A look at the Australian blogosphere by blogs.com.au

I collect so many blogging links during general www surfing that instead of doing a proper post on each one I find a quick linkblog about blogging satisfies my desire to announce them to the Aussosphere.

1. A successful entrepreneur has vowed to give up public speaking and focus more on blogging

2. A heartening story that despite the great firewall of china, 20 per cent of bestselling books in China now stem from online literature like blogs. The interesting thing I take from this is that in countries like Australia that already have an established publishing industry structure very few books originate from an online form and are turned into books. Local publishers need to wake up to some o the gold that exist online.

3. A quick guide on finding images to use in your blog posts.

4. While I can’t say I have read or heard anyone specifically say micro-blogging tools like Twitter or online social networks were going to bring about blogging’s demise. Still, one of the Aussie Bloggers has outlined a strong case to why blogging won’t be a replaced anytime soon.

5. There’s another push for a blogging code. This time by a UK law firm. They’ve published a lot of stats about how unaware of legal issues people are but very little detail on their proposed code.

6. Back in the day (’98 + ‘99) there used to be a online service called Web Site Garage that was run by Netscape where you could put your site through to evaluate a number of factors before publishing to the web. One of the features I appreciated most was the spell check. For some reason the whole service went offline and was never replaced. Until now. There’s a soon to be launched service called Spellr.us that will offer a free spell checking service to make sure your blog doesn’t appear by someone who didn’t graduate from Grade 4. I really need this service.

7. A reminder for people a little obsessed with blogging. ‘Tis fun to do but only in moderation.

8. I usually avoid the Blogging VS Journalism debates as I find they focus on the utterly pointless but did find this quote offered an interesting perspective: “…bloggers who are unconstrained by the cold, objective, impersonal style required by Modern Journalism can more easily present themselves as more credible — sincere, authentic, and vulnerable.” (via The Future of News)

When you see some of the blog related initiatives that are occurring during the US Presidential election which really embrace bloggers you realise just how far behind blogging is in this country.

The DNCC (Democrats) previously announced an expansion of the credentialed blogger pool from past Conventions and the addition of a state blogger credentialing program. As part of the new DemConvention State Blogger Corps, designed for bloggers covering state and local politics, bloggers will receive unparalleled access to state delegations and the floor of the Convention hall. In a truly unprecedented move, the DNCC will seat these bloggers with their respective delegations during the historic four-day event, providing even greater access for local coverage and perspective. Highlights from these blogs will also be featured on www.DemConvention.com in the lead up to and during the Convention.
- DNC Chairman Governor Dean Announces Blogs Selected For 2008 Democratic National Convention ‘State Blogger Corps’

(found via Something Changed)

While on the other side of stateside politics, the Republican party is courting lefty bloggers.

The McCain campaign has recently started to hold bi-weekly conference calls with left-wing blogs and blogs focusing on single issues, such as the environment and health care.

Politicians who hold blogger calls usually reach out to writers on the same team, trusting that those writers and party activists will amplify their message.
- via Wired

While it would be very easy to get down about this sort of thing. I think it is best to just look at it as an opportunity to teach politicians at every level of government in our country about blogging.

This was posted at Lifehacker Australia about 10 days ago (I think it is still current) but thought Australian bloggers should know Lifehacker is on the look out for a new editor to fill the void left by current editor Sarah Stokely who is leaving to take up a position at Crikey.

A bit of background: Lifehacker Australia is published by Allure Media who have licensed a whole heap of Gawker Media blog titles and created Australian editions.

While Allure have focused on recruiting bloggers from a traditional journalist background I would imagine any successful local bloggers with tech/productivity blogging experience would be considered for the gig. Definitely something people should apply for if you’re qualified as there are very few paid blogging positions in Australia up for grabs.

One of our fave photobloggers, Boudist, has recalled a quote on how it sometimes feels for new readers when they visit an existing blog…

Someone once described the frustration of blogs to me by saying “it’s like walking into a conversation half way through”. It’s a sentiment I sympathise with and I think an about page can help orient first time readers

That’s an excellent reason to put together a decent about page

As usual, the wisdom on all things blogging, Darren at ProBlogger, has some quality posts on the topic.

I’m purging any domains I have registered which I’m not using.

Which is why I am giving qldpolitics.com and queenslandpolitics.com away to anyone who wants to use them for a blog or forum or wiki or anything of substantial use.

- Must obviously be interested in Queensland politics.
- Must have a blog or something happening on the www already that shows you’re not just a domainer.
- Must either have an account at the current registrar (enom) or be willing to transfer domain away to a new registrar.
- Must have an idea of what you are going to do with the domains.

Comment below or send me an email to anthony at blogs dot com dot au

First person I’m happy with giving the domains to will get all the details for both domains so that they can take ownership of them straight away.

Thanks.
A.

At the moment there’s a corporate fight for board control of The West Australian newspaper. It is between the incumbent directors and a Kerry Stokes led new group of directors.

I’m not going to weigh into the discussion as I have have never read the publication nor do I live in in W.A or know their media scene. Though I must admit I loved this quote by Australia’s richest man, Andrew Forrest, attacking the paper…

“If The West Australian continues to have a declining readership and a blog-style to its editorial, then we will definitely have a second newspaper on our doorsteps taking advantage of that gap.”

My first thoughts were that if their editorial and op-ed columns really are ‘blog-style’ then maybe ’tis a forward thinking and magnificent publication that doesn’t need to be fixed. Anyway, it made me laugh when I read that this morning so thought I should share it.

Also, if you were someone that like me would have taken the attack as a complement then you should probably forget about ‘blog-style’ and check out the real thing with fine Perth reporting occurring through citizen journalists at PerthNorg.

Laurel Papworth and Australian IT have alerted me to The Consumer Generated Media Report (100k PDF) by Nielsen Online who surveyed over 4,000 online users from Australia and New Zealand and have concluded that 48% of Australian internet users have read a blog, 16% of have created a blog and 15% update their blog.

Using the most recently published Nielsen//NetRatings statistics which indicate that Australia has 14,729,191 internet users, we can say that Australia has:

7,070,011 people who read blogs
2,356,670 people who have created a blog
2,209,378 people who currently update their blog

These are impressive and somewhat surprising figures. Though, I certainly dispute the create and update ratio of being just one percentage point difference. The attrition rate of blogs is much higher than that. From my small list of just 5103 active Australian blogs I have an alternate list which contains over 7000 Australian blogs that were active at some time in the last 12 months when I started maintaining the list but which are now either not currently active in the last 3 months or have been deleted/removed from the internet entirely.

Something else from the study which I take interest in was the confirmation that the top Factor influencing online consumers’ uptake of CGM activities was that Australian internet users would have to have more time. I’ve think the recent uptake of micro-blogging platforms like Tumblr as well as instant message/forum style mashup that is the web/mobile platform Twitter has been because of their easy ability to post information quickly and lower digital literacy level required to perform most tasks compared to traditional blogging platforms.

While the report is only four pages long and scant on detail, it is heartening to see some research into this area. From academics I’ve spoken to recently it seems that Universities are now starting to fund research into blogging, consumer generated media and social media so expect to see more and hopefully better studies published in the near future.

…here is a little reality check for the wannabe problogger inside of some of us.

No one will know or understand or believe what you do.

Found via Tumblr

I commented on a post at the Australian sports blog The Roar a week or so back and received this short email welcoming me to their blog:

From: The Roar To: Anthony
Date: Feb 5, 2008 7:51 AM
Subject: Welcome to The Roar

Hi Anthony,

Great to have your first comment on The Roar!

Please keep the comments coming - and feel free to submit your own article should you feel inspired.

We also encourage you to tell your friends and colleagues about The Roar. You can email the article that you commented on here - invite your mates into the debate:

http://www.theroar.com.au/2008/02/05/bennett-to-step-down/email/

Cheers,

The Roar

www.theroar.com.au

Subscribe to our free daily email:

http://www.theroar.com.au/subscribe-to-the-roar

I wanted share it here at The Local because I thought it was a wonderfully simple thing that any blogger can do to introduce yourself to your blog’s commenters and thank them for adding to the conversation. Well done The Roar!

This is one of those stories that seem ridiculous to passionate bloggers yet illustrate the techno-legal and techno-corporate time gap that the use of new media tools such as blogs face within institutions like the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and large media companies.

For those unaware, the IOC and therefore all of the national committees in participating countries had previously not allowed any athletes competing during the Olympics to publish a blog.

Last year the IOC were reviewing this policy :

Competing athletes are specifically prevented from working as journalists during the Games and have so far been strictly denied rights to continue writing internet columns during the event.

But Olympic sources said yesterday that the IOC was set to make the shift as it realised it had to recognise the dramatic expansion of the internet in the daily lives of athletes. The IOC is also keen to expand the appeal of the Olympics to the youth market.
via The Australian July 26, 2007

On Friday last week a small step to further the legitimacy and adoption of blogging was taken thanks to the IOC’s decision to allow athletes to blog at the Beijing Olympics.

The Beijing Olympics are set to become the “blog Games” after Australian athletes were given the green light to express their views for the first time in internet blogs they write during the Olympics.
via The Australian February 18, 2008

However, it is not a free for all with the IOC keen to protect broadcast rights holders as well as sports betting companies who combined contribute billions of dollars in revenue. Which is why athletes will be restricted in not being allowed to upload audio or video as well as not mention any confidential information on third parties.

Also, just because the IOC has approved it not all countries have allowed their athletes to maintain a blog during the Games. New Zealand is one which has not yet dropped the blogging restrictions.

What has caused most discussion amongst bloggers is the how the IOC has separated blogging from journalism.

Under the new rules, blogs are allowed as long as they are used for personal expression and not journalism, meaning “it be confined solely to their own personal Olympic-related experience”.
via paidContent.org

This is one of those pointless infinite loop symantic arguments about blogging/journalism that I generally roll my eyes at and avoid. I will say that even though I think the statement by the IOC is mostly PR spin to not scare and annoy their media overlords, there is some truth to it. I know this will miff many of bloggers but I agree that the athletes in this circumstance would be more bloggers than journalists. Even though I do believe the lines of journalist and blogger have blurred and that with the tools we have now anyone can be a journalist and it is almost built in as part of being a human being in the 21st century. I just see that the athletes will be posting more about themselves than reporting in the greater context of events during the games. It’s all purely speculation. Lets wait and see what is published on the blogs by the athletes before we detemine wether they are bloggers or journalists.

My biggest thought is how the IOC and the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) here in Australia is going to allow athletes to blog: as individuals or only as part of an official platform?

Laurel Papworth also alludes to the same question:

Blogging as a “legitimate form of personal expression” and “not a form of journalism.” I wonder if they are capturing the blogs under one blog banner, or if they are free to wander off to blogspot and wordpress and other personal sites? If they do it under a banner, it’s not really a “legitimate form of personal expression” then is it? It’s a “form of marketing”.
via SilkCharm

There is only one Australian Olympic athlete that I know of who is currently blogging(wouldn’t you know that I can’t find his blog now when I need it). He is a sailor who has been blogging during the lead up to the games about his qualifying trials. I will update this post with the URL when I find it.

I know that this is being viewed by the blogosphere as not open enough. But quite frankly, if the IOC allowed anymore than they have, some of the officials and broadcasters’ heads would have exploded. The IOC is a massive old bureaucracy so I think this is a great first step by them to embrace new personal publishing technologies and put blogs firmly in the world’s spotlight this August. Let the blogs begin!

A couple of other news articles about this story:
Australian IT - Blog away, AOC tells Olympians
ZDNet - Aussie Olympian blogs muzzled, not censored
ABC - Australia will not gag Beijing blogs: AOC