Since my first day at Adoptic, I have been learning about blogging. Previously, I was not a blogger myself, but was interested in all aspects of writing—fiction, journals, editorial, academic, journalistic…you name it. Initially, my plunge into the vast world of the “blogosphere” was a research of blogging tools: What widgets were bloggers using on their sites? How did bloggers connect to other bloggers? Which sites did bloggers include in their blogrolls? What did a trackback mean? (I’m serious).

Over time, the questions I asked became more abstract in nature: How did the reputation of a blogger change over time? What were the ways in which bloggers gained credibility? Or…What was it about blogging that made it so appealing to so many internet users?

Being involved in the world of bloggers, reading blogs, attending conferences and tradeshows, and starting a blog of my own inevitably gave me a sense of familiarity. At the same time, however, I began to take blogging for granted—it was so much a part of my everyday life. The abstract questions are still in my mind, however. My ultimate question is: How is blogging changing societies, if at all? What does blogging accomplish that other forms of expression do not?

Blogs are often praised as democratizing tools: Any literate person can self-publish with a blog. In the blogosphere, it is not who you are but what you write that matters. In other words, it is not your social position but your ideas that count.

A question I keep coming back to is whether we can talk of an “internet democracy“. Has the medium of blogging created a way for all individuals to be treated with the same amount of consideration? Some things to think about is that blogging requires a substantial time commitment for both authors and readers of blogs. With the daily increase of blogs, readers have to spend a long period of time to be “on top of” everything that is going on in the blogosphere. While this does expose readers to new points of view, it may also stifle the voice authorities and traditional news sources. Moreover, it is important to ask whether the abundance of internet sources is creating greater divides among communities. Are people becoming more and more focused on their particular opinions, instead of participating in an all-embracing discussion?

I think that blogging is definitely a strong and powerful tool for building communities. While the abundance of blogs may raise issues of credibility, I also believe that blogs—as a form of publishing—present authentic, first-person accounts of important and controversial events that might not always be covered in mainstream media.

So, are blogs the new medium of publishing? I have bumped against this question numerous times throughout my initiation into the blogosphere. I’ve noticed an increasing amount of columnists that have started to blog, as part of the publication they write for. But doesn’t this go against the “independent” ideal of blogs? In her essay Personal Publication and Public Attention, Mortensen says that “If blogging can be defined within the known genres and boundaries, it can also be restricted and controlled according to known rules and made to submit to already predefined aesthetics.”

Back to blogs and democracy…It can certainly be said that blogs are all-inclusive as they can be set up by any one. All one needs is literacy and the basics of internet knowledge. As I said earlier, it is one’s ideas and not who one is that matters in a blog. There are, however, certain “ranks” that carry over to the blogging world: Blogs created by authorities, or even celebrities, immediately gain a huge amount of popularity, that other blogs have to work for months, even years, to achieve. Similarly, being on a famous bloggers blogroll, or being linked to by that blogger can increase your chances of becoming known by internet readers.

No matter it’s implications, I am constantly amazed by the power of this online tool, and am curious to see more ways in which it can be used.

Hello again!

I am back to report on some of the interesting things we learned at BlogHer. There was so much to attend that we can only give you a glimpse of some of the things that were covered. We noticed that an overarching theme discussed in all of the panels we attended was how the Internet can help build communities.

We had the chance to delve into some of those communities, and here are our notes:

Mommy Blogging: Public Parenting and Privacy

A common theme was from bloggers who started a blog to keep their family up to date, and then became much more widely read. Key concerns that were raised by the group included: fear of embarrassing their family or children, identity theft, kidnapping, unauthorized use of images and photos, impacting a child’s future by having detailed their past, legal concerns, etc. It was strongly recommended that people think about their comfort level when it comes to privacy. Make sure that you know and understand the blogging tools (blog sites, Flickr, etc) and are able to effectively use their privacy utilities. Overall, it was a great reminder that one should assume anything they put in writing on the internet can be read by anyone - in most cases, forever. Rose at It’s My Life has a fantastic live report of the panel.

Check out the other contributors to the panel:

Shannon, Crystal, Shino Tanaka, Chris Jordan, and Singlemom Seeking.

Home and Gardening

This session, led by Debra Roby, brought together both personal and business blogs. One of the recurring discussion topics was how green design has been making its way into design blogs and companies alike. Organic food production and environmental NGO’s were also topics that came up.

Content Syndication and Promotion

Mehdi wrote an overview of the panel in his blog Orange Tree Code. To reiterate, it is very important to know the tools that can help you reach a wider audience and build a strong community in the process.

Big Fat Deal

The Big Fat Deal meet-up, hosted by Monique, was a lively session that included mimosas! Big Fat Deal is a “size acceptance” website that talks about the portrayal of weight in popular culture. Check out Monique’s (aka mo pie) write-up about the session. Since Big Fat Deal aims to tackle issues of weight, body image and health, it is fitting to mention an anecdote that came up: A blogger said that she lifts weights at the gym and has really strong calves, so can bench press more than the guys. Woo-hoo.

Women Without Children

We joined Suebob Davis, Teri Tith, Laurie White and Laura Scott in a talk about being childless either by choice or circumstance, and how it can be hard to find friends to relate to. A common sentiment was that women can change after having children, and that childless people can sometimes be expected to adapt to women who have children.

Terry Tith also talked about her experience of starting the Purple Women Blog, and how it helped her find a community of women on the internet.

Women of Color

The session was moderated by Megan Smith and talked about wanting to build more connections between women of color bloggers including African Americans, Latinas, and Asians. On a similar note, the Adoptic Race and Ethnicity community will be opening soon.

A somewhat different point was made by a contributor at E! Magazine: She remarked that the Internet is better at bringing together people who already identify with a certain community, rather than bringing people together across community boundaries. She said that in real life she has friends from diverse backgrounds, countries, etc. but there is no single place on the internet to go hang out with a mix of people similar to real life.

What do you think? How can the Internet create communities?

We are back after an eventful weekend. The BlogHer conference was quite wonderful, and need we say, very educational for us. First of all, we met some of our Adopticans, and were delighted to find out that they are as sweet and charming in real life as they are in their blogs.

I kept on feeling strange drifts of deja-vu, when bloggers walked past our booth, and I had the fuzzy sense of knowing them. High school? College? Friend of friend? I wondered, as I tried to make out the faces. So to a couple of them I said, “Hey, I know you!” only to be met with blank stares. It later hit me that I had seen their photos on their blogs and thought that I knew them. You would think I’d be a little quicker with that revelation, since I was at a blogging conference!

A few highlights: We met very many great bloggers, some of whom have already joined the network. Michele gave an overview of the site to NPR Radio, and we received wonderful feedback and suggestions for new communities from the attendees. Oh, and Mehdi didn’t seem to mind the fame of being one of the few men at the conference. Look at him smiling:

Here are some photos we took with the The Red Headed Lefty, From Dates to Diapers and Adventures in Babywearing.

More to come on what we learned at the conference. Stay tuned…

Tomorrow, we’re off to the BlogHer conference. We wish we could say “It’s that time of year again”, but it’s actually the first time for Adoptic to be attending this conference! We will be one of the exhibitors at the conference and we will spread the word about how to promote blog Snippets and Be Heard.

We are very excited, especially since we have followed our Alpha users prepare for BlogHer. We’ll be seeing some Adopticans there, doubtless: We’ve read on various Snippets and blogs that Lara at Notions of Identity and the Ladies over at MidLifeBloggers will be there. The MidLifeBlogger ladies have even invited the attendees to hang out at their Midlifebloggers meet at BlogHer.

Did we mention…that we’re sponsoring Stephanie, author of Adventures in Babywearing to come to the conference from Chicago?

More to come after the conference ends on Saturday. We are looking forward to seeing some of you there in person, and discuss any ideas and questions you have. Do come and pay us a visit if you’re there!

Welcome to Adoptic blog. We are going to post all the new stuff about Adoptic here. Adoptic is an evolving product and we really want to keep all you engaged in helping us to build it.

Adoptic is about promoting your blog posts. This is done through posting the summary of your posts called snippets on your friends blogs or other community members.

Adoptic has been running in its Alpha and is in its invitation only
mode. We are going to open up the sign up soon. For any comment or feedback, please use this blog or use our feedback page.