Congressional Twitter Fight Hits NPR
Friend of OTB Aaron Brazell was on NPR very early today talking about the controversy over Congress and social media. The cause of the Twittering representatives has been taken up by bloggers like Aaron Brazell of Technosailor. "Frankly, we're in 2008, and we have a government for the people and by the people," says Brazell, who lives in Baltimore. "Right now, ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on July 10, 2008 12:53
Congress Banning Social Media?
As if to prove Robert Heinlein correct, the House Administration Committee is, apparently with honorable intent, considering effectively banning the use of popular social media sites, including YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook by Members. Soren Dayton couches this in partisan terms: "In typical fashion, House Democrats are trying to pass rules that stifle debate and require regulation." In fact, though, it appears ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on July 9, 2008 08:54
10 Things You Need to Know About WordPress 2.6
Just when I think we've gotten the kinks worked out from converting to WordPress 2.5, Aaron Brazell tells me version 2.6 is about to come out! He's written a handy dandy guide called 10 Things You Need to Know About WordPress 2.6 complete with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one. (Actually, ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on June 30, 2008 20:00
Decline of Political Blogs?
Aaron Brazell, who used to blog politics but now mostly does tech and social media, notes something interesting: While political blogs are blogging in terms of media coverage of the phenomenon, they're actually a relatively small part of the story. It's not just that, as we all know, personal diary blogs far outnumber others in sheer volume but ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on June 10, 2008 11:32
Blogs Then and Now
Aaron Brazell is doing some research on the evolution of blogging in recent years and has asked for my input. [Update: The result, "Political Blogging 2.0," is now up.] I started OTB in January 2003 and have seen a lot of change. I should note at the outset that my experience is almost entirely with the political blogosphere, a ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on June 7, 2008 09:12
Fifth Blogiversary
My first post* at Outside the Beltway was at 9:47 the morning of January 31, 2003. If my math is right, that was five years ago. When I started this thing, the blogosphere was in its infancy, with most of the big political sites no more than a year or two old. There were still regular Big ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on January 31, 2008 09:37
Multilingual Blogging?
A few days ago, Aaron Brazell announced that his popular Web 2.0 blog, Technosailor, would start featuring regular Spanish-language posts in the niche by Carlos Granier-Phelps. I found the idea odd at first and then remarkably annoying once implemented. It's not especially hard, frankly, to skip past the odd Spanish language post in Google Reader, yet I find their presence ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on November 8, 2007 13:35
10 Things You Should Know About WordPress 2.2
Aaron Brazell has a great run-down of all the new features available in the latest WordPress release, version 2.2. I like the fact that WordPress is moving to a release early, release often model. There does not appear to be much in this update that I'll use, although the new editing functionality might be helpful. I ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on May 16, 2007 12:18
Republicans Missing Social Media Train?
In a column for The Politico, David All argues that the Republicans' comparatively poor showing in online fundraising and presence on social networking sites like mySpace and Facebook indicates a need to catch up fast. To head off electoral catastrophe, Republicans should take immediate steps to improve their technological game. They can begin by creating a nationwide network of state and ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on April 18, 2007 14:06
Benefits of Tagging Vice Categories
Of interest primarily to bloggers, Aaron Brazell continues his WordPress FAQ series by answering one of my questions: "What advantages obtain from direct tagging, whether manually or by widget, vice using the WP category?"Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on April 12, 2007 19:52
