bytes and ballots

There was a fun story in a recent issue of the Long Beach Press-Telegram on how Long Beach City Councilwoman, Gerrie Schipske, is using a blog to keep her constituents informed about her work for the City. Her blog is at http://district5journal.blogspot.com. The story quotes Shipske as saying that a blog "is one additional way to communicate to constituents. And it's absolutely free. We should take advantage of that."

I agree, and as the reporter noted: "Experts say blogging has become a popular tool among politicians because it's cheap, easy to start and reaches a wide audience."

But as I pointed out in a quote in the story, it is quite unusual to see a city councilwoman, even in a city as large as Long Beach, with a blog!