As regular visitors will have gathered, I have been posting here less frequently in recent months. This is mainly because I have shifted most of the day-to-day reporting of events to the Facebook page. However, it is also a function of time constraints.

In this context, I am exploring the idea of changing the nature of this blog.

Up to now, it has been a very personal exercise. There have been some guest posts, but I have done almost all of the posts myself. However, looking at other blogs, such The Monkey Cage, the LSE’s family of blogs, and I-CONnect, there is an increasing tendency for blogs to have a collective ownership. This facilitates more posts, more hits, and a higher profile. Hopefully, it also generates a better quality of contributions.

So, I am putting out a call for people to come on board as co-contributors, co-owners of the blog. I am looking for a group of people who would be willing to commit to relatively regular posting, maybe once or twice a month. Ideally, there would be a good geographical spread of co-contributors, so that as many countries as possible can be covered as regularly as possible. Co-owners do not necessarily have to be country experts. I have tried to encourage comparative analysis. So, I am hoping to encourage people with this focus to come on board too.

I have not quite figured out the mechanics of moving the blog to a collective exercise and some of this will depend on how many people are interested. I do not expect anything to change immediately, but hopefully together we may be able to generate a really exciting new blog.

If you are interested in becoming a partner and having a stake in this blog, then please e-mail me directly, or leave a comment if you prefer. My e-mail is robert.elgie@dcu.ie.