I'm always on the look-out for ways of explaining the value of blogging to those who might otherwise characterise it as just soapboxing, diarising, or vanity publishing. I've now got a good explanation from ace political blogger Mick Fealty, best known as Slugger O'Toole: it's like a good pub conversation. I met Mick yesterday evening at an event co-hosted with Paul Evans, co-founder of Poptel Technology, on the theme of Improving the quality of policy discussions. We heard from Mick about the start of Slugger as a research project into Northern Ireland Unionism that grew and grew into a very lively site with guest bloggers and much commenting. The focus is on policy rather than personality, guided by 'play the man not the ball'. Paul talked about a project to pull together on one site, by a sophisticated system of tagging, policy papers as they emerge from government, think tanks and other sources. This would be a boon to researchers, and hopefully help raise the level of policy discussion. We met upstairs in the Edgar Wallace pub, and everyone was pretty constructive about the idea ... aided by the fact that Paul was buying the drinks. Paul developed Policybrief a few years back, but hit problems with technology and funding. He reckons he can get it right this time around. I pulled Mick away from the general conviviality to ask him about the success of Slugger, and about the clue he gave us earlier about his inspiration for worthwhile exchanges. He explained that his father was a publican, and he grew up in a pub. The conversation could be light, could be heavy, and publican knows that in order to keep order he has to anticipate where the disorder may come from, and be ready to deal with it. Mick extended the metaphor: My role is less about trying to police what people say - that opinion is in, that opinion is out - and rather police the freedom for people to express those opinions within the same civil space. It's that capacity to express diverse ideas within a single space that's crucial. If there's something that is unique about Slugger, that's probably it. I'm sorry the audio is lousy, but I think the good humour and inspiration snatches emerge from the hub-bub. Just like any good pub conversation. Less