« Two hundred and fifity million pounds to spend | Main | DCMS »
October 2, 2007
The land of blog
One lesson we have all learned throughout this long saga is that politicians and government officers are not really bothered about what the public think at all - but they are extremely motivated by their name appearing in the paper- or on a blog. The new electrical information age means that a name, once mentioned stays on search engines for ever!!
So if I say Yinnon Ezra, Richard Ward, Margaret Snaith and Ken Thornber have presided over a very sharp decline in book use in Hampshire County Council; or that Margaret Hodge said there were more books- when there were 20m less, or that Tony Durcan of Newcastle City Council said he spends 12% of his funds on books- when in fact he spends less than 5%--- all those references stay on Google and whenever they search for their names (as politicians and journalists often do)- these are the stories that come up. It's painful, but a good campaign tool
My sources say that at present there are quite a few senior library managers about to follow Chris Batt and David Lammy and walk the plank into the great depths of the shark infested swamp of Blog. Bad publicity is to blame.
Posted by Tim Coates at October 2, 2007 10:37 PM
Comments
Tim,
I "Googled" my name and the first entry (of a surprising number) gives my name and work email address for all to see. Frightening....
Regards,
Peter
Posted by: Peter K at October 3, 2007 12:17 AM
Did it say when Phoenix Nights will reopen?
Posted by: Tim at October 3, 2007 8:48 AM
And with the caches of search engines, *everything* is out there. The net does not forget!
Posted by: Pete at October 3, 2007 8:50 AM
Tim,
Closed for refurbishment at the moment. Undecided as to where the coffee bar will be situated; by the fiction or non-fiction?
Regards,
Peter
Posted by: Peter K at October 3, 2007 3:40 PM