When is a 'unique' visitor, unique?

Jemima Kiss at The Guardian has sparked off a sharp little debate about website visitor numbers and the popularity of political blogs.

She claims that Guido Fawkes and Iain Dale, two of the more popular political bloggers in the UK, have inflated the number of visitors they get to their websites by inadvertently misrepresenting their 'unique visitor' statistics.

Both Guido Fawkes and Iain Dale appear in the comments section denying the allegation.

Daily blog-news updates from Iraq

If you want a quick daily low-down on 'the good, the bad and the ugly' from Iraq then head over to LT Nixon Rants.

Here's his news from Iraq for April 7th.

War in Iraq: the first 'iWar'?

Lt G at Kaboom wonders what an iWar is, what it means and whether it applies to war in Iraq:

"iWar. Fitting, in that succinct, catchy pop culture kind of way. Perfect for this Era of Irony. No LOL-erskates for the whYkids, but they’ll get over it. iWar. It’s not my phrase, though I appreciate it and am happy to Oscar Wilde it. I got it from an article about blogging in the Iraq War that quoted me in it...

"...I War. Subject. Verb. Where’s the object? We’re still looking for it, five years later. How’s that for iRony?"

Best of the BBC Blog Network

Here are my picks from the BBC Blog Network over the last few weeks:

1. Robin Lustig reckons that no news from Iraq is not necessarily good news. His piece includes extracts from an email he received about the daily life of an Iraqi medical student.

2. World Have Your Say publish several letters from Baghdad reflecting on 5 years of conflict.

3. (a) The Editors blog about BBC World going off air in China.
(b) A week later the BBC's dot.life blog reports that the BBC news website is being unblocked.
(c) Jon Williams, World News Editor, sums up the situation.

4. iPM links to a video blogging surgeon serving with the US Army in Iraq.

5. Internet Blog on social networking guidelines for staff.

6. Newsnight uses blogs to find out what's happening in Zimbabwe.

7. World Have Your Say presenter Ros Atkins tries to square the BBC's commitment to impartiality with Jeff Jarvis's call for more openness and honesty. This is something I've blogged about previously.

The Mahdi Army revolt from the US perspective

Lt G is fighting with the US Army in Iraq. His latest post provides a six day account of his platoon's action during the 'Mahdi Army Revolt'. I particularly like this extract:

Night 1

"A second passes, and then my entire room shakes with inevitability while a M240B machine gun on the roof of the combat outpost returns fire directly above us. I roll out of my bed, getting my legs wrapped up in my poncho liner, and land gracelessly onto my face. SSG Bulldog barrels through our door like a runaway freight train. “It on now, oh yeah, it be on now!” he booms.

"We all start throwing on our gear in great haste with the notable exception of SFC Big Country, who is yawning from his bed, scratching his head. “You probably have time to put on pants Sir,” he advises, causing me to look down at a pair of yellow boxer shorts decorated with shamrocks and beer bottles contrasting sharply with the combat boots, body armor, and helmet I did manage to get on my body.

"I peek my head out the doorway, and not seeing any terrorist hordes coming for my scalp, agree with my platoon sergeant’s assessment. The gunfire above us continues while I find my pants."

Catch up links

Last week, I escaped the World Wide Web in favour of the World Wide View you get from up here:


And it was great to get away from my computer screen.

This is what I would have been reading if I hadn't been up this mountain.

• News about an escalation of violence in Southern Iraq and Baghdad. Last of Iraqis wrote a daily update of the situation from the Iraqi capital.
  

• Coverage of the Zimbabwe elections at This is Zimbabwe and Anita Coulson's Frontline Blog.

• This report suggesting that the US military use bloggers to gain the upper hand in the 'information war'.

• 10 Downing Street's 'official twitter channel'.
  

April: A fresh start

March has been a bit of a wipeout on the blogging front. I was ill at the beginning of the month and I've been on holiday for the last ten days. Hopefully, April will see a return to more regular postings.

At the moment, I'm working on several projects including a blogging workshop for World Service journalists, and a chapter of my thesis on the organisational context of the BBC.

I'm also hoping to touch base with the College of Journalism to find out how the BBC train staff to cope with the new media world and observe some of the BBC's meetings about the use of blogs.

I'll continue to bring you interesting blog posts about war, terrorism and, of course, blogging.