VBB: The Global Conversation: Blogs as Bridges
IRC for the conference: Iraq the Model began the discussion by talking about why they blog and what they’re doing to get the word out about what’s happening in Iraq. To Mohammed, telling people what’s happening in Iraq now is critical. Many people don’t get news about Iraq now.
Ori asked how many people in Iraq have Internet access. Omar found an Internet cafe in the marshes and saw a long line of people waiting for access.
Isaac Mao from Shanghai asked whether they blog in their own languages. Omar cited a lack of blogging tools that can handle Arabic languages as one reason why they blog in English and why many people don’t blog.
Ory addressed bloggers using Swahili. Jeff Jarvis mentioned how blogging in English might reach a broader audience, especially if they’re trying to reach Americans and the American media.
A man mentioned how his Japanese wife sometimes says things in English because she can say them in English and not Japanese.
Translation came up, too. How does translation work in the blogosphere? Is it legitimate to translate someone’s text? Does that violate their content rights/copyright? Is sharing more important than those concerns?
I’m sure the language challenges will come up again in the tools session later this afternoon. Blog platforms that can handle multiple languages and languages with non-Roman characters are needed.
Ethan Zuckerman, one of the session leaders, asked people who blog in two languages to raise their hands. About ten people acknowledged the question. He then asked how many just blog in English. Most of the other hands went up. (I didn’t raise my hand for either question since I sometimes blog auf Deutsch, but not often enough to really count as blogging in another language.)
Military blogging can serve a need for soldiers and veterans, especiall those overseas, according to Matt.
Many Malaysian bloggers are centered around the capital and blog in two languages, said Jeff Ooi. Many Malaysians learn English in school. “In order to get connected to the blogosphere outside of Malaysia, they need to write in English. … They are not Googleable.” Later, we returned to the point that Malaysian blogs are not in Google. We didn’t resolve people’s questions, but it seems to be a language problem. People searching in English won’t find blogs written in other languages. If the Malay bloggers write in other languages, how can English-speakers know about them?
Bill Ives brought up the idea that children used oral histories in countries where history books might be limited.
Ethan asked Hoder to tell us about a project to get Iranians to put their diaries from years ago online to show the young people what life in Iran used to be like.
I really wish ls was here. He’d get so much out of this session and be able to add to it. I won’t remember half the stuff I’d like to tell him. Many of the discussions, especially about blogging in languages besides English are right up his alley. (Hey ls, the muffin was banana. ; ) )
One of the interesting aspects of this session that we aren’t talking about is a disclaimer at the beginning. Because of threats against several of the bloggers in the audience, we have been asked not to photograph certain session participants. In some places, the only way to blog and tell the truth is to blog anonymously. Think about it. That’s very heavy.
Someone affiliated with a radio company is recording the session. He isn’t sure what he’s going to do with the sound–whether it’ll be put on the Web or broad/podcast.
Hoder created a wiki where session participants can write their URLs.
Global Voices Online has some resources.
