As I predicted, D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams’s time in the blogosphere was brief. His blog is dead, and to make matters worse, it wasn’t really a blog. The thing lacked permalinks, which is a bare minimum blog feature. Without a permanent link, you can’t link or trackback to individual posts.

Ken Yarmosh and I are developing blogging seminars for non-profits, and I think local governments could use some blog help, too.

(Hat tip: DCist)

…but I predict his time in the blogosphere will be brief. I don’t think he’s ready to handle the onslaught of real-time complaints from disgruntled residents about government services.

According to the Washington Post:

In the mayor’s second message, Williams admonished posters that there was no censorship of postings “as part of some conspiracy.”

He asked people to call the city’s complaint line with service requests. And hey, lay off the “expressive but not very helpful comment on ignorant public officials or employees.”

Williams launched the blog just last week, and he already sees how hungry the public “beast” is for government reform, and DC residents commenting on the blog probably won’t follow his “call the complaint line” advice. The point is that people want to communicate with real people, ones they believe care about them and their problems. A disembodied, automated, wait-forever complaint line won’t cut it.

Any blogging politician with commenting enabled (although moderated) is a brave soul. But if I were a betting woman, I’d wager that in a month or two, comments will be closed.

(Photo from the Washington Post)