The US State Department has an official blog that they’ve named DipNote.  I’m assuming that the "Dip" is short for "Diplomat" but given that to at least one generation of Americans the term "dip" is slang for a stupid person it’s an interesting name choice. 

Anyhow, as Erin Teeling at the Bivings Report points out the folks at State have opted to allow comments on the blog that appear to be un-moderated.  From Bivings:

What I found incredibly surprising was that the blog actually allows comments.
And they don’t appear to be censored.  After a quick scan of the
comments on several blog posts, I realized that both positive comments and comments critical of the State Department or US Government are freely flowing.  Here’s an example–a comment that appeared on a post about Burma.

Roy in Oregon writes:
"Thou hypocrite,
cast first the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see
clearly to pull the mote that is in thy brother’s eye." Luke 6:42

Let me see — You are a political appointee in the most
secretive administration in U.S. history… How is that helping "create a
free flow of information crucial to democratic development?"

— You are the member of an administration which quite
improperly and illegally harvested telephone information without
appropriate judicial warrants…. That doesn’t discourage "free flow of
information?"

— Your President authorized pressuring Internet Service
Providers to release information about legal (but private) citizen use
of the internet… Who can trust this administration to protect the
principles of "freedom of expression?"

Brother, how about first removing the beam (and the
blinders) from your own eye and working to end the murderous cabal
which employs you?  Posted on Mon Oct 08,  2007

Pretty bold.  And the comments are loaded with others very similar
to this one.  It seems like DipNote is actually a legitimate forum for
discussion rather than just a false front.  In an era where so many
media outlets, organizations, and political campaigns are concerned
about "inappropriate citizen content" appearing on their websites, I am
finding the openness of DipNote pretty refreshing.  I have to say, I’m
even impressed.  Why is it that so many newspapers remain unwilling to
open their sites to various types of user commentary, but the US
government appears willing to reduce barriers to two-way communication?

I would love to see all branches of government, at every level from local to federal, engage in this kind of communication.  I think it would go a long way toward bringing more transparency to government and greater participation from the citizenry.