Is Everything Worth Blogging?

OK, I must confess. I'm a new one here. Before my course Online Journalism in Vidzeme University College I was just admiring the mysterious and immense blogosphere. This course encouraged me to do and to explore more. So today I'd like to speak about blogging itself.

Recently I found really nice word - blogsome, from the popular bloggers' site Blogsome. It has several meanings but one of them is - a topic worthy of being blogged. So what are these things that are admissible in blogosphere?

Let's look on blogosphere starting from the basics.

As the first type of blogs I would define those with personal thoughts and life experience. Yeah, those under topic "what my dog ate for breakfast" :) . I think they are like peep shows where you can experience other person's feeling and thoughts, maybe also ask for an advice. Everything depends on how interesting you can tell about the "dog". Blogs like these are everywhere and mostly written for a stated range of people.

Next level could be philosophical and other kinds of thoughts and opinions. Something more than dog's morning rituals. Deeper analysis from which discussions derive.

Then very popular theme is tips & tricks. Very useful but questionable when speaking about copyrights. Sharing knowledge is great but straight translation or just overwriting from other resources balances on issues of ethics and law.

Other category could be photos. The most famous Flickr or Agris Krusts from Latvia. Your own and sent in by others. Photos with high quality and artistic contribution or just sweet and funny.

More serious category could be blogs that try to overlook and solve (or just start discussions) on problems that all society is concerned about. Here blog completely acts like a mass medium.

And the last but not least category could be professional blogs. Those devoted to themes for a particular interests. Blogs like never ending sources of information. In Latvia they could be Nozare.lv, Ldiena.lv, Vdiena.lv and also others not so widely spread.

These are just some categories I liked the best and worth considering.
In the end I'd like to quote Ernests - it's better to write less than pointless. Or you have to have very supportive audience. Cause blogging is interaction - at least dialogue. Everything's not worth blogging.

Do enterprises of Latvia fear of internal blogs?

As a new social media blogs have become more and more popular in public relations. It is known as corporate blogging (by its definition - publishing blogs by or with the support of an organization to reach that organization's goals). Authors Ojala and Raghavan mention three types of this corporate blogging: employees’ or internal, leaders’ or management, marketing or communication blogs. In my opinion not only the latter but all of them are devoted to public relations. I would like to discuss the development of the first ones – internal blogs that mostly are made by employees of the organization on the intranet.

During one of my research projects I surveyed Public Relations departments of some largest companies in Latvia and the results were quite sad. Although the amount of internet users in Latvia is continuously growing we’re still afraid of new possibilities that this new medium offers.

Zane Siksnāne, project manager in internal communication of Lattelecom – the leading provider of electronic communications services in Latvia – was really positive on internal blogging but still for now all new technologies are in a planning phase. Positively that CEO of Lattelecom Nils Melngailis is one of the bloggers in “Diena” project ldiena.lv.

Zane Eniņa, Marketing and PR manager in Ltd. RIMI Latvia – one of the leading retailers in food and fast movement goods in Baltic States – also is positively minded on blogging but considers them unnecessary and odd for now. She mentioned two main reasons why. Firstly enterprise needs to ask itself – is there a person in the company that has something to say on a regular basis? Now they have intranet, e-mail system and homepage with all of the information. The second reason would be language barrier - RIMI Latvia is one of the RIMI Baltics companies and lots of communication goes in English.

Very similar opinion (except the language part) has Antra Gaile – project manager of newspaper Diena, Kristaps Otersons, PR department manager of Bank of Latvia and internal communication project manager of Hansabanka (one of the leading commercial banks in Latvia, ) Līva Dzirniece. The organizations are satisfied with intranet, discussion board, e-mail lists, electronic newspaper inside the company. For now there is no need to blog inside the company. But what regards external blogging – Diena completely support that and also has made two portals generally devoted to interaction by blogs – ldiena.lv and vdiena.lv. The same with Hansabanka who's managers writes their own official blogs. On contrary Bank of Latvia considers external blogging as a inadmissible practice. Kristaps Otersons mentioned belief that Bank operates in a very sensitive sphere and all facts must be truthful and approved. Blogs are considered as too subjective.

Of course I cannot say that this is the opinion of all enterprises in Latvia but the main tendency is that we can’t accept this new form of communication. Perhaps it is too risky to give the floor to the employees…

On studying online

“I can’t go to the cinema tonight. I have a Skype meeting with my professor. But maybe we can watch something on TV?”

Internet and its online possibilities provide services that serve not only for our entertainment but also can be used for educational and other honorable purposes. Three years ago I have never thought that I will be sitting in lecture-room and seeing in front of it just a Skype window and lecturer on video screen. But it really happened, actually for the first time in Latvia ever. In Vidzeme University College these online options indeed are important as more and more students come here not only from Vidzeme region.

Building a virtual workplace solves problems of being in absence. Of course, Skype lecture was just an experiment and the lecturer was sitting in the same building but possibilities still stays. Consultations via e-mails, Skype calls and chats, electronic environment of studies storing the study materials, data bases subscriptions for the latest publications, e-mail system and lists for all of the students, administration and lecturers and intranet with news and other useful information – it won’t be exaggerated to say that VUC is ahead to all higher education establishments in Latvia.

I can’t say I’m always happy with this kind of communication. Still I prefer direct meetings face to face but I know it’s quite impossible to organize everything. And it’s really safe feeling that you know – you can always ask for advice and get answer in a short time despite you're in Alaska, for example :) .

Virtual workplaces will be the nearest future in many organizations. Just have to adapt to the new.

More on online identity: blogs

In my previous posts I mentioned that there are serious drawbacks when talking about online identity. But in this post I would like to stress one really good thing – your identity in blogs, building blog community and networks.

Formally we all have a freedom of speech but in real life there are several things that bother to use it completely. Shyness, no options to meet people in real life, retired people or just bothered persons sitting home alone. What to do not to go insane?

One and perhaps one of the best options would be start blogging.

It is said that almost all information in the world is in the net. I would be more precise and say – all the information are in the blogs. Just type in a search engine and you’ll find many useful tips and tricks. For example, I was really confused what Bloglines mean and I found a great user-friendly post. In this context the main blog advantages are informal language for easier comprehension and interactivity for straight contact with the blog author. From this follows a chance to meet these authors on-line. Experience exchange is invaluable. These are some professional things. But blogging advantages also refer to community building in everyday situations. For example, people who for any reasons can’t communicate in a different way and choose blogging. It’s like a new world for them. Perhaps even sense of life for desperate ones.

Within these cases I completely support different online identities. Cause you’re always a bit better when blogging*. And even only pretending better you become better.

(please don't judge this blog, these are only my personal thoughts and I realize that there are also many cons against blogging)

*quote of Kristaps Petersons in the BISS lecture about Corporate Blogging

Is the Sexy31 so sexy in real life?

“Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day; teach that person to use the Internet and they won't bother you for weeks.” (anonymous)

Some years ago writing an e-mail or checking news on internet was something really extraordinary. Now about half of Latvia’s population is in our most popular internet community site www.draugiem.lv, we all are using different kinds of technologies, programs, and enjoying the possibilities that digital media gives. To exaggerate a bit I can say that now meetings in real life are extraordinary. Now your real name and face is something extraordinary. On internet you can be anyone.

Blogs, chats, community sites, social networking, forums, multiplayer online games, Skype or Windows Messenger, etc. – so many places to be in, and so many identities to take on. Internet gives an opportunity to make yourself better and to fulfill you would never dare in real life. Internet is full of different nicknames that sometimes make you think: “What’s wrong with them?” Just an observation – a user called Sexy31 in chat will be much more popular than Ieva31 (an ordinary Latvian name). But perhaps Sexy31 is just an old man wanting attention.

To sum up my thoughts I have come to some pluses and minuses of online identity.

Pluses:

• Independence from modesty and psychological problems. On internet nobody sees your (mostly imaginary) imperfection (“Oh, I am so fat, I can’t go to him and ask for a dance” – a possible conversation in nightclub ladies’ room).
• More space for your opinion and interactivity. As there’s no shyness you can freely add comments and send messages on things you are concerned with.
• Social networking – on internet it is easier and faster to build up new contacts that may become useful meeting in real life also.
• No other factors influence other thoughts of you. Perhaps in a way it would be called objectivity.
• (place for your opinion)

Minuses:

• More space for criminals and illegal or just unethical actions. The drawback of anonymity.
• Poorly established laws on internet policies. This especially regards Latvia and other countries where internet came into later than others.
• Messing up with so many identities. What really are one’s qualities and weak points?
• Living on internet. Second life becomes first life.
• (place for your opinion)

Feel free to ad your comments and for further information check the links below.

Online identity management

Perhaps my first post was a bit overdone. Of course there are people who use tens or even hundreds of online identities. Teens, psychologically ill persons, people, who just want to have fun and others that do not apply to me. But still I consider that this issue regards to all of us.

Firstly, the security and privacy of our data. Every time you fill something out on internet this information is maintained somewhere. Do you know where? Or think about how many passwords do you need for every website, community and others? How to protect yourself and avoid of “bad guys”? One of the options is to use special services developed by technology companies that generates your profile and lets you decide who can access which parts of your identity information. Check the links to Higgins project and OpenID, for example.

The second very important issue would be laws that concerns internet policies. Some months ago there was shocking event in Latvia. “Diena” published analytical article based on experiment in draugiem.lv where they developed a fake profile of a 14-year-old girl and saw what happened. She (“Maria”) was receiving many letters with undoubted sexual proposals from men that were far beyond adolescence. In a result there were difficulties to prove that they are really endangering children on internet. From now this issue is taken into government’s agenda and also developed public campaigns on children safety on internet. What is just a demoralized fantasy without real intention and what becomes reality? It’s not just pedophiles in draugiem.lv but also aggressive commentaries in our news portals. It’s our security today.

Thirdly, I would want to start a discussion how to put all identities together. Your identities. Which is the right one and what happens if they come into contradictions? I think it’s not always so easy to manage these identities psychologically. For example, if one of your authorities from school or workplace sees your draugiem.lv profile – photos with you having fun in very informal parties and being completely different as in these school or workplace environments. I don’t have an answer as to previous issues on technological aspects and legislation. Just a food for thought.