Do English Blog?

Over the last few days I have been attending a number of conferences, focussing on technology within the Non-Profit sector.
The first Connecting UP run by CISA and organisation I happen to work for, and focusses on developing ICT capacity in the sector.
The secong is a conference held by WACOSS Shaping the Future which whilst covering ICT capacity development in Western Australia has a much broader social justice theme.

One of the big talking points of both conferences and I personally have had several conversations around is the use of blogging, why blog, who blogs, and of course how to blog. I must say that I am encouraged from a personal point of few that our session on blogging at connecting up has not only started conversation – but has indeed called people to action. See The Lab – flickr companion » Why blog? a new blogger inspired by to start something even though he is not sure of the value yet.

So that leads me to a conversation over a fine dinner at a seafood restaurant in Subiaco last night. Started off as your normal social / work related conversation you get after an hour or tow of drinking at conferences. You have all been there and know what I am talking about, it includes a fair slab of work talk followed by the "who you would invite to dinner" conversation. Then we moved onto the subject of blogging, I confessed that I was a "blogger" – I am sure that in the future there will be self help groups to support this new addiction.

I was the only one at the table that had used blogs, and the question was asked why? Why do people – yes everyday normal people – decide to expose themselves by creating a blog and going public. This is not really an easy question to answer – as I am sure there are many reasons, for me like madam it started as an academic excercise to see what it was all about and why people did it. Now I am not a prolific – or particulary good blogger – but I am hooked. Why – because I am learning, I am connecting with ideas and people via a mechanism – the web – which in the past has only ever been static (i am sure to get some flack over that comment) before. Yes even those wonderfull database driven sites – are static. They do not enable an intertangle of ideas – or variation of ideas, in the past my experience of web browsing has been from one site to another of other peoples fews. This is great for research and google is fantastic for looking up facts. But if I wanted to get a sense of what is happening, what people were thinking, or even to connect with ideas – well down the pub was still the best way to do that (and in fact may always be).

But for those who cant get to the pub – what were the alternatives. People like Dave the lifekludger for whom it is not easy to get out, or for those who live in remote areas, or for any other reason do not find it easy to make contact. Well in my opinion blogging offers these people an outlet and an ability to connect in a meaningfull way. Not with the people that they meet in there work, but with others who have in the words of Dave the lifekludger have an overlap of thought which may only be a short term or single issue, but in my experience often leeds to a broader connection and sharing of thoughts, this is not all that different to the pub conversation, the first time you meet someone you start to explore your commonalities, but once you have established "your connection" it can be amazing where the convesation ends.

This is how blogging has been for me – you find a connection of thought or ideas, but then by following on these links or connections a deeper, broader conversation occurs – and you learn more around your areas of interest. And like all good connections you are introduced to others who share these similar but different ideas and interests, and so your network grows.

So this leads to my last question "do English blog", according to the people I was at dinner with – well no – but I am sure that there are many English who do. So is blogging a cultural thing, are there some cultures that are more likely to blog than others. Americans seem to be the leaders – they all like to have there say – and there say is important and needs to be heard, – blogging allows them to be heard, and hopefully allows them to learn, because this is the power of blogging and hopefully will allow people to connect, share ideas and learn from each other.

So do English blog – I hope so – we do need there opinion and we also need to have the opportunity to learn from there experiences as well.
Some interesting links:

The Blogging Revolution

Weblogs: A History and perspective

Christopher Salazar on why a blog 

Technorati Tags: cu06, communIT, ConnectingUp