Conservative MP Garth Turner was turfed from the Conservative causcus yesterday because of his blog, the Turner Report.  The Conservatives cited confidentiality concerns.

I like this guy, I don’t agree with him on much politically, but I really like his take on democratic engagment.  His blog has unmoderated comments, and he participates in conversations with people who comment.  This type of front line engagement with constituants is exactly what we need in politics today.  Few people don’t feel threatened by the openness of social media, but this guy is absolutely fearless.

But there is a political blogging lesson in this.  If you are the maverick MP with differing opinions from your causus, I’m not sure that I would use my blog to further the debate.  What is said in Causus, should stay in causcus.  But that doesn’t mean that he should not engage in discussion.  By all means, write about the important issues and express your opinion.  But don’t be an idiot and tip your bosses hand.  That’s the kind of move that’ll get you fired.  And it did.

So as much as I like the guys “people first” attitude, I wish he handled this with a little more tact.  As much as I cringe everytime I read the “reaganomic” basis for his financial policy, I like having someone in the conservative causcus who will ask questions and disagree.  Disagreements lead to discussions, and good heated discussion inherently sqashes dictatorial leadership. 

We are worse off with this guy at home.

PS: Check out the comments in yesterdays post.  Gosh I’m glad I don’t hang out with hardened conservatives.  They might start calling me a commie, and I hate that. 

Last night I had a couple of beers with Jim and Kelly from Volunteer Abroad.  VA is an organization that hooks up students with aid projects in six countries.  They train new volunteers so that they can get by in the language and not get robbed at every turn.  They do a direct connect of the resources (people) to the organizations in county.  Much of the travel industry (and more specifically volunteer aid orgs) are mired in mark ups and dubious ethics.  Not these guys, they are the real deal, doing good things for real people.

They have set up houses in all of the countries in which they operate, and they just moved into a great head office here in Kingston.  (A huge old limestone in the downtown that is just perfect for the 24/7 work that they do.)

I’ve been friends with Jim for years now, and have watched as he has nurtured VA into what it is today.  He’s the CEO of the company, and a very cool guy.

The reason we met up was to talk about social media and blogging for his company and how they should go about implementing things.  It really is a perfect company for a blogging initiative.  They are doing good/ ethical work, they have some PR issues that have more to do with the industry rather then their business, and they have well educated and passionate people working for them. 

I’m looking forward to continuing these conversations with them.  Good karma all around.

Mike Rohde wrote the other day on a podcast that addressed the concept of “Continuous Partial Attention”.  As Mike points out, this is not about multitasking, but the continuous monitoring of possible inputs from technology.  It also is based on the premise that the modern geek is constantly connected to the “Network”.  I count myself among these modern geeks.

I should start this out by defining what my inputs are.  Throughout the day, I get information delivered to me via my palm Treo.  This could just as easily be my work computer or my home computer, but I have routed everything through my treo, as it is the one computer that is on my person all day. 

Throughout the day I am notified of things that are happening right now.  I get email from more than five accounts, I’m notified about breaking news, I get email notifications of blog comments, I get text messages from friends and family, meeting reminders, task reminders, and of course phone calls.  All of these inputs make my phone vibrate on my hip, and I admit that I almost always pull it out to see what the alert is about.

I say almost, because there are times when it is simply rude to stop the conversation and look at my treo.  I’m not one of those people that will drop a person to person conversation in order to check my treo.  I get too many inputs for that.  To be polite, I simply silence the phone in my pocket without taking it out.  I have it set up to remind me of these things in five minutes.

Being constantly connectted certainly does offer the opportunity for distraction.  But I prefer not to look at it that way.  It is always my choice to respond to an alert or phone call, or email.  Personally, I find it remarkably convienient, to have real time delivery of my relevant information.  If something is time sensitive, then I can respond.  If it is not time sensitive, then I can mark it for future processing and deal with it at an appropriate time. 

But all of this comes back to the concept of attention.  I’m notoriously ADD, and I am often scattered and bouncing from one thing to another.  But my assitant is constantly bring me back to the present moment, delivering information needed right now.  All of my daily tasks are scheduled at times when I am likely to have the time to act on the reminder, so I tend to get things at appropriate times.  (For example, my regular house work reminders are scheduled half an hour after I arrive home from work.)  It allows me to manage my time and attention and supplies me with enough information to make adjustments to things on the fly. 

There are some tools that help filter the inputs based on time and context.  I use Callfilter to regulate phone calls and sms messages throughout my day.  Personal calls get routed to voicemail directly during working hours, and the phone radio gets turned off completely when I am in a meeting.  This is just another layer of directing inputs appropriately.

It has taken some time to get my inputs to an acceptable level, and to gain control of when these things are delivered. Even now I get the occasional glitch that causes a completely inappropriate alert, but they are few and far between now.

I honestly don’t feel taxed by this type of networked living.  Being a node on the network doesn’t cause anxiety or adrenaline pumped days.  (Although some of the content can induce anxiety sometimes…)  All of these inputs allow me to particiate at work, in life at the yacht club, in my family life, and in the blogosphere. 

So what do you think?  Are you at peace with your “connection” or do you long for the days when things were simpler and slower.  Leave me a comment, and I promise I’ll read it promptly, although it may take a little time for me to respond.

Shel Holtz, of For Immediate Release, wrote a great post on the perception of PR in a municipal/ public works setting. 

So many city or provincial projects run into serious misunderstandings with constituents that are effected by the work.  As I work for the Ontario Ministry of Transportation, I regularly see projects that have developed resistance from locals who don’t really understand the project that is underway.  FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) seem to have such a grip on people when it comes to public infrastructure projects.  People have such a deep seeded mistrust of the government that they take an oppositional stance immediately.

MTO has been fairly progressive in this respect.  We regularly host Government Information Sessions when in the planning stages for a new project.  These sessions give people a chance to sit down with planning and design people as well as the lead engineer, to have their questions about particular problems and personal circumstances in the context of the project.  It makes people feel better to know that their concerns have been addressed and planned for, we just need to let them know that we have been thinking about their needs.

But the main point of Shel’s post is that often municipal politicians find it hard to justify the money it costs to do those things.  I’m sure that many American cities are in the same cash strapped situation that Canadian cities are.  When your city is operating with deficits and can’t afford to do all of the infrastructure projects that it would like to do, it is really hard to justify that Communications/ PR budget line.

The other point that Shel makes is about the “good” projects that a well constructed communications effort can initiate.  I totally agree, when you would like to mobilize citizens to participate in community driven event or initiatives, getting people jazzed about it is the only way to get them going.  To get them jazzed you must let them know the end game and the vision of the successful project.  Unfortuately self-interest motivates people, and letting them know they will benefit in the end will get them engaged.

Finally, with all due respect to Shel, I would respectfully submit that PR pros should take the emphasis away from the negative preception of PR and focusing on the good stuff.  I’m not a PR pro, but I follow the PR blogosphere/ podosphere and there is a huge emphasis on trying to turn around the perception of the industry.  I would say that pointing out the positive and economically beneficitial aspects of PR would let executives, politicians and business leaders learn about the positive value of PR.  Constantly coming back to the “unethical behavior” of the few gives legitimacy to the concerns of sceptics. 

I know that PR people are doing good work.  Tell us more about that.