In the mean time, most of the English-language posts I write here from now on will be translations from Spanish-language texts. Since I’m soon planning on doing a three-part series on some of the blogs I read in Buenos Aires, Latin America, and the rest of the world, I figured it was timely to translate a front-page article from today’s La Nación about this city’s five most popular bloggers. Unlike the original article, I will actually link to their blogs.

Modern Day Conquistadores

They are about 30-years-old, broke in to a format that was little known and today are read by 5,000 people a day

They had a specific idea and decided to transform it into a format that, up to five or six years ago, was little known. They chose the monitor instead of paper and the keyboard pencil instead of pencil.

Interested in technological developments and media, situations which involve change, tourism analysed from a different angle, or the simple desire to tell a captivating story, they created a space where they express their reflections. Today, they are followed by thousands of readers.

Denken Über, Mirá!, Orsai, Blog de Vaiajes, Bestiaria, Fabio.com.ar, and eBlog are just some of the Argentine blogs that lead in terms of visits and reputation, according to Alianza, a Spanish company specializing in Web 2.0, and are read daily by between 2000 and 15,000 users.

La Nación gathered the blogs’ authors to try to decipher why their creations are highly ranked in a competitive universe in which blogs are growing at the speed of light, while in Argentina alone, it is estimated that there are more than 300,000 and more than 100 millions in the world.

“The added value of a blog is opinion and knowledge of the author. Why read one newspaper and not another? For the same reason: the viewpoint of the person writing is what sets it apart from others,” reflects Mariano Amartino, 37-year-old creator of Denken Über, a blog that since 2001 focuses on technology and the Internet and is now read by half a million people a month.

“With a loyal audience, what is interesting to the author is also interesting for the readers,” adds Amartino, which, like the rest of the interviewees, is far from the stereotypical image of the nerd one has in mind when we talk about technology.

For Julian Gallo, the creator in 2004 of Mirá!, A space that brings together diverse information related to what are signs of the future, a blog is like a newspaper: you must publish every day. But, he said, which makes Internet profoundly different is its immense diversity.

“The poor state of cable TV, with 120 channels and nothing to see, or neighborhood video stores, with 3000 titles, makes the media uniform and mediocre. The Web, on the other hand, is refreshingly interesting,” says Gallo, who is followed by over 600,000 visitors per year.

The professionals, 30-years-old or greater, opened his first blog as part of an investigation, as an exercise to stay up-to-date or for the simple challenge of having their own media outlet.

An interesting experiment is that of Hernan Casciari, an Argentine writer based in Spain. Author of Orsai, which is faithfully followed by 6,500 subscribers, and Espoiler, a blog about TV programs created for El País.com, Casciari debuted with a blog which, for a year and a half, followed the life of “mejer gorda” Mercedes, telling her stories over the Internet. “Within six months, there were 25,000 readers and that made me realize that people liked to read stories,” he says.

In 2005, his “Diary of a fat woman” was elected the best blog in the world by Deutsche Welle for being the first to use this space for fiction. “I used the format to tell a story without saying that it was a story,” he reveals.

In eBlog, Leandro “Lalo” Zanoni mixes topics like journalism, media, advertising and communication, and also leaves his mark when it comes to analysing the present. As a gift to his followers, he advances the covers of magazines and books. That mixture attracts: he receives daily between 5000 and 6000 visitors. “One person is many things at the same time: journalist, politician, man, happy. The key point is to have different content and update it so that is attractive and invites participation,” he says.

A source of employment

For those who are the most highly ranked, this is already a source of work. “Practically, I live from this. I step all day doing it. The blog generates many job opportunities that would not come along without it,” Zanoni said. This same response is repeated by the others.

With some 3,000 visits daily, Carolina Aguirre, creator of Bestiaria, precisely defines the two things that distinguish a blog: the idea and form. “The idea is the premise of your blog. The visitors enter for three seconds and, if nothing grabs them, they leave. Most bloggers do not have that idea concisely understood. The form is the originality in which the idea if expressed,” says Aguirre, aged 29. She understands. For two and a half years, she has put together hundreds of short stories about female stereotypes. “The format fits me like a glove. It allows me to write posts that are short and acidic,” she adds.

The case of Fabio.com.ar is quite particular. With no specific theme to lead its space, beyond that of the analysis of current affairs, the daily blog is followed by a loyal audience of 5,000 people, and sometimes reaches double that number.

“What’s different is that it lacks a particular purpose. I am direct, but analytical. A blogger should not be politically correct or have a fixed rhetoric,” acknowledges Baccaglioni Fabio, a systems engineer, aged 29.

Jorge Gobbi, who receives about 2000 hits per day, helps travelers organize their own tourist experience. “People are increasingly accustomed to seeking information on the internet before traveling. And I collect little bits of information that are rarely read, such as the changes of building and lack of water in one or another destination,” says Gobbi.

And so, these conquerors of modern times do not need to mark their territory: their ideas circulate a free universe that is connected, in this country alone, by 16 million users.

My friend Jorge has already responded to the article with some useful tips for new bloggers.

An excuse to get together by Gabriel Jaime Venegas

Let’s start in Medellín, Colombia where Juliana Rincón has translated a post by Gabriel Jaime Venegas, a librarian and the coordinator of the La Loma-based Convergentes group of HiperBarrio. ConVerGentes was recently selected as an example of how the internet can be used to form a stronger sense of offline local community - and posts like this one reveal why. Using a simple projector and BBQ, the ConVerGentes group gathered last Saturday to watch the movie Freedom Writers, eat some good food, and spend some quality offline time together. Venegas also notes that they have recently “started working as construction workers.” After making a short internet documentary about the poor housing conditions endured by one of their community’s members, they decided to help build him a new house. You can watch a sub-titled video about Suso here. Photographs and videos of the construction process of Suso’s new house will be posted soon.

Help Me Help Them by Diana Chamia

The group of bloggers in Medellín aren’t the only ones using their blogs to help out members of their community. In the small town of Majunga, Madagascar, a young journalism student recently missed her bus stop and only realized her mistake once she reached city hall. On her way back to the town’s market she came across Philomène Georgine, a single mother with twin children. While one of the twins is perfectly healthy, the other has an abnormal growth that constantly attracts the stares of onlookers, but little sympathy from neighbors and family. That young journalism student is FOKO blogger Diana Chamia and she is now organizing a global and local, online and offline, campaign to help the Georgine family.

Moni Singing by Taslima Akter

And now a special treat from Shahida Islam Mony, who takes computer classes at the Nari Jibon center in Dhaka, Bangladesh. We have heard Mony’s beautiful voice once before. In this video, edited by Taslima Akter, she sings a Bengali song in celebration of Pôhela Boishakh, the Bangla New Year. So far there are nine other videos on the Nari Jibon blog which show the bloggers singing and dancing to celebrate the day.

Analyzing the use of laptops in the first month of class by Sixth Grade Class of Canadá School

Discussions around the One Laptop Per Child project tend to be as intense and polarized as a national election. But few of the pundits who express their opinions about the project seem to read the direct observations of the students, parents, and teachers who are now using the laptops in Uruguay and select other regions around the world like Nigeria and Peru. In this translation of a post by a sixth grade teacher at the Canadá school in Uruguay, we are able to see a list of the weaknesses and strengths of the laptop in the classroom setting one month after its implementation. You can see pictures of students working with the laptops here.

Make sure not to miss Rezwan’s excellent summaries of the latest content and activities from the Nari Jibon and FOKO projects. As always, we have new videos, photos, and links on the main page.

Avenida 9 de Julio, supposedly the widest avenue in the world.

The most difficult challenge has been getting people to pay attention to the great content they’ve been producing. As Ethan wrote a few months ago:

Encountering new ideas isn’t a supply problem in today’s internet - it’s a demand problem. There’s a near infinity of people unlike you creating content and putting it online for you to encounter. But it’s entirely possible that you’ll never encounter it if you don’t actively look for it… or unless the systems you use to find ideas start forcing you outside your usual orbits into new territories. Don’t fear the serendipity.

And as I commented on a thoughtful post by Amy Gahran about breaking through the echo chamber:

I feel like we’ve reached a hybrid stage of overcoming homophily, which is intellectualizing it. Lots and lots of people link to and agree with Ethan’s astute thoughts about how citizen media can help us make meaningful connections with those outside of our geography/class/ethnicity. But far [less frequently] do I see people clicking through the links on Global Voices and actually making those connections. I hope it’s just a matter of time; that we do all feel like we’re in the same village and that we’re just waiting to feel comfortable enough to walk over and say hello.

Everyone I know - both friends and enemies - think that Global Voices and Rising Voices are important ideas and important institutions. When we gather over dinner or at fancy conferences and debate the good and the bad of the internet, Global Voices is always brought up as an example of the former. But Global Voices is meant to be more than an example. It’s meant to be a place where you can get to know someone on the other side of the world, understand more about their life and their ways of living, and actually start conversing.

To encourage more people to read the great posts by new bloggers who have been trained in Rising Voices workshops, I have started a bi-weekly newsletter that features four to five selected posts from the over 250 Rising Voices participants. For each post I give my own little introduction to help give some context and to help “make an introduction.” The first batch of featured posts is copied below. I know that each of the bloggers would be really thrilled if you visited their blogs and left a comment - even if it’s just a comment of encouragement. If you’d like to receive the newsletter in your email inbox, you can subscribe on the Rising Voices About page. Now, here are four introductions to four very interesting people from Bangladesh, Colombia, Madagascar, and Bolivia:

A Shrine of Hazrat Shah Kamal Awlia beside my Village by Mohtarimun Nahar [Bipa]

First let’s start in the village of Digrirchor, right along the India-Bangladeshi border. Bipa describes a shrine of the Muslim saint Hazrat Shah Kamal Awlia which is located just over the Indian border, but worshipped by both Bangladeshis and Indians. The local elephants also seem to hold the shrine in high regard. Make sure to watch the video of the shrine at the end of the post which Bipa shot and produced with Tarun Falia. It looks like a beautiful and peaceful location.

Air or Cancer? by Dnabier Sady

Next we head to San Javier La Loma, a small hillside community on the outskirts of Medellín, Colombia. HiperBarrio participant Dnabier Sady (”Xady”) describes the horrible ordeal his mother and family suffered when Colombian doctors failed to detect her cancer. Juliana Rincón, one of the HiperBarrio project leaders, has translated Xady’s post into English. I was lucky enough to meet Xady’s mother, Margarita, while I was in Colombia and I can assure you that she is both an incredible woman and a talented cook. You can see a photo of Xady playing piano with his mother, Margarita, and father here.

Girl fond of going in a nightclub by Karenichia

Welcome to Madagascar! FOKO participant Karenichia still mostly blogs in Malagasy, the native language of Madagascar. But she has also been publishing a few posts in English such as this one, which describes a universal irony between parents and their children. Parents forbid their children from having any fun so the children rebel by doing exactly what their parents were most worried about.

Pomata by Cristina Quisbert

And finally we end near the border of Peru with Bolivia. In addition to her fantastic blog in Spanish, Cristina Quisbert has also started blogging in English. In this post she describes her trip to Pomota on the Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca, where she was shown a staircase, which according to legend, leads to an ancient city underneath the lake.

Featured in order are Steven Mansour, Catalina Restrepo, Yuliana Paniagua, Dnabier Xady, Juliana Rincón, Jorge Montoya, and Diana Grajales (still no blog?!).

Lula da Silva - Brazil:

“Democracy won in Paraguay; there was a change, and if it was for the will of the people, I respect it.”

Evo Morales - Bolivia:

“We greet the triumph of Lugo. He is a revolutionary who has joined the fight of the people.”

Cristina Kirchner - Argentina:

“I am convinced that, with his hand, Paraguay will take the road of social justice.”

Rafael Correa - Ecuador:

“It is one more building block for a new just, fair, independent, and socialist Latin America.”

Hugo Chavez - Venezuela:

“I spoke [with Lugo] to congratulate him for his victory and praise the political maturity of the Paraguayans.”

Missing from La Nación’s roundup of South American presidential reactions were Michelle Bachelet, a fellow leftist who was supposed to shake up traditional politics in Chile, Colombia’s Álvaro Uribe who is now as South America’s only non-leftist head of state, and neighboring Uruguay’s Tabare Vasquez, another centrist-leftist. Unlike Morales and Correo, Lugo has yet to make any polemicist declarations against the United States or in support of Chavez’s Bolivarian Revolution.

Eddie has a useful round-up of blogger reactions to Lugo’s victory on Global Voices. Boz has his patented five points.

A lot of my friends these days are professional or semi-professional bloggers … or at least have professions that are involved with blogging. So, we’ve all been talking about this New York Times article. (NYT obviously knew this was link-bait …)

Who doesn’t want to be a professional writer? It’s what every office employee, every hipster sitting in the cafe corner with their moleskin, every disgruntled school teacher all secretly admit to their friends. So, new millenium, and anyone can be a professional writer.

Anyone who is paid to spend time online is part of the same roaring river. We see each other at conferences, we know what the others had for lunch via Twitter, and we try to write something at least once a week that hasn’t already been thought-up or mentioned somewhere else. The New York Times article was a microcosm of the process. Matt Richtel says bloggers are the white-frocked workers of the digital-era sweatshop. Then, bloggers down several cups of coffee and come up with more nuanced explanations. As usual, one of my favorites came from danah (I love Puffins!!):

Underneath the sensationalism, there’s a core point here: those who are passionate about what they do do it to extremes. And when there’s the perception of a race (even if it’s self-imposed), it’s far too easy to take the extremes over the edge. I certainly spent my 20s running around like a chicken with my head cut off, trying not to miss a single thing. It wasn’t for my blog per say - it was for “research.” I had to know everything the moment that it happened and I followed web developments like a hawk. My blog turned into the space where I spewed all of my pent-up energy out.

One of my university professors told us during a lecture, “10 years later, none of you are going to remember anything I’ve said this semester. That’s OK. But I do want you to remember this and only this: do not allow yourself to become addicted to stress. It is the sickness of our society.”

She was right. It’s the only thing I remember of the class. Hell, I don’t even remember the title or topic of the class. But that statement has stayed with me forever.

I think that many of my friends are waking up right now and realizing they’ve been addicted to stress for too long. Every new conference I go to I notice that my blogging friends have gained a little more weight, that they look a little less healthy. Looking back at Flickr pictures of me from years ago, I’m nowhere near as healthy or athletic as I had been then. You just can’t be in shape while sitting in front of the computer 12 hours a day.

I still absolutely love my job. There is nothing I’d rather be doing. Which is why I’ve been taking it to the extreme, like danah writes. But even if you love your job, 12 hour days 7 days a week is just too much. So, I’m making some changes. This will be my last week doing the nightly digest for Global Voices. I’ve been reading every post on Global Voices and then summarizing it all each night for over two years now. It’s amazing to look back at that first month of digests and see how far Global Voices has grown since January of 2006. The talented Deborah Ann Dilley will be taking over.

Also, next week I am going to take three days off. Three days, no laptop. That is something that hasn’t happened since … since I don’t know when.

… And now it’s time to get back to work. Because there is much more to life than me complaining, copied below is today’s GV digest. If you haven’t been reading Global Voices lately, there’s now better time to start back up - the content has really been fantastic lately.

Afghanistan: First blogging workshop in Kabul

The Afghan Association of Blog Writers overcame financial difficulty and obstacles like electricity shortages to organize their country’s first blogging workshop. The workshop was held in Kabul on April 3-4 in association with Nasim Fekrat and Masoumeh Ebrahimi, two active Afghan bloggers. Translating from Farsi, Hamid Tehrani sums up the experiences both of workshop facilitators and participants.

Egypt: Bloggers on the Frontline

Egyptian bloggers worked round-the-clock to tell the world about a workers’ revolt that shook their country, as thousands rioted at a textile mill in Al Mahalla, demanding better pay and protesting against increasing prices. They were also among the first casualties of the unrest, which left two people killed, scores injured, and an undetermined number of activists - like Facebook user, Esraa Abdul Fattah - behind bars.

Sri Lanka: Stop the War on Journalists

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), an organization which aims to protect and strengthen the rights and freedoms of journalists, is calling for a Global Day of Action on April 10 titled “Stop the War on Journalists in Sri Lanka.” Sri Lankan bloggers offer more context.

Macedonia: Bloggers Discuss NATO Summit and Greece

Filip Stojanovski, author of the “Timeline of the Macedonian Blogosphere”, posts his first contribution to Global Voices, translating several local reactions to Greece’s obstruction of Macedonia’s entry to NATO.

The South African Blog Awards

On April 2nd, The South African Blog Awards were held in Cape Town to a great turnout of bloggers. Here’s how the event went in their own words.

Video on Flickr: An apple of dischord

Less than a day after the popular photo-sharing website Flickr announced that users can now upload videos up to 90 seconds long, thousands of registered users have joined groups protesting the decision. But amongst the uproar and analysis, few people have bothered to look at what videos Flickr users have been uploading. Juliana Rincón points the way from the streets of Vietnam to southern Sudan to Mt. Fuji.

Morocco: Prison Break

On Monday, nine men convicted of involvement in the 2003 suicide bombings in Casablanca went missing from a prison in Kenitra. Prisoner rights advocacy group Ennassir said that the escape coincided with the beginning of a hunger strike by about 1,000 prisoners across Morocco. A search is underway, but the prisoners have yet to be found. Jillian York brings us reactions from the Moroccan blogosphere.

Roundups

Using SMS to get coffee prices in Uganda, buying rice in Bangladesh, iTunes Canada pulls controversial Jamaican artists … and lots more in today’s Global Roundups.

Buenos Aires Leads the Way

Two months ago I was back in my old stomping grounds, Encinitas, California. It had been several years since I last coasted along Highway 101 as it sucks in its asphalt belly between San Elijo Lagoon and the near-perfect surf break, Cardiff Reef. I pulled off the side of the highway, rolled down my window, and inhaled the salty air tinged with the sweetness of coastal sage scrub. More than anywhere else, this was home. I still knew the names of the best surfers bobbing up and down in the Pacific as they waited for the right set of waves. Years later, and I still knew all the best running trails, the most articulate columnists, the best plates at the best restaurants, and the history of nearly every beach and every block up and down the ten or so miles of coast that make up Encinitas. Subconsciously, throughout the years of my youth, I had built up my own personal Wikipedia of the history, institutions, culture, and sub-cultures that make Encinitas such a special place for so many people.

Google Street View of Highway 101 in Encinitas with the Pacific Ocean on the left and San Elijo Lagoon on the right.

I have also witnessed the changes endured by the community as home prices have more than tripled from around $300,000 for a coastal bungalow in the mid-1990’s to over a million dollars today. I know that I will never be able to afford a house where I grew up. Which has brought me here, to Buenos Aires, one of the few cosmopolitan cities where it is still possible to buy a house or apartment without committing oneself to eternal debt. Unlike my comprehensive knowledge of Encinitas, however, I know next to nothing about Buenos Aires. I am an immigrant here. And each new block, every cafe, every neighbor greeting me with a silent nod of the head is a story to be discovered.

Fortunately, not only does the city of Buenos Aires have several official weblogs (including an English-language tourism blog), they have also put together a bi-lingual walking audio tour of the city, which can be downloaded as mp3 files or accessed from any cell phone by simply dialing *8283. You can walk down the smallest of side alleys and come across a plaque on the sidewalk with the necessary code in order to hear more information about the building or monument you are standing in front of. It is as if an invisible cloud of history is floating above the busy sidewalk, waiting to come alive with a simple phone call.

A plaque on the sidewalk in front of the former national library, which is now used for musical performances.

Little did the city of Buenos Aires know that they would be laying down the bricks - or the plaques - to the future of citizen media.

Threading the Technology and the Content Together

In the month of January, three products were launched which represent the building blocks to the future of how we find out more about the world around us.

It all began on January 7, when a group of African bloggers and programmers created Ushahidi to allow anyone with a cell phone to report violence in the aftermath of the controversial Kenyan presidential elections. By simply sending a text or photo message from their cell phone to 6007, Kenyans were able to report incidents of violence (and of peace-building), which were aggregated on a Google Maps mashup made available to anyone with an internet connection. Ushahidi represented the first widespread use of mobile phones in Africa to gather news in real time and aggregate it by location on a map.

One week later Apple released version 1.1.3 of their iPhone firmware. The new version allows iPhone users to locate themselves within a few city blocks by using information from Wi-Fi networks and cell towers. The feature is mind-bogglingly awesome. I would have never survived five meetings in two days in New York city without it.

Finally, on January 23, fellow Knight News Challenge winner, EveryBlock, launched its beta version, focusing first on Chicago, New York, and San Francisco. EveryBlock represents the most ambitious effort to date of aggregating information about a community and presenting it on a map. Again, if only I were able to afford rent in New York City, I could monitor news and photographs from my neighborhood from hundreds if not thousands of different sources.

Eagle Fire Ties it All Together

Participate, locate, aggregate. All the basic building blocks are there. But until this month, we were still missing the service that tied them together. Enter Fire Eagle, a Yahoo! service which keeps track of your location by serving as a brokerage between various websites.

The easiest way to understand the purpose and the power of Fire Eagle is to look ata presentation by one of its developers, Evan Rabble. Essentially, Fire Eagle allows you multiple ways to specify your location and to let other web services know where you are. Currently, I have three different ways to let Fire Eagle know where I am. First, I could simply update my location on the Fire Eagle website. Or, I could send a text message from my cell phone to Twitter user firebot with a description of where I am. Finally, since Dopplr.com knows when I am traveling to a new city, it will automatically update Fire Eagle with my new location so that I don’t have to.

Now that Fire Eagle knows where I am, how does that help me? For one, I can use Wikinear or Geopedia to automatically search for Wikipedia articles that are relevant to my location. I can also allow my friends, my social networks, and of course my favorite news sites to all access my location. By interfacing with Fire Eagle, a news aggregator like EveryBlock or outside.in can provide customized information (such as everything happening on the 700 block of Broadway) to my mobile device automatically.

Of course, this brings up numerous privacy issues. We probably want our children to know our exact location, but what about our boss? Or, for that matter, the government? Fire Eagle allows us to select a level of “fuziness” for each application that wants to access our location. It remains true, however, that we are trusting Yahoo! to respect our privacy when they have a record of giving private user information to the Chinese government.

Fire Eagle’s choices of “fuziness” regarding users’ location

I was amazed when, walking around Buenos Aires, I could simply dial a number and tap into the invisible cloud of the city’s history. Still, the Buenos Aires walking audio tour only mentions around 200 historical spots throughout the city. But what about the other millions and millions of stories that aren’t included in the walking tour? What about the stories that have yet to be told? The memories of grandparents who don’t yet know how to share them online, the boxes of old photographs and historical documents stuffed in attics throughout the city? What about the voices that have been either ignored or repressed by the mainstream media? With enough dedication and hard work, those stories, too, will be made available and added to the invisible cloud, all accessible with a single call or the press of a single button from our mobile phones.

English captions, Spanish sub-titles, and relevant links coming tomorrow.

In Taiwan, you post pictures of yourself naked when your party wins:

In Argentina you stab people when your soccer team loses.

Am I in the wrong country?