Blogging 101

I've been meaning to write about Christopher Beam's ode to the TSA blog, Evolution of Security for several days now. And re-reading it, it struck me that sadly, the standard for government blogging is pretty low. Don't get me wrong. I like Evolution of Security. I link to it frequently. And compared to this sanitized-seeming account of democracy-building in Afghanistan courtesy of DipNote, the State Department's blog, it's a paragon of openness and willingness to admit fallibility.

But blogging is hard in the government sector. And it's hard for some of the same reasons press policies often seem calcified. Blogging is a Wild West form of expression. The deadlines are fast, the need for a distinctive voice is paramount, and evolution is important. Blogs are a great medium for soliciting feedback and putting ideas out there. They're much less readable when they're used as a message vehicle. The bloggers at Evolution of Security could never, for example, have said that they agreed with Jeffrey Goldberg's article in The Atlantic about sneaking prohibited items through TSA checkpoints as a demonstration of the absurdity of security theater. Similarly, the bloggers at DipNote are never going to be free to criticize the Secretary of State, no matter who that person is.

If agency and department blogs were free to launch critiques, within reason, that would be great. I'd love to see some agencies use their blogs as ombudsmen, places where the public can get answers, and as public editors, where bloggers can thoughtfully criticize policy decisions. The first agency blog to do that will be the true trailblazer.