Oct 10, 2007

Despite its somewhat odd name, The State Department's new blog site, DipNote , is a pretty interesting example of new ways to use blogs.

The site features several State Department officials blogging about their work, their travels, and current issues in international affairs. The content is certainly interesting, but that isn't what really caught my eye about this site.

What I found incredibly surprising was that the blog actually allows comments. And they don't appear to be censored. After a quick scan of the comments on several blog posts, I realized that both positive comments and comments critical of the State Department or US Government are freely flowing. Here's an example–a comment that appeared on a post about Burma.

Roy in Oregon writes:
"Thou hypocrite, cast first the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to pull the mote that is in thy brother's eye." Luke 6:42

Let me see — You are a political appointee in the most secretive administration in U.S. history… How is that helping "create a free flow of information crucial to democratic development?"

— You are the member of an administration which quite improperly and illegally harvested telephone information without appropriate judicial warrants…. That doesn't discourage "free flow of information?"

— Your President authorized pressuring Internet Service Providers to release information about legal (but private) citizen use of the internet… Who can trust this administration to protect the principles of "freedom of expression?"

Brother, how about first removing the beam (and the blinders) from your own eye and working to end the murderous cabal which employs you? Posted on Mon Oct 08, 2007

Pretty bold. And the comments are loaded with others very similar to this one. It seems like DipNote is actually a legitimate forum for discussion rather than just a false front. In an era where so many media outlets, organizations, and political campaigns are concerned about "inappropriate citizen content" appearing on their websites, I am finding the openness of DipNote pretty refreshing. I have to say, I'm even impressed. Why is it that so many newspapers remain unwilling to open their sites to various types of user commentary, but the US government appears willing to reduce barriers to two-way communication?

DipNote is a great example of a blog that is leveraging user comments to generate traffic and discussion. I would venture to say that if the site lacked freely flowing and less-than-complimentary comments, the site would be much less popular than it is now. Perhaps this can serve as a model for newspapers still serving up "flogs" (fake blogs) and websites without interactivity.

http://1389blog.com 1389

The real question is not whether the US State Department blog allows comments, but whether anyone in a position of power – or even influence – actually reads those comments.
http://cristyli.blogspot.com/ Cristy Li

Really interesting but who is reading this Site? 1389 asked that question, waiting for a reply.
http://conservablogs.com/velvethammer/ velvethammer

I do not have a question for now. Just a comment. First I would like to know if questions are responded to at all (as 1389 has asked). Otherwise why bother.

Color me curious
http://1389blog.com 1389

On http://blogs.state.gov/ (DipNote), I commented on the post about whether the Palestinians should have a state and whether the US should participate in that. I said NO, very adamantly, giving many reasons why not. I also left an intensely scathing remark about the depredations that the US State Department was responsible for in Kosovo. We’ll see if the moderator lets that one through.
http://www.contentious.com/archives/2007/10/11/links-for-2007-10-11/ contentious.com – links for 2007-10-11

[...] State Department’s DipNote » The Bivings Report “Surprising: The blog actually allows comments. And they don’t appear to be censored. After a quick scan of the comments on several posts, I realized that both positive comments and comments critical of the State Dept. or US govt are freely flowing.” (tags: tidbits+fodder blogs government comments conversational+media) [...]
http://www.joeflood.com joe in dc

Are the comments moderated at all? They must delete things that are spam or filled with cursing. I like the common-sense policy that the Library of Congress uses on their blog:

“This blog is governed by the general rules of respectful civil discourse. You are fully responsible for everything that you post. The content of all comments is released into the public domain unless clearly stated otherwise. The Library of Congress does not control the content posted. Nevertheless, the Library of Congress may monitor any user-generated content as it chooses and reserves the right to remove content for any reason whatever, without consent. Gratuitous links to sites are viewed as spam and may result in removed comments. We further reserve the right, in our sole discretion, to remove a user’s privilege to post content on the Library site.”
http://blogs.state.gov Dipnote Bloggers

@ joe in dc — Hi from Dipnote! Thanks for your comments about the State Department’s new blog. When developing the blog, we actually incorporated some of the Library of Congress’ comment policies into our own. As you mentioned, Dipnote is essentially an open forum. Only posts that are clearly spam, contain vulgarity, or contain gratuitous links are not allowed. Other than that, it’s entirely open. The blog respects all points of view and encourages a free and open discussions.

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State Department’s DipNote

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