It is just an idea which I raised with Andrew Collis the other day; whether The South Sydney Herald takes it up is another matter altogether. Depends on how it fits with their current mix.*
However, I thought I’d let you see what I submitted.
South Sydney to the world
From Melbourne to Paris, from Riga to Rio, from Reykyavik to Jakarta, there are people reading other people who live right here in South Sydney.
I know, because I am one of those sad nerds who blog! I even know where the last one hundred readers of my blog came from: 40% from Australia, 38% from the USA, 3% from Canada, 2% from India, 2% from Poland, 1% from Bangladesh, 1% from The Dominican Republic, 1% from South Africa, 1% from Mexico, and so on…
I want to share a few local blogs with you today.
Some bloggers just share what they see, and do it beautifully. For example Nosey in Newtown “is about what goes on right under your nose. It’s curiosity about your habitat and engagement with your home. It’s treading every footpath and delighting in every funny-looking dog and finding the beautiful in the familiar. It’s about talking to the local shopkeepers and feeling connected with your community.” Find her (or is that “him”?) on http://www.noseyinnewtown.com/.
James O’Brien is in Sweden right now, but otherwise he lives in Surry Hills. He has been exploring Surry Hills streets in a series you can find at http://jamesobrien.id.au/surry-streets/ where there are some beautiful images and interesting tidbits.
Not entirely local, but working locally and often catching South Sydney with her camera, is Sydney Daily Photo at http://sydneynearlydailyphot.blogspot.com/ where Sally delights in “interesting and varied aspects of Sydney apart from the usual tourist images.”
Other bloggers discuss political and social issues. Jim Belshaw, a Rosebery resident, was once high up in the Australian Public Service. You can find that experience well deployed in his personal blog at http://belshaw.blogspot.com/ but he has several to match his various interests.
Anyone can do it and it’s free
Why not share yourself with the world? There are 112.8 million blogs out there already! Don’t let that put you off; you will be surprised how quickly readers find you. And think of all there is for you to read in return! Such variety, something for every taste!
And in case you weren’t sure about what a blog is, I will let Technorati, a blog search site at http://www.technorati.com/, explain:
A blog, or weblog, is a regularly updated journal published on the web. Some blogs are intended for a small audience; others vie for readership with national newspapers. Blogs are influential, personal, or both, and they reflect as many topics and opinions as there are people writing them.
Blogs are powerful because they allow millions of people to easily publish and share their ideas, and millions more to read and respond. They engage the writer and reader in an open conversation, and are shifting the Internet paradigm as we know it.
On the World Live Web, bloggers frequently link to and comment on other blogs, creating the type of immediate connection one would have in a conversation. Technorati tracks these links, and thus the relative relevance of blogs, photos, videos etc. We rapidly index tens of thousands of updates every hour, and so we monitor these live communities and the conversations they foster.
The World Live Web is incredibly active, and according to Technorati data, there are over 175,000 new blogs (that’s just blogs) every day. Bloggers update their blogs regularly to the tune of over 1.6 million posts per day, or over 18 updates a second.
I have been blogging for a few years now, and I used to be terrified of computers. And I am over sixty years old! You can find me at http://ninglunprologue.wordpress.com/.
If you’re interested, I may come back and tell you more about how to get started.
And if you already have a blog, perhaps you would like to tell me about it so I can mention it here.
It’s all about conversations.
* UPDATE
Andrew Collis replied: “Looks good! Will forward to Editors. Hopefully, we can include in August issue.”
