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International Blog Day 2006
By Michael C. Gilbert, August 2006
Today is the Second International Blog Day. In response to a call from Global Voices, I am answering a few questions about myself as a blogger. I encourage you to contrast them with other answers from around the world.
Why did you start blogging?
I started blogging on April 1, 1997. It's a pleasant coincidence that I started Nonprofit Online News the same time Dave Winer started Scripting News, which makes the two of us tied for having the oldest blogs around, if I'm not mistaken.
The word "weblog" wasn't coined until later that year. So, obviously I never said "I think I'll start a blog", nor did I have much in the way of a community conversation to join. But in the final analysis, my reasons turn out to be very blog-like.
Since before the Web, I had made it a point to stay abreast of developments related to civil society and the Internet. By the mid-nineties, I had developed a habit of gathering news and resources, in the form of links and a few comments, and sending them to a growing list of close colleagues. The elaborate scanning was the main investment, so when I decided to share this stream with a broader audience through a web site organized in simple, reverse chronological order (much like the very first web site at CERN), it was an easy and inexpensive decision to make. The majority of the work was already being done and the Internet made scaling up my audience almost free.
Nonprofit Online News was web-only for a short time, but a subscriber suggested that I send the links by email (as I had done privately before the web site). For a long time, the great majority of my readers knew my blog as an email newsletter.
What do you blog about mainly?
Almost ten years later, I continue to stay relatively focused on news and resources about the Internet and civil society. I've developed a strong editorial perspective about the political and structural underpinnings of civil society, effective communication, leadership and innovation, and a cluster of related topics.
Once or twice a month, I will write a longer piece. Occasionally I'm fortunate enough to have a guest writer contribute one. There's a complete list of these articles on the site. Some of these are research reports, some are analysis, and some are opinion. Some respond to issues of the day and some are broadly forward looking. A few, such as The Email Manifesto and RSS Grants Channels, have been surprisingly influential.
Do you blog in your first language or in another language, and why?
I grew up speaking mostly Swedish at home, but it took living with a linguist to convince me that English was my second language. I'm obviously comfortably fluent in it and besides, I never did learn to write in Swedish.
What motivates you to keep blogging?
There are three reasons why I keep blogging. The first existed before I ever formally started and that is that I need the discipline of logging my research and my ideas in order to help me learn and think critically. My blog is an amazing tool for focusing my attention. Second, Nonprofit Online News has a large audience that benefits from my work and often lets me know. A single piece of fan mail can keep me going for weeks. It's nice to know you're making a difference. Third, the blog gives me the ability to influence elements of the sector about which I care very deeply. I am an activist and I write in order to make a difference to civil society. So long as blogging continues to give me the ability to do that, I will keep writing.
Two things that may emerge around Nonprofit Online News in the coming year:
I'm considering starting a blog that allows me a little more freedom than Nonprofit Online News. The latter's brand and focus is very well established and I have no intention of making radical changes to a model that has served my readers very well. But I would like to explore working in the medium of a more conventional weblog, with smaller opinion pieces and deeper engagement with other writers.
I am also working on encouraging other thinkers to blog and giving them more direct access to my audience. I already do that through my posts, of course. And a year ago, we extended that by launching a monthly subscription based Journal. But I'm actively looking at other ways to support new voices.
Is your audience mainly inside your own country or around the world?
Eighty percent of my readers are in the United States. But given a fairly large readership, the twenty percent outside the U.S. represents a fair number of people. Some of my posts are very U.S-centric (and I have enough international readers to remind me when they are), but most of them are relevant to a broad audience.
What do your family and friends think about the fact that you are a blogger?
What an interesting question. I look forward to reading other people's answers to this question, because it reflects the possibility that some people don't think too highly of blogging. I have discovered a bit of that attitude in the nonprofit sector, among people for whom blogging probably means pictures of your cat and personal commentary of interest only to a private audience.
I've been publishing Nonprofit Online News for so long, I'm not sure how many people really identify it as a blog. It's identity as a weblog is certainly not part of its brand, even though it is without a doubt a blog. And given that the publication is one of the pillars of my own professional success in the last ten years, I would hope they would approve.
Does your boss know you have a blog?
I am the boss.
If you found this article interesting or helpful,
please consider making a donation to Nonprofit Online News.
It will probably feel good!
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