November 1, 2005
Mayor's Blog Dies
After a brave but fruitless fight, District officials today announced that D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams' official blog has passed away. No services have yet been scheduled, and Williams was unavailable for comment at press time. City officials remained mostly quiet on the blog's passing, though one individual close to the mayor remarked, "Williams had a blog? Really?"
Bloggers unofficially stick to the rule that a blog that goes without an update for 30 days or more is considered dead. Williams last blogged on September 29, writing in the wake of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina along the Gulf Coast. Since then his hands have remained silent.
District-based bloggers planned to don black armbands in the wake of the blog's death, and many have planned to incorporate the inscription "Mayor's Blog, 8/15/05-9/29/05" on their own sites. Some have called for the blog to lie in state in the John Wilson Building, a privilege often reserved for esteemed public officials or members of the military or National Guard. Members of the City Council were said to be considering legislation mandating a moment of silence in all public buildings citywide on Friday.
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good heads up report.
Shame, really but I never got a sense, however, that he figured out what to with the blog, where to take it. He didn't find his voice as blogger.
Suprising, in a way, because he's the mayor, ears to everything, insights of all kinds. Readers would have flocked, I think, if he used this platform in an egaging way.
Why do the entries have two dates, one weeks before the other? Are they written earlier and e-mailed to someone who posts them when they get around to it? It's not very bloglike.
The content, on the other hand, is much more bloglike -- or at least weirder -- than I expected to see on a politician's site. I remember feeling that particularly when I read the "Smithsonian Birds" entry a while ago.