House of Lords - lords of the blog

When people think of the UK House of Lords, some might use words such as traditional, hidebound, conservative, outdated or even irrelevant.

However these terms don't apply to the latest initiative from the House - lords of the blog.

Members of the UK's upper house of parliament (equivalent to Australia's Senate), are now writing a regular blog about the business conducted by UK parliament and the role of the House of Lords.

The blog was set up as an experimental project to;

encourage direct dialogue between web users across the world and Members of the
House of Lords. Commissioned by the House of Lords, the pilot project is
conducted by the Hansard Society who are working directly with Members of the
Lords to bring their blogs to the wider online audience.

Avoiding the seven deadly sins of social media, most posts are written by members of the House, with at least ten members contributing at least semi-regularly.

It's the only blog I've visited where almost every author has a 'Lord', 'Baroness' or similar title before their name.

As one of the best written blogs I've encountered, reflective of the education and experience of the writers, it provides a fascinating insight into how the House of Lords operates on a day-to-day basis.

The blog also links to the blogs of a number of other UK parliamentarians.

Observing how actively UK and US politicians and senior civil servants are engaging their constituents via the internet brings home to me how far Australia is behind in the egovernment space.