The Ghost Who Works

Good idea to have a blog where we the community can have a direct line to the minister (who knows - maybe all ministers and portfolios eventually). It's a good step, and well overdue. Having a blog is one thing, using it effectively is another thing altogether. If you look at blogs that really work well on the internet, and that the users really re-visit and contribute to, it's those where the author/contributors are posting to it regularly. Responding to the information sent through - even on mass - is the only way to really make an effective blog. Giving the blog some structure, and having more than one post is a good idea also. Obviously there are many facets to your portfolio that you would like the community to contribute to, so let's see them! Give the blog some structure, and don't allow everyone to comment on everything in the blog, just on the information you want feedback on. Also I'd like the option of not making my comment publicly available. I may not, as a contributor/commentor on the blog, want to have read by others. I am commenting to you the blog owner and may sometimes want it for your eyes only. I should have that right. I can understand the difficulties being faced here, as anything on the blog is public domain and very easily accessible, and you could be opening yourself for attack (by Opposition, Media, the Public) on even the most basic and benign statements you make, but it'll be a valuable tool in the future - I'm sure. Sure, the Federal Opposition and anyone with a gripe is going to be on it regularly - communicating their agenda - but that's what this is all about right? Open Government and Communication. On the subject of the net filtering, I can understand the goal - limiting access to offensive material for all involved - but feel that this is a limiting and somewhat shortsighted way to go about this. As other have said on this blog. Persons wanting to view that kind of material have multiple "ports" on which they can search/share/download/upload etc.. It's not only (and more and more not even) over the web. A filter that blocks/censors ALL internet based traffic would be a very bad idea. I'm inclined to agree that a "one size fits all" mandatory filter on web traffic will be a huge limiting factor on internet peformance - regardless of the speed of your connection. No doubt you will be advised strongly (mainly by those wanting to sell their product/service) that the performance will not be degraded in any way. It would be naive to think so. Any reduction in internet performance would be a terrible blow to an already under-powered network. I do feel that this is an issue of education and supervision by families themselves and not one of "big brother". I hope my comments are of some use to you. As I said earlier - I hope this blog builds into a effective tool for communicating with us and receiving our feedback.