Do you enjoy the Scottish Roundup or does it annoy you because something has been left out?

Either way, it might be time to step forward and have a go at putting together the roundup one week.

The Scottish Roundup is put together by a team of volunteers and we know there’s no way we can ever get round even a fraction of the thousands of posts produced by talented Scottish bloggers every week. That’s why a variety of people bringing their voice and view of the blogosphere is vital.

It’s not a huge job and we’ll hold your hand throughout. We have a very helpful guide for editors that we send you that tells you everything you need to know. Then on a Friday and Saturday we send you nominations that have come in via Twitter or via the website or via e-mail. You add in some of your own from your own reading and weave them into a blog post for Sunday’s Roundup. When you write it is up to you. Some people do it on Saturday late afternoon or evening, others get up with the lark on a Sunday and do it then. I’ve done both. Generally we like it to appear around 10 or 11 on a Sunday morning.

Typically it takes one to two hours to roundup the Roundup. Having said that I often get sidetracked by the range of blogs I discover.

If you’d like to have a go, drop us a comment here or a tweet (@scottishroundup) and we can fit you into the rota. If you’ve done it before, don’t wait to be asked, we’d love to have you back.

If you have any other suggestions for how we could improve Roundup, please also let us know.

Do you ever read Roundup and think that you would love to have a go at giving your impression of the best of the week’s Scottish blogging?

Do you ever wonder why we never ever include a certain blog?

That’s because in all likelihood nobody has ever told us about it. Our small and perfectly formed team here at Roundup can’t possibly even scratch the surface of the thousands of posts produced by talented Scottish bloggers every week.

Why not volunteer to edit one week? If you’re feeling nervous, don’t worry. We’ll hold your hand through it. We have a very helpful guide for editors that we send you that tells you everything you need to know. Then on a Friday and Saturday we send you nominations that have come in via Twitter or via the website or via e-mail. You add in some of your own from your own reading and weave them into a blog post for Sunday’s Roundup. When you write it is up to you. Some people do it on Saturday late afternoon or evening, others get up with the lark on a Sunday and do it then. I’ve done both. Generally we like it to appear around 10 or 11 on a Sunday morning.

This strange “we” to whom I refer is our team of admin editors. They are the people who do the hand holding and set up the rota for editors and pass on the nominations. We also run the Twitter account and do the various things that need to be done to keep the site alive. It takes around 1-2 hours per week, I’d say.

So, we’re now in the process of drawing up the rota for editors until Christmas. If you want to have a go, you would be more than welcome. Drop us an e-mail to scottishroundup@gmail.com and let me know which weekends would work for you. And if you have done it before, feel free to volunteer again.

I’m concerned that we don’t do as much proper culture as once we did, so if that’s your speciality let us know.

If you have any other suggestions for how we could improve Roundup, please also let us know either in the comments or by e-mail.

There is an event coming up that will interest a lot of Scottish political bloggers. Political Innovation is taking place on 13 November at the University of Edinburgh’s Informatics Forum.

The Political Innovation project is a series of free-to-attend practical events at which people with ideas on political innovations can meet up with technical experts, journalists, bloggers, politicos and others with an interest in politics and public affairs. The event will allow to find about about innovative projects like these ones. You may even want to get involved in one of them.

It sounds pretty good to me and I plan on attending. It will be a good opportunity for bloggers to meet up and chat with others that are interested in this sort of thing.

As far as I know, it has been a while since there was a bit meetup of Scottish bloggers, and from time to time people ask me when there is going to be another meetup. The political focus of this event might not appeal to everyone, but it sounds like the ideal place for some of us to catch up, as well as meet other interesting people and discuss innovative ideas. Best of all, they will be supplying lunch.

You’ll all be familiar with the worthy collective venture that is the weekly Scottish Roundup. In the best spirit of civic nationalism, the roundup gives Scottishness its widest possible definition. When it is working at its best, weekly guest editors collate suggestions from the blog-reading public, make their own choices and often highlight a missed essay, a neglected site and otherwise contribute to the inter-connectedness of the Scottish blogging world. These seems to be excellent things, devoutly to be wished and encouraged.

Recently, a few of us have ganged up to relieve Duncan of the perpetual burdens of administration. To whit, this month it is my turn to play officious servitor*. Of late we’ve not been fostering as polyphonous a range of on-weekly authors as I’d like to see, so consider this an earnest call to arms. Or at least, some other less martial metaphor that nevertheless communicates a sincere invitation to participate. Have you previously edited a roundup and fancy doing it again? Do please let me know and we’ll line you up. You may be a long-time reader, but don’t maintain a blog yourself. Please don’t let that dissuade you. Perhaps you are rattling away at a new (or old) blog and want to shamelessly plug your own prose to a potentially broader audience. Editing an weekly edition is an obvious way of doing so. Still not convinced? One last civic-minded argument then, to sway the waverers. Its obvious enough, but the project’s ongoing survival is entirely reliant on the good offices of volunteer writers and composers. We could use the assistance. If you’d like to volunteer or ask about what specifically would be involved, do just pop me an e-mail at ~ lallandspeatworrier@gmail.com.

* P.S. If this month doesn’t suit, do nevertheless let me know and we can line you up later in the year.

Well after mulling over the options for a couple of weeks, it seems as though the option that is most likely to work is some kind of group effort. Many people volunteered to help, but few wanted to do so full time. So the next step is… er, to decide what the next step is.

Just now my plan is to have around half a dozen editors, with other regular contributors. For the time being, if possible I would like each of the editors to be in charge of a month. This would include editing a roundup one week, arranging the rota of guest editors for the rest of the month, then passing on to another editor to take over after four weeks.

Beyond that, I am hoping that as a group we can discuss how we should evolve Scottish Roundup for the future. A few really interesting suggestions have been thrown into the mix, and I think it’s worth considering them carefully.

I am thinking about the right sorts of tools to use. If anyone has any suggestions of good collaborative tools to use, that would be greatly appreciated. I’m thinking of using Google tools if possible, partly because I already use them for parts of Scottish Roundup anyway, and also because these are likely to be familiar to most of the contributors.

I will get in touch with those of you who have kindly offered to help out. And if anyone else is still interested in being part of the group, please do email me.

Also, if anyone is able to edit the next roundup (4 July), the door is wide open! Thanks.