Irish Blogosphere participation set to explode (maybe)
Up to 40 million people read blogs in the US on a regular basis. So said Jon Ihle (of Backseat Drivers) in his explanatory piece on blogging last Monday in the Times. If this is true, we can only surmise that Ireland dramatically lags behind in the blog readership stakes. It would be unthinkable that a similar proportion of the population here, which would equate to over half a million people, read blogs.
But there is hope for an increase in Irish readership. The Sunday Independent hyperbollically reported yesterday that over half a million teenagers in Ireland have signed up with Bebo, a phenomenally successful social network site targeted at teenagers. Bebo allows users to create Web pages where they can post personal information about themselves. Posting photographs on their corner of the Web is a huge hit as is the fact that you can link to other friends in the network.
The question that should be asked is, do we have 500,000 as yet unaccounted-for bloggers in Ireland? I would guess that many would answer in the negative.
Personally, I have been disappointed with the pace of growth in the Irish scene. A paltry 1,000 people in this country call themselves bloggers. This is tiny a proportion of the overall population and has resulted in a great number of people from the various demographics in this country still without a representative in the boggersphere.
As Mick Fealty of Slugger O'Toole recently pointed out, Blog 2.0 is here. The novelty factor has waned and it is essential that more people come on board if blogging in this country is to avoid becoming just another Internet fad.
Several theories need to be explored as to why the big bang has yet to happen. Could it be that poor broadband penetration has prevented many from discovering blogs? Is there something innate about the Irish personality that discourages the practice of writing about one's thoughts in such a public manner? Has the media's attempts at portraying blogs in a poor light worked? Or is the threat of a notoriously litigious society at play?
There is hope however. What is promising is that the Irish blogosphere will benefit enormously from a maturing Bebo community in search of more powerful means of self-expression and the potential for greater reach.
It can be therefore be predicted that writing as a form of self-expression will become the norm and awareness of blogging, amongst younger people at least, is set to become mainstream. How can the current Irish blogosphere tap into this and groom the next generation of online writers?
Published by Colm.
But there is hope for an increase in Irish readership. The Sunday Independent hyperbollically reported yesterday that over half a million teenagers in Ireland have signed up with Bebo, a phenomenally successful social network site targeted at teenagers. Bebo allows users to create Web pages where they can post personal information about themselves. Posting photographs on their corner of the Web is a huge hit as is the fact that you can link to other friends in the network.
The question that should be asked is, do we have 500,000 as yet unaccounted-for bloggers in Ireland? I would guess that many would answer in the negative.
Personally, I have been disappointed with the pace of growth in the Irish scene. A paltry 1,000 people in this country call themselves bloggers. This is tiny a proportion of the overall population and has resulted in a great number of people from the various demographics in this country still without a representative in the boggersphere.
As Mick Fealty of Slugger O'Toole recently pointed out, Blog 2.0 is here. The novelty factor has waned and it is essential that more people come on board if blogging in this country is to avoid becoming just another Internet fad.
Several theories need to be explored as to why the big bang has yet to happen. Could it be that poor broadband penetration has prevented many from discovering blogs? Is there something innate about the Irish personality that discourages the practice of writing about one's thoughts in such a public manner? Has the media's attempts at portraying blogs in a poor light worked? Or is the threat of a notoriously litigious society at play?
There is hope however. What is promising is that the Irish blogosphere will benefit enormously from a maturing Bebo community in search of more powerful means of self-expression and the potential for greater reach.
It can be therefore be predicted that writing as a form of self-expression will become the norm and awareness of blogging, amongst younger people at least, is set to become mainstream. How can the current Irish blogosphere tap into this and groom the next generation of online writers?
Published by Colm.
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