Opinion Sur Joven

Julián De Sa Souza is a very angry user of the terrible services of the Argentine Ferrocarril Metropolitano (Metropolitan Railways), or at least that’s how he defines himself in his blog. About four or five months ago, Julián decided to create “Como Vacas” (“like cattle”), a blog telling the daily stories of traveling by train and other information about the state of public transportation in Argentina. When he decided to channel his complaints, he thought of doing it through blogs “because they’re very easy to create and manage, plus they’re getting more popular every time”. Today, “Como Vacas” turned into an exchange space where people leave comments, make complaints and express how they feel about using trains.

Julián’s site isn’t the only widely known blog. Estimations indicate there are 70 million blogs promoting new cultural spaces through open and global conversations, where the most varied interests may be found: users’ complaints, virtual labor union meetings, publications of censored thoughts or individual opinions by people who have no room in the media.

A different way of cultural expression

The first weblogs -this is their real name- appeared by the mid nineties. They’re personal websites where users may register their own experiences and interact with people from all over the world, exchanging information and opinions.

“A blog is a node within a conversation net about a common interest subject among the people participating in said interaction. Those who interact within that net relate to each other and project identities”, Juan Carlos Lucas defines. He’s the director of Innova Consulting, and he adds that whenever someone has a blog, “they’re saying they are part of a permanent conversation where they express their points of view and generate conversations with their readers”. That’s why a digital site acquires importance when it’s constantly updated and generates a dialog.

Today they’re a phenomenon catching the attention of population and the traditional means of communication. Logbooks are part of a global means of expression where debating is one of its cornerstones. Julián De Sa Souza, who’s both a lawyer and a journalist, assures blogs constitute cultural spaces. “If all aspects of social sciences, whether considered from anthropology or sociology, deem communication to be a fact of culture, blogs generating exchange and dialog may be considered communicational and cultural expressions”, argues the creator of “Como Vacas.” Furthermore, Juan Carlos Lucas thinks communication becomes more important than technology in this type of websites. “New technological tools are useful to generate the blogs, but they don’t guarantee the conversation to happen. Therefore, the keys are conversations and the value added by the people who participate in it, not the technology itself”, the director of Innova Consulting points out.

Nowadays, people gather within virtual communities based on contents of common interest, they generate links to other websites and build networks for interaction and exchange by sharing pictures, videos and even art works.

For example, Lalo Zanoni founded Eblog, a widely known website about the media, journalism, marketing and publicity. “I started out with Blogger in 2001, but I quit a few days later because I didn’t quite understand what it was about. I even criticized blogs a little, and my old coworkers -today my friends- mock at me when they remind me of that”. Currently, Eblog receives 100,000 monthly hits.

Internet has been a part of our everyday life for a long time now, and it’s a means for cultural and social expression. The Web 2.0 revolution thus challenges other possibilities for exchange. Because the importance of websites lies precisely in generating contacts, sharing ideas and developing technology and communication. However, there’s more to it. All those interested in blogging keep saying that it’s necessary to keep on experimenting and testing this new phenomenon of the digital field.

Some useful data

When Julián De Sa Souza decided to create Como Vacas, maybe he never imagined the huge impact his site would have today. In order to increase the number of hits, he tells us the only thing he did was to register his site in some search engines such as Google and leave comments in other blogs and different Argentine newspapers, aiming at describing the subject of his blog. Then, after the riots on May 15 in Constitución station due to the terrible state of the train service (see Opinión Sur Joven #15, the site multiplied its hits.

Creating a blog is really simple. There are free websites such as Blogger or Wordpress, where with only three simple steps you may have a space of your own. Every person may upload their articles and opinions and design it the way they like it best. There are many alternatives to generate a better organization of the websites and increase the number of hits. The most important thing is that they shouldn’t be formal and they need to be constantly updated, three times a week minimum. Then, the format and the structure are personal.

The following are some useful sites to simplify the way of communication and conversation:
Odeo : It’s a site where you may download, upload and play MP3s from different sources.
Flickr and Panoramio : These are photo-sharing sites.
Meet Up : Here you may find people with a common interest and form groups over the same affinity.
Digg : This site gathers the most read articles on specific topics and has a user community on each subject.
You Tube : This site allows you to upload and share videos of different kinds.
Finclu : This is a digital website where blogs may be promoted for other people to know them.
Esnips : This site allows you to store and share all types of files. It’s great to share recordings.
Polldaddy : Here you may upload polls.

Furthermore, there are other possibilities, such as GoogleAdSense, which provides ads matching the contents of your site and the relevant article. Each click on the ads published in your blog allows raising money, which is very rarely collected.

Most of the people who have blogs desire to broadcast it in order to increase the exchange and the number of hits, because that’s one of the basic reasons for the logbook to exist.

Therefore pictures, videos and recordings are some of the techniques used to encourage and deepen the conversation and to generate ways of boosting knowledge on the most varied fields. It’ll all depend on our personal choices and the message we’re trying to render. “I try to include a lot of information I know people won’t be able to get in other blogs, I try to produce said information. It’s also about intuition. Not all of my entries turn to be the best ones. There’s no magic in the content, but I think a sixth sense is necessary to grasp what may be important for the user at that moment", Lalo Zanoni thinks.

All voices

All ages had their own spaces to encourage cultural expression. Undoubtedly, today blogs are the scenarios to build identity by means of social interaction and technology. They’re a public space, just like squares or bars were during other ages.

The different logbooks not only form virtual communities sharing common interests, but they also open new spaces for all voices. Nowadays, one of the existing debates regarding blogs is whether this social exchange is relevant and productive, given that any person can publish his or her ideas, impressions and sensations for the whole world to know them. The only real limit is having access to Internet. “Many times I write an entry on a subject I’m not very sure whether it’ll be commented, and then it turns out there are really strong disputes and 50 people leave comments in a couple of hours”, Lalo tells us. “The users’ behavior is quite unpredictable, and that’s why sometimes I have to put up with some insults, but those are the rules of the game”.

Although the expressions originated in blogs are very varied, the aim is to gradually build and enrich interactive spaces where everyone may participate through their comments and their own experiences. Because everyone’s talking about experimenting and testing this new digital field.

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