Dunedin South MP Clare Curran alerted Mack-Line to the blog - Red Alert.
"Don't know if you know that the Labour MPs have started up a blog and are commenting in real time about a range of issues.
"Both Pete Hodgson and I are contributors and have been blogging about events in the House during urgency, the Mt Albert campaign and things in our portfolios.
"It's worth a look. It's a new initiative and an attempt to have our voices heard," she wrote.
Well Mack-Line did not know about Red Alert but it has been added to favourites on my work and home computer.
Prime Minister John Key sends out Key Notes and is also Twittering and adding friends daily to Facebook.
Now, no-one really believes Mr Key has time to twitter, although it seems some celebrities (those who live in Hollywood) seem to have plenty of time to fill us all in with what they are thinking about.
And what are some of those people thinking, posting twitters like that?One of the more light-hearted blogs on Red Alert last week came from Labour list MP Phil Twyford, the man many thought should have been standing in the Mt Albert by-election to replace former prime minister Helen Clark.
"I am just home from a successful launch of the David Shearer for Mt Albert by-election campaign. It started with an outdoor rally at the Rocket Park. It was great: funny hats, balloons, and all the fun of the fair.
"Good rousing speeches from David, and Phil Goff.
"I thought for a minute David had brought back from Baghdad the endearing Middle Eastern habit of firing guns into the air at these kinds of events, but then realised people were letting off party crackers."
Excellent stuff Phil, keep it up.
There is nothing like an endearing habit of firing guns in the air in Mt Albert to keep the pesky National Party at bay.
Mr Hodgson, the Dunedin North MP, stuck to type when blogging, adopting a straight-from-the-lip response to a question on transport funding.
No fun and games there.
A relieved Trevor Mallard is resting a bit easier on the Opposition front bench now Darren Hughes has been appointed shadow leader of the House by Mr Goff.
"I was pretty worried when Michael Cullen left. I'm now confident that with the young ginga we have someone who can run the House in government.
"He has done a great job over the whole sitting day," Mr Mallard blogged.
Ms Curran also adopted a stern line (must be the Southern way) in taking Local Government Minister Rodney Hide to task.
"Who's next Rodney?" she asks in speculating about a Super South Island Council.
Nielsen Online has expanded its market intelligence demographic survey to include a range of questions on consumer-generated activity, such as social networking, blogging, uploading content and posting reviews on the internet.
The new sample size is 29,000 New Zealand internet users.
In the past four weeks, 48% of us have created, updated or looked at an online profile on a social networking site and nearly 30% of us contributed to a message board, online forum or wrote or commented on a blog.
More than 40% of us uploaded pictures, 12% uploaded music, 10% uploaded videos and 9% posted a review of a product or service online.
Nielsen Online research director Tony Boyte says add to that the number of people using online directories (47%), reading newspapers or publications online (79%), and a staggering 81% using search engines, and we begin to see that the internet has become pivotal as a personal communication, media consumption and research tool for New Zealanders.
Quite right. So if you see a Labour MP wandering around your neighbourhood, make sure you say well done for being part of a pivotal tool.
- Look at it on: http://blog.labour.org.nz/ and www.nielsen-online.com
