The Bahrain E-Government Portal have launched a new service to their catalogue..
a blog.
The first post (posted 12/07/09) was written by the Minister of Cabinet Affairs Shaikh Ahmed bin Atiya Allah and it goes like this:
كنتم دوماً ولا تزالون خير عون لنا ومصدراً للإلهام والتقدم في مختلف البرامج التي نعنى بتنفيذها، واليوم نسعى من خلال هذه المدونة أن نتواصل معكم من خلال قناة مباشرة تهدف إلى الاستماع لآرائكم ومقترحاتكم وملاحظاتكم القيمة، مرحبا بجميع المشاركات التي من شأنها أن تسهم في تحقيق حياة أفضل للجميع وفي رفعة اسم وطننا الكريم.
الدعوة مفتوحة للجميع للمشاركة من الآن وحتى يوم الأربعاء 15 يوليو 2009 – كما سوف يسعدني أن أقوم بالرد على مشاركاتكم في الجلسة المباشرة للمدونة على مدار ساعة كاملة يوم الأربعاء 15 يوليو 2009 في تمام الساعة الحادية عشر صباحا.
You were once and still are a source of inspiration and progress to all the projects we establish, and through this blog we will communicate directly and listen to your suggestions, concerns and opinions. We welcome all your comments that will help us live better and raises our beloved country high.
You are welcome to post comments from now till July 15th where I will reply and answer your questions for a full hour from 11am.
Wonderful.
So will this blog be up for only three days and the ‘do we use blogs’ tick box be ticked ?
The idea of a blog is that it stays maintained, i.e. relevant posts are updated on the blog and the connection between the blogger and readers continues. It doesn’t really need to be the Minister him/herself but anyone working within the Ministry.
The comments on the blog are to say the least are eccentric.
There is a thumbs up/thumbs down feature yet all comments are anonymous by force, meaning that the comment form doesn’t even have a name field to be filled in!
The funny thing is that some of the comments posted already which criticize the e-Govt. are given thumbs down and others praising are getting thumbs up, but also receiving as many thumbs down so a thumbs up/thumbs down war is bubbling as we speak.
I just hope they really utilize this blog properly and get people to comment by name..at least give them the choice to anonymous!
