Public sector blogs

Apart from the Gahmen Blogger article, the Straits Times had another article which gave an overview of the different government agencies utilise blogs.

Here's the full article for archival purposes:

Singapore
Blogging: Govt agencies getting into the act
Goh Chin Lian
467 words
23 August 2006
Straits Times
English
(c) 2006 Singapore Press Holdings Limited
WHEN administrator Victor Koo began blogging about the past on a government-sanctioned blog, little did he imagine it would lead to a part of his past being unearthed.

Mr Koo had volunteered to write on the National Heritage Board's (NHB) blog, launched in March, about the stuff of yesteryear, such as ice balls and manual adding machines.

And along the way, the 50-year-old found a long-lost primary school pal.

He had posted about his primary school days, naming one Ong Eng Kiat who would taunt him whenever he returned from a visit to the school dentist biting a ball of cotton in his mouth.

Mr Ong spotted his post and contacted him this month. Mr Koo recounted their reunion on the blog and posted a 1968 class photograph his pal had sent him.

With more people blogging and podcasting, Mr Koo believes government agencies should do the same, a point Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong had raised in his National Day Rally speech on Sunday.

'We have to move with the times,' said Mr Koo, who started his own blog last year.

Several government agencies have done so.

Last year, the Infocomm Development Authority, in its bid to encourage students to join their schools' infocomm clubs, advertised on such networking sites as Friendster and MSN Messenger.

The Health Promotion Board's website has podcasts of Hong Kong actress Nancy Sit discussing health issues such as cervical cancer and mammograms.

Similarly, the Singapore Tourism Board's website VisitSingapore.com has just introduced podcasts telling about the Singapore Zoo and upcoming events such as the musical Notre Dame De Paris.

Last month, the Defence Ministry began a blog, in which a national serviceman relates his experience setting up the new Army Museum.

Librarians at the National Library Board are blogging too, posting their own book reviews to promote reading and writing World Cup match reports to attract soccer fans to check out digital resources on sports.

Said its senior manager Ian Bain, 56: 'Blogs are a godsend to librarians. People think librarians are boring people and the library is a stuffy place.

'We write our blogs in a light-hearted, conversational voice.''

The agencies' various efforts appear to be seen and heard.

The NLB's blog on digital resources gets a monthly average of 10,000 visitors, excluding repeats.

The NHB blog had 56,000 such unique visitors in the first month, and now gets about 15,000 a month.

A major challenge it faces, said spokesman Walter Lim, is ensuring good content given in a story-telling style, without sounding academic.

To further spice up its efforts, NHB plans to let people post content online with, say, their mobile phones or PDAs.