We can make a difference

People out there can make a difference through this blog and others. Take for example the Bell Gully article in NZ Lawyer on the Electoral Finance Bill.

Now it actually was published last week. No stories appeared from it.

Late yesterday a friend mentioned it to me in an e-mail. I asked him to scan it in and e-mail me the pdf, which I got last night. It appeared on the blog at 9 am this morning.

At 11.40 am it was a news story on NewstalkZB.

At 2.00 p.m. it was a story on NZPA.

At 2.06 pm it was on the Herald website. Tomorrow it will be in various newspapers.

I say this not to claim any great feat on my part. Hell all I did was upload a file and summarise it.

The key thing was that someone sent it to me. Hence this post – I do encourage people to send in to me stuff like this, which they think might be useful. It might be a column like this, an academic article, an editorial in an obscure newspaper, a link to Jon Stewart making fun of NZ laws etc etc. I won’t always use them, but by e-mailing me you give me the ability to do so.

The reason blogs do well are that they are often a group effort. The sum is greater than the parts.