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Sometimes it is easy as Americans to get wrapped up in what is happening in our country. We often only read U.S.-based media with the occasional exception – and even then it is usually London-based; so really itmay as well be American. We tend to think the same thing for nontraditional and social media, including blogs. But the truth is the internet and each of its tools are global.
Image from Francesco Marino / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
So I was really interested to explore Global Voices, an online community of bloggers from across the world. The site itself is a fantastic resource and study in community. It brings together the most popular blogs, podcasts and others from across the world and a group of volunteers working to translate the sites for a wider audience.
For this week’s assignment, we were asked to explore a country beginning with the first letter of our names. For me, the options were: Laos, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Luthania and Luxembourg. While reviewing these individual pages I was a bit surprised with how few posts there were. For most of the countries only one or two posts were included every month or two. This being the first time I’ve used Global Voices I wasn’t sure if this had to do with low activity in these countries or a limited number of volunteers able to complete translations and/or identify the sites.
To dig deeper, I chose Lebanon because it appeared to have the most activity and because I was curious about blogging activity in the Middle East. Since February there has only been five articles but I was quiet impressed with the variety of topics covered. Being in the Middle East, I expected the majority of articles to relate to religious conflicts. Instead what I found was mostly about technology, media and access.
In February, Lebanese blogger Mustapha (Beirut Spring) launched a campaign to have the Daily Star’s website updated. His goal was to fix the look of the site and therefore drive more traffic to the informative site. In March, to mark the World Day Against Cyber Censorship, a Lebanese blogger addressed the issue of censorship without incident much like others across the globe. However, an April post shows that an investigation was launched into blogger Khodor Salameh’s post (note not translated) criticizing the Lebanese president. The Lebanese government, which had been known for its lack of censorship, was now being criticized by other bloggers for this investigation.
The most recent post on April 3 addressed AbraNet 2010, a technology conference to discuss technology and internet trends among leaders from a variety of Arab countries and industries. However, the conference faced a lot of backlash from attendees and bloggers because the conference, while held in Lebanon, was conducted in English.
Overall I was impressed with the quality of blogging in Lebanon but was definitely and pleasantly surprised on the topic choices of the bloggers. It was also interesting to see how a country in the Middle East handles and responds to censorship on the internet.
Growing up in an Italian house we were always surrounded by food. My very Italian grandmother was – in my mind at least – the greatest cook (my dad would argue that his Nana was actually the best.) So it is no surprise that today I still thoroughly enjoy cooking and baking.
When looking into the Web-based community of fellow bakers and cookers I was blown away. Sure, I expected there to be a lot – food is after all a huge part of the American-lifestyle. But, the online food community is simply put, massive. There are many options to search: food, chef blogs, baking, cooking, etc. Each is relevant and leads to great information and communities.
Once I started looking, there were a few I had anticipated – multiple Facebook fan pages for the Food Network, a Martha Stewart Blog (though not limited to food), Twitter accounts for Emeril Lagasse, The Food Network and many more.
I was however surprised to find more professional Chefs, magazines and food companies didn’t have heavily read blogs. Kraft Foods, for example, has a Facebook page, Twitter account and Web site, but no blog. They do have a very active message board that allows readers to share recipes.
Outside of the “professionals” there is still a very large and active online “foodies” community. And within the foodies community there are almost unlimited sub-categories. There are separate communities and resources for cupcake lovers, bakers, wine drinkers, pasta lovers and more.
Also impressive was how wide-reaching across the various social media world the foodie community reaches. Whatever the preference, there is a community. Searching for blogs (more than 309 million hits for “food blog”), meet-ups (more than 88,000 members and 537 groups), Twitter accounts, Flickr groups (more than 2,500 members of one group alone), Facebook sites,(68 results for “food lovers”) YouTube videos and other social media turns up millions of results.
Some of the most popular sites among foodies include:
Deciding which was the first blog? I think we’ll sooner end the debate on which came first, the chicken or the egg. It has long been debated and many people would like to take credit for being the first blogger. Across the world people all have different opinions on which blog was the first. Some believe blogging is a new phenomenon and others believe it has been around since the beginning of the internet. This differing in opinion is what is known as “Blood’s Law of Weblog History.” Rebecca Blood, one of the early pioneers explains the conflict by, “The year you discovered weblogs and/or started your own is ‘The Year Blogs Exploded.’”
So which was the first? Early pioneers including Justin Hall, Dave Winer, Brad Fitzpatrick, Evan Williams and Meg Hourihan could all be contenders because of the popularity and technology advances they helped to create. However, by Rebecca’s definition, I think the first blog was the Drudge Report.
Matt Drudge’s Web site first introduced the masses to the word “blog” and the name Monica Lewinsky, when his site broke the story that Newsweek had decided not to report on the intern’s relationship with President Clinton. In doing so, Drudge forever changed politics and journalism. His site, which had mostly been an aggregator of news, was already very popularly read among Washington and news insiders but he quickly became a household name.
Now, many will argue (including leading blog ranker, Technorati) that the Drudge Report is not a blog because it doesn’t fit all three of the criteria most often associated with defining popular blogs:
- Formatted in reverse chronological order;
- Is written in a casual or informal tone; and
- There must be a way to continue the conversation.
However, I would argue that while it may not have had the design and community capabilities of today’s modern blogs, it is still a blog. His data is presented in reverse chronological order and when he is authoring posts himself (like the Lewinsky posts) the tone is more casual. While each article posting does not offer a clear way to continue the conversation in a “comments” section more closely associated with modern blogs, he does offer multiple opportunities for reader feedback. There is a general opportunity on the main page for readers to offer tips and Drudge offers his readers the opportunity to write directly to him.
Also, as an aggregator of information Drudge is the king of another common feature in blogs – links. His site is the best site to go to for like-minded information and other links that he knows will interest his readers.
The early pioneers may take offense to Drudge being my selection but few could argue against the fact that he introduced a broader audience to blogging. And when you look specifically at the postings about Lewinsky they better fit the “criteria” of a blog. Furthermore, to argue that there are set “criteria” in blogs goes against the whole idea of blogging – that it is casual and open to anyone who has access to the internet; that it is for the masses and that it can be anything the author wants it to be.
Are You There Internet? It's Me Laura 
