Ecuador’s president, Rafael Correa, has just launched a blog, is on YouTube, and is sharing his photos on Flickr. His first post seems to be a transcript of the YouTube video and is a callout to all Ecuadorian internet users to actively participate in the building of the new constitution – ehem, wouldn’t that be the ultimate democracy (even though only 8% of the country is online).

The president and his cabinet definitely see the value in this channel and want to actively participate in the conversation (reach out to a younger, more connected, and skeptical audience), I am curious to see how much they will listen and how honest of an initiative this will be perceived as. In the last 10 years, Ecuador has gone through about nine presidents, of which some are currently not allowed back into their own country – warrants for their arrest (charged with corruption).

Last thought, I wonder who is really authoring the blog…

Do you think country leaders should be blogging? Why or why not?