Hoy he recibido mis ejemplares del libro Web 2.0. Internet è cambiato. E voi? I consigli dei principali esperti italiani e internazionali per affrontare le nuove sfide, coordinado por Vito Di Bari y editado por Il Sole 24 Ore.
Se trata de una obra colectiva en la que 46 autores abordamos las diversas facetas de la Web Social en 9 capítulos:
1. Introduzione al Web 2.0
2. Gli strumenti del Web 2.0
3. Socializzare con il Web 2.0
4. Cercare, informarsi, imparare con il Web 2.0
5. Fare business con il Web 2.0
6. Promuovere e pubblicizzare con il Web 2.0
7. Divertirsi con il Web 2.0
8. Effetti sociali del Web 2.0
9. Il Web nel 2015 e nel 2020: la Longer Tail e la Longest Tail
Mi contribución 3.3. Il blog eCuaderno (pp. 128-130) es una versión traducida al italiano y editada de la siguiente entrevista mantenida con Vito Di Bari el 6 de agosto de 2007:
Questions for José Luis Orihuela
1. eCuaderno is one of the most famous blogs in Spain. Why this success?
There are many rankings tracking the Spanish speaking blogosphere and the reason why eCuaderno.com used to be in prominent places in most of them mainly has to do with the amount of inbound links to the blog and the amount of readers of the RSS feed. I suppouse that after five years writing a blog daily you end up building an audience and a prestige.
2. Why and wow have you first decided to create a blog as eCuaderno?
I started eCuaderno (August, 2002) in order to test Blogger as a platform for friendly online publishing. Soon, it becomes my online lab to track innovations, share resources and research, teach, and be part of the global conversation about the changing nature of media and communication as a result of the internet revolution.
3. What is eCuaderno main target (audience)?
As any other blogger, I write for myself in the first place. Blogging is like building an online memory: publishing links, references and resources that I will need in the future. In second place and as an effect of the former, I asume that I write also for my colleagues: a blog is a great tool to discover and build communities based in shared interests. In thir place, I Write for my students: the context of many posts is a session, a seminar, a workshop or a lecture.
Besides that and for most of the blogs, the paradox is that many more than a half of our visitors come from search engines queries.
4. Have you happened to get in touch with your readers? How is your interaction with your readers?
In 2003 I started the practice to meet bloggers in informal meetings under the umbrella of the concept «Beers & Blogs». This concept is now part of the culture of the Spanish speaking blogosphere. Besides that, and even more than post comments, without doubt email feedback is the most important way of interaction with my readers.
5. Why do people read eCuaderno? Why they come back and read it on a regular basis?
As it is the case of filter blogs, eCuaderno offers tips to think and useful links about a well focused theme: media change. I am not a polemist, nor an opinion maker, I am a net scout searching all the time new trends, changes and chalenges to media, good experiences and clever texts to help us understand why and how public communication is redefined.
6. How did you realized eCuaderno? Did you used a paid service or did you build your own code and page?
After a year testing Blogger, In 2003 I decided to move to my own domain (ecuaderno.com) and run the blog under Movable Type. Since 2005 I am another happy user of WordPress.
7. How do you interact with other bloggers? How much is this relations amongst bloggers important for a weblog project?
One of the axis of interaction between bloggers is the link. The link is the main structural component of the blogosphere. I do link intensively, and I think that linking is one of the big contributions of blogging to the online culture.
In the physical world I do interact with other bloggers in conferences, lectures, workshops and also with «paper» articles and books.
8. In you opinions, are blogs made to be just autoreferential or can they be used to inform and share useful knowledge? Why?
As far as a weblog is a media (not a genre), it can be used to whatever purpose its author decide. But because weblogs are media without editors (self media), most of what is published it is not of a strong interest (to put it smoothly). Proportionally, the vast mayority of blogs are autobiographical, but is the thematic -not the pure autoreferential blogosphere- the one that is producing a change in the domain of public communication, public agenda and media control.
9. In one of your posts you wrote the «Eight thesis on weblogs and media». What are they? And why did you write about it?
I was working on a chapter about the media nature of blogs for a collective book about the impact of internet on media, so I decided to post my thesis to get some feedback from the audience.
My 8 thesis about weblogs and media are:
2. Weblogs are not journalism for the sake of being weblogs
3. Weblogs are not going to replace journalism nor traditional media, but they are forcing them, to change
4. Weblogs and traditional media have complementary functions.
5. The influence of a weblog is directly related to it centrality on the net
6. The blogosphere is a group of weblog communities tied by common elements, starting by the lenguage
7. Weblogs relate to media system through their respective blogospheres
8. Popularity and influence are factors of success, but they could change the weblog into a similar media from which it tries to distance.
10. You defined blogs as the «fifth power», could you tell us why? In which concrete case has your blog been a «fifth power» instrument?
The «fifth power» rests on the blogosphere, not on a particular blog, and it is a consequence a the network effect. The public conversation and critic taking place in the blogosphere about news, opinions, media, politics, products, services and brands is highly visible to search engines (Google), fast tracked by monitoring services (Technorati) and promote and vote by social filters (Digg). Now, and maybe for the first time in history, media, enterprises and politics are watchdogged in real time and on the public sphere by their audiences, markets and voters.
11. What should one do in order to have a successful blog such as eCuaderno?
A good blog needs passion, focus, regularity, identity, humour, sources and time. A lot of time.
12. What should one absolutely not do?
A good blogger should not copy-paste contents without attribution, should not spam other blogs with comments with the only purpose to seed a link, should not hide his/her interests or real identity when disclosure is need, and should not be obsessed with statistics.
13. You said that your blog is also a «educational tool». What do you mean?
Blogs (not only eCuaderno, but also support blogs for specific tasks and projects) are always part of my teaching. By means of blogs I share readings, materials, references, videos and tools with my students. I also promote student blogging as a way to experience public communication, feedback from readers, use of sources and mainly to improve their digital literacy (reading and writing through links).
14. Could you mention some keywords to describe eCuaderno? Why did you choose this words?
The descriptor of eCuaderno reads:»Tips, news and links about media and the net». In a broad sense, it is a blog about cyberculture. Other key words could be: new media, social media, hypertext, journalism, education and blogosphere.
What the descriptor does is establish the filter-style of the blog, the brief structure of entries and the focus on media change.
15. What’s blogs future? Will they improve general knowledge or will they remain personal pages?
Maybe in the future we will not call them «blogs», but this media will pervive as a projection of our presence and identity in the online world. Blogs (however we call them) will be our virtual egos, our online memory and an avatar to whom everyone (even the author) would be able to interact with. Interfaces will evolve enough such as to «talk» with a blog, both in virtual and physical worlds.
Referencia
Di Bari, Vito (ed.), Web 2.0. Internet è cambiato. E voi? I consigli dei principali esperti italiani e internazionali per affrontare le nuove sfide, Il Sole 24 Ore, Milán, 2007, 336 págs.
