It's about 4 pm and I'm in the British Airways business lounge, waiting for a standby flight to Manchester. I probably won't get on, but I have a flight at 7.

It was 150 pounds vs about 60 for the train. But it would have taken me about 6 hours via train (Heathrow to Paddington Station and then 5 hours to Manchester).

This should be the last of the self-portraits. I'll spare you the enlargement this time.

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Posted by: GriffWigley

ICELE, the International Centre of Excellence for Local eDemocracy, launched a new website last month. And in the past few days, Matthew Ellis, now an avid blogger, has been formally named as ICELE's Chairman. Matthew's weblog has a bit of a new look this week, too.

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Posted by: GriffWigley
Modified on December 5, 2006 at 4:04 AM

On Monday, I depart for the International e-Participation and Local Democracy Symposium in Budapest, Hungary. As the UK's ReadMyDay weblog coach, I'll be doing a couple of presentations on leadership blogging while I'm there, and again the following week in Baltimore, Maryland.

My UK/ICELE colleagues and I will use the ICELE weblog that I set up yesterday to post reports, photos and audio from both events. Once the events are over, that weblog might end... or it might continue on in some capacity.

This weekend, I'll be spiffing up the ICELE blog and its sidebars and then starting Tuesday, I'll begin blogging my travels from Amsterdam to Budapest where I'll be staying at the Intercontinental Hotel.

I'll have my laptop with me in Budapest and I've been promised a high-speed internet connection from my hotel room, so if you're a ReadMyDay blogger and need me for anything, I should be able to respond.

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Posted by: GriffWigley
Modified on September 4, 2006 at 8:06 PM

Over the weekend, a team of cyclists from the Royal Borough of Kingston in the UK began cycling from the southern tip of the UK to the northern tip (1000+ miles in 15 Stages), in aid of Asian earthquake relief. The event is called E2E4E - End to End for Earthquake.

From my UK travels and involvement in the ReadMyDay project I have colleagues and bloggers in Kingston and so I've helped set up a weblog, a podcast, and a photo album to support this event. See the main website, the blog, and considering donating to the cause. And follow the trip as it progresses with regular weblog updates from my colleagues in the saddle, Roy Taylor and Herbie Blackburn.

David Miliband is the UK's Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. He started an internal weblog in late 2005 when he was Minister of Communities and Local Government and took it public earlier this year.

His "About this blog" statement:

This blog is my attempt to help bridge the gap - the growing and potentially dangerous gap - between politicians and the public. It will show what I'm doing, what I'm thinking about, and what I've read, heard or seen for myself which has sparked interest or influenced my ideas. My focus will be on my ministerial priorities. This supplements the existing ways of doing day-to-day business with me and my department.

It appears as though he's actually authoring his own blog entries, though one never knows for sure. He's got a personable writing style, posts frequently, and links to other sites to allow his readers to go deeper. Examples: this recent post titled: Environment as Public Service? or this one titled Um...Errr....Errrr....Um.....

I also like it that he often refers to those who attach comments to his blog entries, for example in this entry when he wrote "Many thanks for the comments on the drought in the South East (remember the majority of regions are not suffering). Harry, Holger and others mentioned the idea..."

I'm not going to do a complete analysis of his blog (Hansard Society is doing that) but there are a couple of things I'd like to see him do:

• Include photos of people who he mentions meeting. For example, in this post where he writes I met residents of the Victoria Hostel for the homeless in Westminster yesterday evening... The photo need not include him in the photo -- some might accuse him of self-promotion if that's done too much. Including photos not only makes a blog entry more visually appealing. It's a good way to recognize/affirm/acknowledge the people who were there. And it encourages people to pass around the permalink of the blog entry.

• Include more posts about what his department staff/employees are doing that reflects some of the strategic initiatives he's emphasizing, as well as the overall values he espouses. Leadership for someone in his position not only relates to public leadership, but to the many (dozens/hundreds/thousands?) of government employees who are part of his department.