Is anyone able give me a link to where Halton MP Garth Turner personally says:

Garth Turner says his webcast is downloaded by about 30,000 to 40,000 viewers every night.

That is the sub head on an article in The Hill Times about Bruce Sutherland, a free lance video technician who has been producing MPtv. Can’t access the article (subscription required) to see who says what.

Conservative blogger Steven Taylor has considerably different numbers that he appears to be pulling directly from Google Video.

Should it matter?
I think so.
I’ve never watched MPtv directly off Google Video. I don’t know enough about how online video works to know how to question he said/he said.
I have watched off Garth Turner’s website. For all I know Google Video wouldn’t ‘count’ those visits.

We have no way of knowing what the traffic numbers are, Taylor can say one thing, Turner another.

People clicking over to a website is called ‘traffic.’
For us none geeks, traffic essentially breaks down into hits,(reloads) uniques, and pageviews.
It’s easier to let you see for yourself.
Go to the blue globe on the sidebar of this blog under the blogroll and click on it.
Single click on Summary.
You’ll see the headings ‘unique’ and ‘reload’.
It’s a good enough indicator of traffic here at BDDO; there is a server log I can access that breaks down how traffic to this blog happens in more detail.

Having a tracker up front readers can access is about accountability and transparency.
About 25% of traffic here at this blog is bots and spam and they is factored in under ‘reload.’

Bots (search engine robots) and spammers are counted in reloads or hits.
That would matter to advertisers if I carried advertising, it might matter to someone who decided they were my ‘rival.’
On the Extreme Tracker, readers can look at the latest 20 ‘addresses’ (what URL someone has come to this blog from) along with a time stamp, which gives you an idea of how quickly or slowly people show up by simply clicking on Referrer 1.

Point is, most bloggers put some kind of tracking tool up front for their readers.
It saves a lot of flame warring and pot shots.

Is Taylor baiting? Is Turner exaggerating?
There are Conservative Party members in this country that hate MP Garth Turner to an almost pathological extent.
And online, where people get get pretty intense and information moves at broadband speed, I think who says what matters.
Being upfront about traffic is not going to stop avowed partisan enemies, they will always be a part of political blogging.
What being upfront about actual traffic does is help readers/viewers get a sense of perspective. It is about access, transparency and trust.

Steven Taylor is a ‘credentialed blogger’ which basically means he is a Conservative Party member who blogs. When he is in Ottawa he has been cleared by Press Gallery staff to go into the Parliament buildings, hang out, watch the House and do interviews. Bloggers being given access as media is a big deal.

Because The Hill Times is behind a subscription wall, most of us don’t get to read the article on Mr. Sutherland. We can’t see the sub header in context. We can’t fact check.

I can say thank you to Mr. Sutherland for MPtv, because this blog gives me the public opportunity to do. I enjoy seeing good quality video of MP’s and people working in and around the federal government who are not going to get access to traditional media. Mr. Sutherland, thank you for your work on MPtv.

Should politicans who blog (video, podcast and text) use an open website tool like Extreme Tracker or SiteMeter?

Blogging Tories are the only ones who have questioned the Halton MP’s traffic or picked up The Hill Times article.
No Liblogs (Liberal), Blogging Dippers (NDP), Green’s or Progressives or other blogs have picked up Steven Taylor’s post.
National Newswatch
Alberta Spectator
Repossessing Halton
Scott’s DiaTribes
The Turner Report