Other blogs

Now that I’ve started this blog, I’ve been more interested in seeking out other blogs, and mentions of the National Trust in other peoples blogs. I’ve already left a comment or two where people have expressed frustration with the Trust’s processes behavior, and have offered an insight into what might be behind it. But I’ve also discovered Preservation Nation, from the US National Trust for Historic Preservation. It looks like an offshoot of their Preservavtion Magazine, and I wonder if we should be doing something similar.

That site’s own blogroll leads me to a blog recording the restoration of a building, which is something I feel we should have done as we opened up the new house at Scotney Castle. Another, on the management of President Lincoln’s cottage, talks about scholarly research and conservation techniques. 

There’s also a resource blog, for US National Trust sites, which offers an insight into how they are run (and in contrasts with the way we run the UK (except Scotland) NT. A link from that sites takes me to a specialist blog for Modernist sites. I got all excited about this one, wanting to post a comments directing interest to The Homewood, a modernist building in my region, but then I noticed the blog hadn’t been updated for almost a year.

There are also mentions of the National Trust in in blogs covering subjects as diverse as green issues, family finance (I’m glad to see this one concludes we are good value for money), politics, and sheds!

But the most interesting blog where we get a mention is Past Thinking, which I’m going to have to explore in more depth. The entry that dragged me to it was one about our planned investment in e-engagement, which is indeed very exciting news. We have one of the most visited websites in the charity sector, but in many ways one of the least successful. I heard that that study last year showed that of over seven thousands pages of information, six thousand hadn’t been looked at! The post ends with a plea for the Trust to make resources available via a Creative Commons license (more on this later), which reminds me that Creative Commons was cited in a criticism about the Trust’s last venture into blogging.

Of course, the Trust were the main mover behind the One Day in History Blog a couple of years back, but technically that wasn’t a blog, and is now stored at the British Library (which is my way of saying I can’t find a link to it). I say its not a blog, because surly a blog has to cover more than one day? If there’s any reason for one at all, it is so that ideas can develop over time, rather than being a snapshot. It’s a mighty fine archive I’m sure, but a blog? I don’t think so.