Homo economicus’ Weblog

1. Have your own TV show that mentions your blog, or get it mentioned on air:

Actually I could do with some advice on creating the illusion of space in my house ...

2. Write about things that matter to real people: like pets, gardening, weddings, DIY

3. Being a well known celebrity will help with interest in your blog; be famous

4. Have a team of experts and managers for your blog; delegation secret to success

5. Get advertising, like for example plugging a Cannon Camera, to help with costs

6. Get a link with other sites similar to yours so you can direct traffic to each other

7. Use WordPress for your blog, as used by Martha.

The rest can be found on her blog here. In fairness Martha Stewart is the sort of celebrity that could get your parents blogging. Which may mean that your blog tries to sort out social justice and human rights issues when your mum asks for a link to her latest blog on cross stitching patterns for Christmas.

Freedom of expression – it does have a price

The urge to get people to listen to what you have to say. Or at least get people to listen to your point of view.

So go for it – leave a comment saying what your blog is about and link it.

OTHER BLOGS:

Inspiring change by blogging

Well this September has seen the highest readership of the blog. The previous August did have the record, but September manged to more than double that previous best. Blogs on Sarah Palin being McCain’s running mate and the fall of Michale Reiss from the Royal Society – showing the arguments over religion and science being incompatible are not about to go away. Not least with Richard Dawkins Website being banned in Turkey.

The Michael Reiss thing led to an early exclusive. Sir Harry Kroto responded to my blogs about Reiss on 26 September. On Sunday 28 September that was published in The Guardian. I have asked Sir Harry if he could go further than his comment by saying how students that bring up creationism in the classroom should be tackled. Though rather fortunate to have had a comment from him at all, if he does reply that will be included this month.

Stats of course are only part of the story. I am curious to know who out there reads this blog on a regular basis, or at least keeps coming back for more. So please do drop a comment to let me know who the loyal readers are.

Don’t be shy. I know one person who never directly comments on the blog, but does by e mail. If they comment on the blog I just might get lunch this time 

The Conservatives are having their conference in Birmingham this week, and despite Brown’s speech last week closing the gap the Labour Party is still on course for the worse drumming in an election since Michael Foot was leader in the 1980s with a manifesto described as the longest suicide note in history.

However, it is easy to be popular when you tap into people’s resentment. The real question is what policy alternatives do you have? Whether this is just a gimmick to engage the public or they really do not have a clue on this is unclear. They have opened up policy discussion on their blog to make suggestions for what policy might be on the Conservative Website. Just as Gordon Brown borrowed from America his wife introducing him before his speech, this idea comes from Obama’s website.

George Osbourne (Conservative Shadow Chancellor) made the point in 2006 on blogs:

In politics and in the media we’ve both assumed that we do the talking and the people listen. Now the people are talking back.

It’s exciting, liberating, challenging and frightening too.

There are 57 million blogs and the number increases by 100,000 every single day.

Over 125 million people have created their own MySpace page – and 250,000 new people do so each week.

This is not quite virtual democracy, uniting the world. The majority of the world’s inhabitants do not have access to global communications. In 2006 only 57% of UK households had access to the internet. The other point is the impact by which using this medium has on the political process. Organising could not be easier – just start a facebook group, send some chain e mails around. Contacting elected representatives is as easy as a few key strokes. You can write a blog, with no one to edit your content. Political parties are encouraging people to target blogs with comments.

I can see where this is heading. Regime change by blogging, and commenting. It could even be used to encourage dissent, rather than by supplying money or arms, by positive comments to a blogger to keep on undermining a government with their criticism. Or creating blog accounts to coordinate rumour mills in the digital internet age to shape events in the real world through cyberspace. Blogs written by covert agents of the state to influence people both foreign and domestic.

The power to inspire goes beyond the grave

On the one hand a force for good, but also one for conspiracy. Just another medium for the propaganda war. The real significance of what the Conservative Party is doing is making existing activists feel more motivated to take part, and garnering publicity. They can perhaps dream of the website contributing to party funds the way it did for Obama. Cameron lacks the inspiring qualities that make people jump up from their seats and extend their wallets to be part of a movement for change.

Are we too cynical to think change is ever going to happen, or do we just lack a charismatic leader that could inspire us that way here in the UK? Well we did have such a politician that knew how to raise the roof, and in many ways it made me a political activist because I could see the things that needed change. That was Tony Blair, and in many ways I think it is easy for us to forget how popular he was when first elected as we remember him now for Iraq and unfounded public loyalty to George Bush defending the indefensible.

In a world full of bloggers you will not please them all, but you will get widespread opinion out there. But the person busy typing away is still a human being. One motivated to get their message across to people, or vain enough to think people will read and take notice of what is said. The internet offers new opportunities – it does not however change the nature of the political animal.

If politics has taught us anything though, it is that governments have their own agendas often shaped by things beyond the public’s control. It is not so much us the people that influence policy as legitimise a group  to formulate and enact them on our behalf. We have the power of veto by removing a government for a particular bad policy. However, with George W Bush and Tony Blair reelected after sending troops to Iraq and  the incompetence and human rights violations that entailed I do not have the confidence in the electorate being relied on to exercise that veto. But if it is business as usual when you change the faces then what real power do you have?

If you want change it is not enough to just change the people in office:

‘Those who have changed the universe have never done it by changing officials, but always by inspiring the people.’ (Napoleon)

It is often said that power ultimately rests with the citizen if only we exercised it. Perhaps that is where blogging may work in communicating ideas. The change it gives birth too though may be as effective as writing down your frustrations and grievances in a notebook which you keep under your pillow. It makes you feel better having got it off your chest – but are you actually using it as a call to action on others, to inspire others to change the universe?

It is a battle of ideas, with cynicism being the barricade on the way to progress. But that cynicism is not just other people, but what we can have ourselves. Because sometimes we may think even a small thing will not make the difference, and that a blog is no more an instrument for change then a notebook under a pillow. Yet we can do more then dream on them:

Each time a person stands up for an ideal,
or acts to improve the lot of others…
he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope,
and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring,
those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance. (Robert Kennedy)

I suppose the real secret if you can inspire people is not to get killed for doing it.

On the 28th of August 2007 this blog was born out of the frustration that the Myspace blog features were none existent. A friend suggested WordPress and I have not looked back since.

Within a year blog readership has increased one hundred fold, and this August has seen the most traffic of any preceding month. To put that growth into some kind of perspective it is like starting with the most crowded city in Malta (Senglea) reading the blog each month to the whole nation of Malta now reading it. For that, my thanks to all the readers that come to the blog.

That very first blog was an introduction. In those early months you could view an entire month without going to another page. Pictures and photos were largely absent. Then something unexpected happened. While in the States the police pulled me and my friends over outside the Pentagon – dinner with Richard Dawkins hanged in the balance as we were questioned.

After that Conference in Washington DC, I was encouraged to keep up the blogging by the people I met.

I feel a list coming on, much as I want to avoid them. I wonder if in Sam Harris’ research he may examine the part of the brain that we use when making lists. Maybe an overly sensitive part of that habit to list things – shopping, packing, life decisions, accounts. Explaining such pattern seeking behaviour as listing commandments to train spotting.

As such, for the past year here are the top 5 blogs:

Jose Mestre – the living impact of refusing blood transfusions

Darwin Awards 2007

Make Me A Christian

Are the Jehovah’s Witnesses a cult?

About Me

Honorary mention for blogs which I especially enjoyed writing:

Me and Douglas Adams

Atheist at Ken Ham talk in Leicester

Christopher Hitchens: “Thomas Jefferson: Author of America”

Great Ideas of Biology – 9th Simonyi Anniversary Lecture

Sam Harris – do not cast the first stone

Thanks for reading, and if you have enjoyed what you read do please spread the word!

I was asked by The Pakistani Spectator for an interview on blogging  – which can be found here.

AAI 2007 - sadly not able to make this years.

I have spent a rather inordinate amount of time playing with the side bar over the last few days. It may well not be a finished product but before my head explodes I am going to call it a night.

On the side bar there is now:

• the option to RSS this blog (with the rather cool sounding Entries RSS)
• RSS links from the BBC newsite, RichardDawkins.net and The Onion
• Recent comments (feel free to comment on posts)
• Top posts (see what people are reading on the blog at the moment)
• Archives, categories and a search box – find what you want by month, topic or keyword
• Blogroll – now with images and not just text

I have played around with the order, for example have not lumped all the RSS feeds together because it just did not look right. Hope that it makes the blog more user friendly with improved presentation.

The blogging started in earnest with the Atheist Alliance International 2007 Conference in Washington DC – which include such highlights as Sam Harris’ speech that shocked his audience, the police detaining us outside the Pentagon, and an argument about Hitchens and Mother Teresa in a restroom.

Thanks for all the positive comments in the last few days. Means a lot, so please keep them coming whether it is commenting on a story, feedback, or you just want to argue. I deliberately call this a free thinking space – not because anything goes or all opinions are equally valid, but because the plurality of ideas should have free reign in the public space for debate and scrutiny.

If you feel the same way, then you have come to the right place and I hope you enjoy the site and continue to do so. Anyone wanting to hire me based on these works please feel free to make me an offer; or if you just want to know more About Me click the link.

Well it is only a number after all – but this blog really only got going due to a conversation with Andy Thompson who told me to write the story of what happened to me and my friends at the Atheist Alliance International Conference exactly the way I told him – this resulted at 5 am in writing the blog Police Question Atheists! and the blog has gone from strength to strength since. Thank you for reading and if you have enjoyed yourselves tell your friends.

Right now the blog has (not my intention) found itself on a stock market where fictitiously you can trade shares in a blog where the value is based on incoming and outgoing links to the site – in that sense the blog is going well and reports on the American Atheist Conference should see more traffic increasing the value. Not a cent changes hands, it is all a bit of fun with the intention of seeing the popularity of a blog.

I will be leaving for America in a few hours for the American Atheist Conference. Looking forward to catching up with people I met in Washington DC, listening to speakers and meeting up again with Richard Dawkins. Will be writing about the experiences as I did with the AAI conference (which you can read about here).

Next blog will be from the other side of the pond.