Prestolee, a new blogger, suggests that Twitter can help restore some of the social bonds and intimacy that were lost in the urbanisation and individualism of the 1980s and 1990s. Prestolee suggests two key caveats: that Twitter favours the strong and it favours the elite. In Prestolee’s experience:

Judging by the network of friends I’ve developed there’s a definite bias towards the educated professional with values of respect, liberty and justice.

I have two further hesitations about Twitter as a social networking tool – particularly one for furthering social bonds and social intimacy. Twitter is too casual for intimacy and too superficial for meaningful networking. Secondly, (and this isn’t just a fault of Twitter) it doesn’t break boundaries.

One of the strengths of Twitter is that it is unobtrusive. You Tweet, it gets read or it just sits there. It’s less intrusive than an email and certainly less so than an SMS. So when something personal comes up on Twitter, it’s frankly awkward. On a number of occasions I have been on Twitter when someone has tweeted about a death, sudden illness or other unfortunate personal event. It has always jarred. It is hugely awkward. And it’s always a public network – so the tone and nature of your response is very sensitive.

But Twitter never encourages you to reach beyond your prejudices. Prestolee hasn’t discovered the US Christian evangelicals, the homophobes, the BNP voters, the snarly , aggressive, cofrontational users. To find them, I had to look pretty hard. Twitter encourages you to hang out with your kin. It’s not alone in this fault – but it’s no social melting pot (compared with, say, talking to someone on the 38 bus).

I’ve no doubt Twitter can be put to good use. But it is not an inherent tool for good. It’s only as good as its users. The Bloggers Circle is partly a recognition that the internet can be a force for good and bad – and that for it to be good, you have to organise to make it so. That’s an ambitious aim, but I hope we’ve made a good start.

Related posts:

1. 5 reasons that I love Twitter

Tonight, I emailed all of the people who’d expressed an interest as follows. If you want to get involved, just leave a comment below.

You previously expressed an interest in joining the Bloggers Circle. Since then we have been working hard to attract a range of blogs with different viewpoints and experiences to make it as interesting as possible. Thanks to the generous support and encouragement of the RSA, we’re now ready to launch.

Launch plans

1. At this stage it’s still an experiment – and you are the pioneers that can make it work. We don’t want to set too many rules until we need to.
2. We are ready to go from Monday, so do get stuck in so we can learn as much as possible
3. We would really like you to submit a post once a week to get the concept up and running.
4. As a small incentive in July, the prize for the post of the month is £100

How to take part

Submit a post up to once a week. When you write an interesting blogpost:

1. send an email to debate@bloggerscircle.net
2. provide a hyperlink to the post and
3. a quick sentence of what it’s about to encourage members to write about your post

When posts have been submitted, you will receive an email at lunchtime with a list of posts you might want to write about.

Write about another post twice a month. We’d ask that you write about a post that someone has submitted to the circle at least twice a month. You don’t have to agree with it, just debate it on its merits.

1. If you use Twitter, you can mark your Tweet #bloggerscircle and it will appear on our website
2. The post of the month prize will be the post that gets debated by the most members of the circle. It will appear on the website to (hopefully) generate more traffic to your site.

Our website
You can see our website here: http://www.bloggerscircle.net. If you would like your photo or icon to appear on the homepage it’s very easy – just set up an account with Gravatar www.gravatar.com

As far as possible I’ve tried to use your own description of your blog on the members page. However, if I’ve got it wrong or you don’t like it, just let me know and I will change it.

If you’ve ever any suggestions for how to change / improve / strengthen the idea, do get in touch. I’m sure we can learn a lot just through trial and error.

Related posts:

1. Bloggers circle expands
2. 3 changes to the Bloggers Circle
3. Bloggers Circle: week one assessment

the winner of ‘blogpost of the month’ will be able to post on Comment is Free on any subject of their choice (within reason, subject to Ts & Cs etc).

It’s a fantastic incentive and I hope that we will able to launch the bloggers circle later this month. With the support of the RSA and CiF, the bloggers circle can be an invaluable way of getting more profile for important but under-read blogs.

Related posts:

1. Launching the Bloggers Circle
2. Bloggers Circle 2 months on
3. bloggers circle: month 1 assessment

The next steps are to:

1. setup the basic website so that we’re transparent and open to all
2. invite more bloggers to join (any nominations gratefully appreciated). I think we need about 30 before we can launch formally
3. plan the launch activities

If you’d like to get involved, leave a comment here and I’ll email you straight back.

Currently expressed an interest:

1. Mike Chitty, Enterprise and Entrepreneurship in the Community
2. Matthew Taylor, the RSA
3. Rob Greenland, the Social Business
4. Patrick Olszowski, Charity Campaigns
5. Julian Dobson, Living with rats
6. Rowland Manthorpe
7. Paul Cotterill, The Bickerstaffe Record
8. Hadleigh Roberts, Existential Rage
9. Four Cultures
10. Richard Partington, As If For Life
11. Emma Mulqueeny
12. Alice Casey
13. The 2020 Public Services Trust
14. Patrick Hadfield
15. Joe Hallgarten
16. Charles Crawford
17. Suburban Musings
18. John Sharples, Town Hall Matters
19. Socialist Unity
20. Alfie Dog
21. Andy Sawford, LGIU
22. Neil Robertson, Bleeding Heart Show
23. Chekov
24. Max Atkinson
25. Voltaire Priest’s Shiraz Socialist
26. Hatfield Girl’s Angels in Marble
27. Leigh Caldwell’s Knowing and Making
28. Public Strategist
29. Jon Ingham’s Competitive Society
    
30. Martin Belam’s Currybet
31. Bishop Alan Wilson
32. Matt Wardman
    

UPDATE: Comment is Free has offered to allow the winner of blog of the month to post on their site – a terrific incentive to get involved http://blog.matthewcain.co.uk/bloggers-circle-expands/

Related posts:

1. Bloggers circle expands
2. Launching the Bloggers Circle
3. Would you join a blogging collective?