So I finally had the opportunity to go through and read some of Winston Peters blog called “Winston Says…” and I have to say, I’m kind of underwhelmed.

So far its mostly rhetoric and not really being used as anything more than the corner soap box. In fact, worse than that, he maintains almost exactly the same demeanor on his blog that he has during his press conferences or when talking at election rallies. Fortunately he leaves out most of his attitude he seems to take on in public.

But what he really misses is the opportunity to get a much wider audience attracted to his policies and to share his views with a much broader crowd. Reading his blog posts I get the feeling that he’s preaching to the converted. In fact, the way he talks in his posts is almost dismissive.

It’s important in this age of information overload to maintain a direct link of communication. I welcome your comments, although I should point out that this site is aimed at all of New Zealand not just the (mainly Wellington) blogging community who have nothing better to do than grind their axes. There are plenty of other sites if you want to post uninformed, anonymous comments.

Winston says… …the response is pleasing…

Just quietly Winston, I am neither anonymous, nor in Wellington and have been blogging since 1998 (back then we called it an online journal.)

I think its great that he’s taken on a blog, and that its something more than the endless press releases John Key or Bill English use their so-called blogs for. But he needs to understand that the average person reading his blog online is not likely going to be someone that already shares his point of view or think he’s the greatest thing the Bay of Plenty ever created. It might also help if the blog name represented the content a little more. “Winston rants…” would be a better title I think.

It might help if, after writing these great long blog posts, he actually participated in the conversations they spawned in the comments. But the comment threads die off pretty quickly when you get no feedback from the blogger. It is the curse of blogging in general and part of the reason Twitter and FriendFeed type service are becoming so popular.

New Zealand politicians seem to be trying to imitate Barak Obama’s outstanding and well orchestrated online presence. But the implementation these NZ politicians are coming up with is very lacking. Without a doubt, the majority of it see it as a way of getting their own voice heard. Great, get their feet wet. But they really need to be jumping in to the deep end and using the new mediums to actually engage in a conversation with the people they’re wanting to vote for them.

And that is the great power of the modern internet. You’re welcome to have your say and voice your own opinions, but you have to expect that those opinions will be responded to and if you fail to enter the dialog beyond your initial comment, you’ll quickly find people stop taking notice of you. One way conversations are worthless in such an intimate medium.