Right-oh...
5:58 am in Bucharest; a white night behind me. And, I hope, a beautiful day ahead.
As some, many, or most of you might know, next week the capital of Romania will host an event which, for the blogging world, is ambitious, should be quite interesting and, hopefully, it will prove to be important. For, ladies and gentlemen, from November 9th to November 12th, the first edition of the World Blogging Forum will be held in this dreadful city; yours truly will attend to the debates and will live-blog here for the very first time.
I must say that I am eager to attend, and impatient, since A list bloggers from + 30 countries will be here as well (at least they were invited) and will have their say on the topics proposed. Speaking of topics, they include establishing principles of the citizen journalism or of the freedom of expression on the internet. I am especially interested in the next discussion themes (and I quote from the official site):
- Blogs & citizen journalism – global trends;
- The influence of blogs on the civil society;
- Freedom to differ – ideas worth fighting for;
- The future for blogging – what’s next?;
and
- Science blogging and sharing ideas.
For more details, click on the (most recently added) banner on the left of the page.
I think, this event should help the Romanian blogosphere overcome its isolation. Of course, Romanian bloggers and internauts read foreign blogs, but openness is not the main key of most of the blogs in Romanian. I never had the curiosity of studying the entire list of blogs on zelist (it would be an Sisyphean effort), but at a guess, less than 5 % of the ~ 35,000 blogs listed there have on the blogroll one or more foreign blogs. No, I should correct that. Less than an optimistic 1 %. And these limitations are unfortunately visible in the topics.
But this is not the subject of this post; it is just its pretext. What I want to establish now, for me in the first place, is (a part of) what blogging means to me before attending this forum. Next week, my task will be to determine what blogging means to me after the end of it.
You see, I blog for some two years now and I avoided strictly, so far, thinking and speaking about "how to/ how not to" anything about blogging. If I had questions, I usually solved them on the spot. So, here I go: this is, partly, what I can say about subjective blogging.
1. for me, blogging is not about the money. Given a certain number of unique visitors per day, adds and reviews to products are possible on a blog, but they should not be the core of the blog, of the writing and such. It is why you don't/won't find any adds on this blog, and if I post a promo once in a while it is non-paid and based only on my taste.
2. blogging is not about getting to be known. Of course, I blog so that my ideas and/or preferences get to be acknowledged and circulated, but I don't do it in order to become a star or a public person. At the same time, blogging is not - primarily - about attracting as much visitors as possible, but about attracting people with specific individual profiles. It is why I like very much reading science blogs.
3. in my view, blogging is not a full-time job and should not be treated as such. For a very simple reason: I believe it is very wrong (socially) to spend most of the day in front of the screen. Not to mention it is unhealthy.
4. blogging doesn't bring you closer to people. I shan't speak from theory here, but from experience. In more than 2 years of blogging, I never acquainted a friend on the blog first (or on the internet in general) and in real life afterward. Of course, it can happen, but it is the exception, not the rule.
5. blogging is not about keeping an online diary. I believe it is more than that. I believe it is about things with a social (not individual) relevance.
On a positive note,
1. blogging is, happily, personal. Blogs are inherently placed in the realm of subjectivity.
2. if a blogger wants to practice civic journalism, he/she must observe all the rules of the classical journalism. Plus one: to escape the impersonal feeling mass-media often implies. A blogger is not less responsible than an journalist; on the contrary. But he/she is not a journalist employed by an impersonal entity; he/she speaks out his/her own mind.
3. blogging, if done properly, should bring sense, both to the blogger and to the readers.
And so on. There are (many) other things to be put forward here, but they don't cross my mind right now. So a second post on this topic is on the way. Disclaimer: These are just my two cents; nothing less and nothing more.
PS. My laptop will make a pit-stop to the service today, so blogging could be impossible for a few days. See you around.
5:58 am in Bucharest; a white night behind me. And, I hope, a beautiful day ahead.
As some, many, or most of you might know, next week the capital of Romania will host an event which, for the blogging world, is ambitious, should be quite interesting and, hopefully, it will prove to be important. For, ladies and gentlemen, from November 9th to November 12th, the first edition of the World Blogging Forum will be held in this dreadful city; yours truly will attend to the debates and will live-blog here for the very first time.
I must say that I am eager to attend, and impatient, since A list bloggers from + 30 countries will be here as well (at least they were invited) and will have their say on the topics proposed. Speaking of topics, they include establishing principles of the citizen journalism or of the freedom of expression on the internet. I am especially interested in the next discussion themes (and I quote from the official site):
- Blogs & citizen journalism – global trends;
- The influence of blogs on the civil society;
- Freedom to differ – ideas worth fighting for;
- The future for blogging – what’s next?;
and
- Science blogging and sharing ideas.
For more details, click on the (most recently added) banner on the left of the page.
I think, this event should help the Romanian blogosphere overcome its isolation. Of course, Romanian bloggers and internauts read foreign blogs, but openness is not the main key of most of the blogs in Romanian. I never had the curiosity of studying the entire list of blogs on zelist (it would be an Sisyphean effort), but at a guess, less than 5 % of the ~ 35,000 blogs listed there have on the blogroll one or more foreign blogs. No, I should correct that. Less than an optimistic 1 %. And these limitations are unfortunately visible in the topics.
But this is not the subject of this post; it is just its pretext. What I want to establish now, for me in the first place, is (a part of) what blogging means to me before attending this forum. Next week, my task will be to determine what blogging means to me after the end of it.
You see, I blog for some two years now and I avoided strictly, so far, thinking and speaking about "how to/ how not to" anything about blogging. If I had questions, I usually solved them on the spot. So, here I go: this is, partly, what I can say about subjective blogging.
1. for me, blogging is not about the money. Given a certain number of unique visitors per day, adds and reviews to products are possible on a blog, but they should not be the core of the blog, of the writing and such. It is why you don't/won't find any adds on this blog, and if I post a promo once in a while it is non-paid and based only on my taste.
2. blogging is not about getting to be known. Of course, I blog so that my ideas and/or preferences get to be acknowledged and circulated, but I don't do it in order to become a star or a public person. At the same time, blogging is not - primarily - about attracting as much visitors as possible, but about attracting people with specific individual profiles. It is why I like very much reading science blogs.
3. in my view, blogging is not a full-time job and should not be treated as such. For a very simple reason: I believe it is very wrong (socially) to spend most of the day in front of the screen. Not to mention it is unhealthy.
4. blogging doesn't bring you closer to people. I shan't speak from theory here, but from experience. In more than 2 years of blogging, I never acquainted a friend on the blog first (or on the internet in general) and in real life afterward. Of course, it can happen, but it is the exception, not the rule.
5. blogging is not about keeping an online diary. I believe it is more than that. I believe it is about things with a social (not individual) relevance.
On a positive note,
1. blogging is, happily, personal. Blogs are inherently placed in the realm of subjectivity.
2. if a blogger wants to practice civic journalism, he/she must observe all the rules of the classical journalism. Plus one: to escape the impersonal feeling mass-media often implies. A blogger is not less responsible than an journalist; on the contrary. But he/she is not a journalist employed by an impersonal entity; he/she speaks out his/her own mind.
3. blogging, if done properly, should bring sense, both to the blogger and to the readers.
And so on. There are (many) other things to be put forward here, but they don't cross my mind right now. So a second post on this topic is on the way. Disclaimer: These are just my two cents; nothing less and nothing more.
PS. My laptop will make a pit-stop to the service today, so blogging could be impossible for a few days. See you around.
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