Legislative Blogging -- Rep. Noem Back Online

Representative Kristi Noem (R-Dist. 6-Castlewood) is back online with her legislative blog. She posted weekly updates during the 2007 session, as well as some declarations of faith on another blog, Everyday Women (DakotaWomen it definitely ain't).

The text is about as dry as the typical weekly legislative updates we see in our local papers from our faithful legislators:

The Governor presented his State of the State address, which was basically a recap of his budget address that occurred in the beginning of December. He gave some directives to the legislature, including solving the property tax problems and not spending new monies. [Kristi Noem, "'08 Legislative Session Begins!" 2008.01.14].

But at least she's online! Yahoo! If anyone knows of other legislators online, send those addresses! This is what I'm seeing called in some academic quarters Government 2.0 (although the book I'm citing here is three years old, which means the term is probably already woefully outdated -- but hey, I'm catching up!). Take stodgy old government, plug it in to Web 2.0, get citizens and legislators into conversations -- careful! Before you know it, we might get back to realizing the government is us!

Rep. Noem -- keep posting! And see if you can get the LRC to add a link to your blog on your legislative contact page. I'll be coming to talk to you about my dissertation on e-government after the session. And Russell, Dan, and Dave -- where are your blogs? Even if you can't afford a fancy website from Darin, blogs are free! By the end of the session, let's see every legislator in Pierre with a blog.

Tech postscript: I note that even good Christian Rep. Noem is willing to go for the lowest rates and register her website through GoDaddy.com. She and I both are apparently able to overlook the occasional soft-porn advertisement to get a good deal on web service.