tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11762382.post6149387457233005550..comments2023-10-24T08:13:45.842-06:00Comments on Only in New Mexico: Government InformationJim Bacahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14019944863771287149noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11762382.post-67228043852797881802009-04-05T14:29:00.000-06:002009-04-05T14:29:00.000-06:00Good question to raise, but the answer is dead eas...Good question to raise, but the answer is dead easy. You are looking at it!<BR/><BR/>Public Information Officers should post every press release to a public weblog (without exception). That is all we need.<BR/><BR/>Weblogs (or "blogs") automatically generate "feeds" (RSS/Atom feeds) that can be read by any of many commonly available "feed readers" (of which Google Reader is one example). Public weblogs also get indexed by search engines like Google.<BR/><BR/>Setting up weblog software is dead easy (or you can use a public site like Blogger), so no especial expertise is required. A slightly more enterprising Public Information Officer can tag postings by topic areas. Some weblog software (though apparently not Blogger) can generate feeds for each tag - which makes it easy to get updates only on topics that match your interest.<BR/><BR/>To software guys (like myself), RSS/Atom feeds are key to doing all sorts of interesting things.<BR/><BR/>No need for a central website. As long as a weblog is public, that is all we need. No need for extensive upfront planning (which could slow things down quite a lot). In fact, encourage <B>every</B> government employee who wants to keep a weblog (no telling who will prove the best writers). <BR/><BR/>The central site can come later (if needed), and can automatically aggregrate existing weblogs of government employees (this is easy to do, without any prior planning). <BR/><BR/>Weblogs and feed readers are two halves of an equation that form a complete solution (much as newspapers were once a solution), and getting started is easy.Preston L. Bannisterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03201415630192091526noreply@blogger.com