The BBC’s political editor, Nick Robinson, has started a new blog to give himself a chance to add a thought or an observation from his political front row seat. The blog also gives his audiences a chance to add their thoughts or post a question.

Quoted from one of his blog first entries:

You see, the funny thing about broadcasting is that you speak to a vast number of people but you all too rarely have a conversation with them - beyond perhaps with someone who asks “Are you that guy on the telly?” or “Why do you wear those ridiculous specs?”

A good weblog can really change the relationship between author and reader. And the politicians themselves are in on the game too - as my colleague Alan Connor argues in this article, a good weblog can also change the relationship between politician and voter.

The blog uses the popular TypePad weblog platform. I would say this certainly speed up the adoption process. Why reinvent the wheel when you can start a blog in a snap with so many usable solutions out there?

BBC has embraced podcasting to engange witht its audiences in a new way, and now it is the time to try blogging. Nick is also advocating the use of RSS syndication feed for his blog to get update entries faster.

Link: Nick Robinson’s Newslog.