Blogs are considered online journals that typically list entries chronologically. Most blogs, such as the city’s, offer an archive of all past posts and reader comments.To be included in the study, Bobkiewicz had to answer a questionnaire that asked: what was the purpose of starting the blog, has that purpose changed, communication technologies prior to the blog, who writes the posts - Bobkiewicz does 99.9 percent of posts - how blog success would be defined, and whether or not the respondent would consider their blog successful.“It is absolutely successful,” Bobkiewicz, who created the city blog with City Council approval in November 2004, said. “The blog has created dialogue on a whole variety of issues that wouldn’t happen otherwise. That’s a good thing.”Also questioned was how one would rank the success of a city blog. “Well, newspapers writing stories about blogs” is a good indicator of success, although, noted Bobkiewicz, demonstrated use of the blog as a communication tool for the community ranks highest. “The blog,” said Bobkiewicz, “is the number one thing people look at on our city web site and it has been for a long time.”“Ryan is wrong about who is number one, and the true indicators of reader engagement prove it,” Chapman wrote on the city blog. “Santa Paula is clearly #1.”
City of Santa Paula blog garners high ranking in national study
May 28, 2008
Santa Paula News
Santa Paula’s official city blog, one of the first if not the first of its kind in the nation, is back in the news.
By Peggy KellySanta Paula TimesSanta Paula’s official city blog, one of the first if not the first of its kind in the nation, is back in the news. Blogs across the nation were analyzed by a University of North Chapel Hill student Ryan Davidson for his capstone project for his Master’s degree, which resulted in “Enhancing Local Government Communication: Managers Who BLOG,” which will partially fulfill Davidson’s requirements for his degree in Public Administration.Santa Paula’s blog, created and maintained by City Manager Wally Bobkiewicz, tied for third in a “reader engagement continuum.” The highest rated blog was the City Manager’s Blog in Kent, Ohio, which subsequently stopped accepting comments.Bobkiewicz noted - on the city blog of course - that the City Manager’s blog in Lowell, MA and the Davison, MI blog also ranked high, although very few comments are posted on the two.Santa Paula blogger Ken Chapman disagreed with Davidson’s score for “reader engagement,” as the city’s blog postings have “accumulated more reader comments than probably the other 35 blogs combined.... Santa Paula should be proud to have a community that is admittedly more actively engaged in local issues than any of the other cities surveyed,” and Chapman blogged that allowing comments from those who sign themselves anonymous, “as long as they stay within guidelines, may be a key factor in the Santa Paula Blog’s success.”Davidson’s study noted that citizen visits to government websites increased from 47 percent in 2000 to 66 percent in 2006, an almost 20 percent increase.
