million sites that are out there, but joining the blogging chorus is a surefire way to reach a young, well-educated and civically engaged crowd, according to a recent study, "The Blogging Revolution: Government in the Age of Web 2.0."

David C. Wyld, the author of the report, predicts that in five years, about 50 percent of elected officials will have blogs, podcasts or another electronic mode of communication with constituents.

"It's a way to get their message out direct and unfiltered and to go above and to the press at the same time," he said, adding that blogging is often like therapy. "But it shouldn't be a PR vehicle, or a 'how great is me' piece. It needs to give worthwhile information that people are interested in. It's a fine line to walk, but overall it is a good experiment in democracy."

Some got a preview of Moyer's six-week voyage from the city's new podcast, an effort that also puts the city in rare technologically savvy company. So far, the programs, which run about 10 minutes, have featured interviews with Moyer, information about city events and details on services offered at the Stanton Center. In the past two weeks, the programs have been downloaded 149 times, according to city data.

Moyer said that the podcast and blog are intended to be an extension of the "Let's Talk" forums, informal sessions held throughout the city on any number of topics.

"This is another way of talking with the mayor," she said during a telephone call from Paris. "Not everyone is available to come in person, so this is another tool for conversation, but the blog site is intended to be a conversation, not a gripe place."

The specter of a "gripe place" and the kind of R-rated and possibly offensive conversation that sometimes comes with online forums is a cause for concern, said Inna C. Young, the city's Web developer, but no reason to stop the push for more avenues for interaction.

The city's Web site is a popular destination, especially for tourists in the summer, she said. The visitor information site logged 13,231 page views last month, more visits than to the usual top draws of the police report, jobs and events pages. In all, the city's Web site had 62,077 visitors last month.

While getting information out to tourists is important, the main purpose of the blog, along with the podcasts and the mayor's standard weekly radio broadcast, will be to engage residents, Young said.

"I think we should be brave and bold, and start and see how it goes," she said. "If it would function as one more channel of communication with the public, that would be great. We should not sit behind and say, 'What if?' "

Moyer said that beginning in late August, shortly after she returns, she'll have online chats on a regular basis.

"I'll be there to talk to people who are comfortable with computers," she said. "I'm not, but it's another tool for open conversation."

nia.henderson@baltsun.com

To read Moyer's blog, visit ellenmoyer.blogspot.com.

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