Mr. Edwards, help teach others to blog

Mr. Edwards, help teach others to blog! That’s what I got out of this post from Dave Winer, an e-mail he wrote to Ryan Montoya, John Edwards tech consultant. (See full copy bellow. Copied here for clarity.)

Fact is there are lots of efforts underway in this part of North Carolina to help people learn about blogging. (I know there are more in other parts of NC.) All we need is some assistance. That can come in many forms. One is to help spread the word. You can find out the latest at the BlogTogther website and email list. Another is to attend these events and start a blog or help someone else do it.

So lets all blog about this recommendation to John Edwards and increase the number of people blogging. I bet it’ll make a positive difference in lots of areas. Including politics…

Update: Blog posts about this I’ve read
Mistersugar – Anton Zuiker
Blog Around the Clock – Coturnix
Word Up – Ed Cone
GreeneSpace – Sally Greene

Source of text bellow

Dear Ryan: You know what would be more useful than the family members blogging:

1. Start a program to help people in North Carolina who aren’t blogging to start blogging. (It’s just as important as voter registration.)

2. Help the elected officials in North Carolina (start with our old friend Howard Coble) learn how to read the blogs.

3. Have staff members read the blogs, looking for good ideas, and make sure they get routed to the right political leader, someone who can use the idea.

The Edwards’s aren’t experts in this stuff, and it’s wrong to set the expectation that they will or should become experts. What they are experts at, or so they say, is solving problems using the political system. So instead of waiting until they get elected again, which may never happen, get started helping right now.

Makes a pretty good stump speech too.

Hosting isn’t the problem in 2006 like it was in 2003, but lots of people still need help figuring out how to blog, and that’s something the kids would probably get a kick out of (and we are looking for ways to get 16 year olds in the loop, right, they vote in 2008).

Another angle, make it bi-partisan. Want to freak the Republicans out, help them!

Another one, don’t just do it in North Carolina, do it in the South too. They have an early primary.

Start blogging clubs like bingo, and BBQ.

Dave