I truly feel that our local Grass Roots Media (commonly called blogging) is going to become one of the most fundamentally important forces for good in Thanet. For this reason anything I can do to help Thanet's newly growing community to continue to grow I want to do.

I do not have huge amounts of money to pay for big events or extravagant sponsorships but I do have advertising space. So I intend to give freely advertising space for all Thanet Grass Roots Media sites (blogs, forums etc) on the Thanet Star. I intend for this to be a permanent feature of this site.

To qualify your site must largely be about Thanet. Obviously obscene, illegal or hate filled sites may be refused at my discretion but largely I simply want to be sure that people who come to Thanet Star get a chance to visit other grass roots media sites too. Also various obvious disclaimers about no warranty, the management's discretion, acts of god, terror, power companies etc etc apply too.

I'm going to kick things off by making some simple advert images for some of the leading blogs but should I miss you out (and no doubt I will) all you have to do is email me at the address shown on the £1 advert image with your preferred graphic. All adverts will be randomly rotated on a background priority from now until such time you appear to have stop blogging (and I notice).

In the unlikely event that you don't want any free publicity just drop me an email and I'll remove you from the list.

Shock as KCC schools chief quits screams the headline from Kent Online. This is the "exclusive" by political editor Paul Francis who reports on how county councillor Chris Wells is standing down from his role already. This was no exclusive however.

This news item comes a full day after Big News Margate broke the news with the headline SHOCK ! CHRIS WELLS OUT OF KENT CABINET?

Kent Online published at 6.03am on Friday 29th August 2008 (today) and yet Big News Margate had the story out on Thursday 28th August 2008 (yesterday).

Does this mean that "main stream news" is losing it's edge and unable to compete with the Grass Roots Media (commonly called blogs)? What do you think?

When you post an item on a blog that has comments you start a topic for discussion. In effect you are the toastmaster. It seems only polite that should I visit your blog and join in that I stay on topic.

There seems to be a murphy-esk rule that dominates Thanet blogs that the topic is closed when the topic count passes 20. This "rule" and it's impact on our local blogging scene (one of the best local blogging scenes I know of) is an indictment of our current lack of ability to pull our collective heads from that place where the sun never shines.

Surely we can do better?

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» Continue Reading: On topics and staying on them

I am always on the look out for fresh things in the world of Thanet blogging and have recently come accross one or two blogs that are new to me. Some found me and others I found.

Urban Fallout is a blog by a person who comes from Thanet. He/She started blogging 3 months ago and seems to ave a working class and political slant to their blogging. It is refreshing in that it does not consider Thanet to in isolation but addresses narional issues as well. This blog seems to produce a new post every week or so.

Thanet By Air. Thanet's other pilot it seems has a sense of humour. the blog has been going since early 2007 and updates only sometimes. Nothing too seriouse here but some interesting photgraphs in the side bar.

Thanet No2ID Blog is one that I think made it to the Thanet Blog List but it seems on the whole to be a political blog that is talking to itself. I'm not sure if this is beacue the author (Gary) is not so hot at networking or if no-one cares about this issue (which seems to get no "air time" from other blogs) but it seems a shame to leave even one blog out in the cold.

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» Continue Reading: Some fresh Thanet Blogging for you

Who's watching the bloggers?

From the tinfoil-hat Dept.

Thanet Star would like to know if Thanet bloggers are being targeted by Thanet District Council spying and surveillance as it starts to emerge just how fully local councils have been using "anti terror laws" to crack down on minor offences.

Even junior council officials are being allowed to initiate surveillance operations in what privacy campaigners likened to Eastern bloc police tactics says Times Online under the headline Terror law turns thousands of council officials into spies.

If you think I'm just being paranoid consider that Poole Borough Council [...] admitted spying on a family to check they were living in the correct school catchment area. Jenny Paton, 39, Tim Joyce, 37, and their three daughters had their movements scrutinised and timed by an undercover official. says guardian.co.uk under the headline Council used terror law to spy on fishermen. Meanwhile telegraph.co.uk says Council snoopers access 900 phone bills as they report Simon Davies, director of the campaign group Privacy International, said: 'Surveillance has become a free-for-all among local government. It's a game anyone can play and they do.

According to figures from the Office of the Surveillance Commissioner the number of applications from local councils for "directed surveillance" has doubled from last year to this to 12,494 requests where as the number of applications made by the police has fallen to around 19,000 applications.

So what can we do - read on to find out.

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» Continue Reading: Big Brother is Watching Us