Will Irish Bloggers put down some Netroots?

I see I'm not the only one that thinks it's been too sunny to blog lately.  But it's not just the weather.  I sometimes wonder what's the point.  Self-expression is all very fine but is it enough?  What are the opportunity costs of blogging?  Probably little enough in my case, I'd still be spending a fair amount of time reading stuff off a computer screen and it usually doesn't take a huge effort to string a few words together and make a couple of salient points.  Nevertheless I can't help wondering whether Irish political blogging will ever go beyond punditry. 

Now there's a lot to be said for the opinions that are disseminated within the political blogosphere, as they go well beyond the stifling consensus you'd find in the print and mainstream online media.  Many are making useful contributions to the IrishElection.com site and to their individual blogs as well.  But I don't see it having much effect on the election next year.  I just don't see blogging in Ireland forming part of any netroots movement that might alter the balance of forces within the political system towards newer, more participatory forms of political activism any time soon.  At the very least I'd like to see some more reflective considerations of such possibilities.  Perhaps a group effort of say half a dozen interested bloggers could put together something that might be a bit more coherent and less of a free-for-all than IrishElection.com. 

Comments

[Cian]

I think you have a point, Irishelection was always about punditry but there is huge space for a netroots movement.
Problem is the same as the one encountered by punditry-lack of serious internet connectivity and also lack of internet addictiveness among irish generally.