Frankly, when we devised LabourList.org last November, I didnít know my RSS from my elbow. In the first exploratory meetings with our web people, I was lost in a jargon jungle of Facebook, Google Reader and Twitter, the very things that now occupy almost my entire life. Tomorrow morning we officially launch at a breakfast with Peter Mandelson, Douglas Alexander and Tom Watson, so it'll probably get even more intense.
Although far from a techie, I had long been aware of the power and reach of the internet after an incident that occurred while I was retraining as a psychotherapist in California a few years ago. It was a sunny morning, as they all seemed to be in California, and my new best friend approached me in class. "You know," she said, "you need to be careful. Last night I was really bored so I Googled you – and there is another Derek Draper in England who is a complete jerk!" I couldn't bring myself to tell her that it was me for about six months.
Anyone au fait with the blogosphere will know that quite a few people (mainly rightwing bloggers) would say the same thing today, but then I always knew I was setting myself up for some brickbats by blogging. Despite the negativity, I am proud of what LabourList.org has achieved in just one month. We have thousands of registered users, who have posted thousands of comments on nearly 200 articles by over 60 contributors. We have even played host to some jokey banter between Peter Mandelson and John Prescott in one comment thread.
And in the spirit of what we are setting out to achieve – providing a platform for genuine debate on progressive issues – our contributors have come from across the broad spectrum of the Labour movement. We've started connecting the dots between the grassroots and ministers on policy matters as diverse and important as the third runway at Heathrow and the situation in the Middle East; we've hosted Ken Livingstone's thesis on the economic crisis; and we've featured Alan Milburn on where next for new Labour.
There have also been some poignant moments for us and for Labour-minded people in general, which have been featured on the site: the Obama inauguration on 20 January, when we live blogged the most important lines from the speech in real time; the resignation of Andy Slaughter over Heathrow; and the eulogy of loyal Labour man Jon Norton by his daughter Henrietta.
Of course, it hasn't always been easy. Days built on the interrupted sleep that results from being the father of a three-year-old – days that sometimes start before sunrise and go on until I race home to sort out her bath – are often fuelled by coffee and doughnuts. Hence my expanding girth. Yes, I blame the internet!
But what we've done especially well, I think, was to launch the site early, to develop it in the public eye, and to ask for advice and contributions from our readers in order to learn and improve. The result has been the introduction of excellent new grassroots bloggers, like Dan McCurry, who each have much to contribute to the direction and strategy of our movement. Because, as Peter Mandelson pointed out in his first LabourList post, the key to modern politics is not to command and control, but to embrace and engage.
Contrary to popular belief, not all of these posts and not all of the comments have merely toed the official party line or been moderated to within an inch of their lives. Some posts, such as Benjamin Wegg-Prosser's, have questioned the wisdom of Labour's political strategy, and we've even posted a piece on the future of the Post Office by Tory MP Peter Luff.
But, where it's appropriate, we make no apology for questioning Tory policies and we will not back down from the principles of what it means to be Labour. That's why I was proud of our spotlight on the damage caused by spending cuts in Tory-run councils, because by focusing on government in your area we can show what having Tories in power really means.
And that's why I was proud that we held Iain Dale to account for his refusal to condemn Carol Thatcher's ignorant and incendiary language last week. In the society we are trying to build, such language is plain wrong, so itís good to know that, for the first time, Tory bloggers no longer have free reign over the blogosphere.
These events, and the posts that reported them, show that Labour can bring our tradition of grassroots activism up to date with a strong, collaborative, coordinated and interactive online presence that shares and spreads the lessons for our wider movement. This means we will continue to work with other Labour bloggers, in partnership rather than in competition, to advance our ideals and to encourage debate in the wide open forum of the new media. As John Prescott says, we're all dotcomrades now.