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In case you didn’t hear about it, there was a small blogging conference in Taipei-Taiwan last week. Scott Sommers and David Reid were there and Michael Turton gave a presentation (in Chinese!) about Taiwan’s English blogosphere.
Here are some of the highlights from Michael’s presentation :
Most foreigners who blog in Taiwan don’t blog on Taiwan; they blog on their own lives, which happen to be here. Note that it is not a bad thing to not be a blogger; my first advice to would-be bloggers is invariably "don’t."
Nasty. I think blogs about life in Taiwan are important. I actually enjoy Michael’s posts and photos about his adventures in Taiwan more than I do politics, even though I do care for how things are in Taiwan. I believe that no forum discussion or travel site can give you a true feeling of what it’s like to live in Taiwan and the my-life Taiwan blogs fill in that gap. Expat life in Taiwan is, ofcourse, very different than life in any other country, so that life stories accompanied by thoughts and in-depth analysis of Taiwanese culture (like Suitcasing and David on Formosa) are not only fun to read, but are essential for understanding the local culture.
It’s always hardest to see what’s not there, and what’s not present in Taiwan’s English blogosphere are businessmen and academic experts, to name only a few. Nobody blogs on history or art or music or literature with any regularity. Nobody blogs on law or business. No credentialed academic experts blog on Taiwan, with the exception of Mark Harrison. Only one local foreign journalist blogs, but only tangentially on Taiwan. The "Taiwan" English blogosphere is not a very well-rounded one.
Indeed. That is too bad. In the somewhat controversial "English Taiwan : The websphere, the blogosphere, traffic, SEO and the need for a profound change" I indicated that I think things can be a bit better, even with the existing blogs and topics. I would love to help Taiwan’s top bloggers, like Michael (blogspot) and Scott (typepad) get a wider audience with a decent blogging platform.
Scott, who attended the conference, comments :
The most serious issue that Michael and I talked about was the integration of top foreign bloggers with the local blogging community. Blogging is widespread among foreign residents of many Asian countries. [...]
it is my impression there is no concern about integrating with the local blogging community. Integration with local bloggers is one of the main issues that Michael and I deal with. On Saturday, we discussed this as a main difference between Taiwan foreigner blogs and those in other countries. In retrospect, it appears to me that this is one of the main issues of the blogs run by Michael and me, rather than Taiwan foreign bloggers in general. The lack of general sentiment for this feeling in the larger blogging community may be the reason why we have had so much trouble achieving this goal.
David on Formosa comments on the presentation hoping to bridge between the Taiwanese and Expat blogospheres. He writes :
My own efforts at forging links between the English-language and Chinese-language blogospheres have been limited, but I still consider it important. [...]
Interpolating from my site statistics, comments and e-mails I receive I know that Taiwanese people living in Taiwan make up a significant percentage of my blog’s readership. I also know some other readers have at least some degree of Chinese-language reading skills.
This is a difficult task, and I do hope their efforts will be successful.
Related Posts
- Taiwan’s representation in the world’s most prolific bloggers list
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- Introducing a Taiwan Blog Directory on a Google Map
- Best Taiwan blog awards – Voting now open on Taiwanderful
- Michael Turton discusses Taiwan blogging and social activism with Taiwanese NCKU students
Michael Turton
| April 23rd, 2007 at 12:58 am #
“Don’t” refers to this, man: for most people blogging takes up time that could be spent more productively. The net is a big timestealer, taking your time and giving you back very little. I have two close friends who always tease me: so how much did you make from that last blogpost, michael?
Michael
fiLi
| April 23rd, 2007 at 9:48 am #
Heh
I do understand.
There is a lot that you can “make” indirectly, and giving a lecture about English Taiwan blogs shows some of that. Throughout the years, you have established your blog as being the number one source in English about Taiwan, and although to some it seems like a waste of time - I think that’s incredible, and goes above any other reward that you may receive.
With that said, I do think that you can also earn money for your efforts, should you wish it. Many bloggers like yourself that devote so much time and effort to promote topics they care about also earn money from blogging or running a comprehensive guide. Some put ads, some publish books, some give lectures about their topic, some sponsor events… Not only that I don’t think it’s shameful, I think it’s absolutely necessary to allow you to feel good about what you’re doing and not feel bad about the time spent.
Mark
| April 23rd, 2007 at 11:07 am #
I certainly don’t consider my blog essential for understanding the culture. It’s pretty much just as Michael said. It’s mostly about my experiences, and Taiwan is just a part of that. I’m sure I don’t have anything to contribute to local politics or anything like that. I’m hoping to get some things up that help foreigners new to Taiwan, but at this point I can only claim that about one post out of 50 actually does that.
I think the way to connect with Chinese-language bloggers is pretty similar as the way to connect with English-language bloggers. Read their blogs, comment on them, and link to them if you like them.
Mark
| April 23rd, 2007 at 12:00 pm #
BTW, I just noticed that you made the links to Daniel’s and my “essential” blogs rel=”nofollow” links (which means they don’t give any credit), but that your links to David, Michael and Scott are all normal.
Is this a coincidence? It seems really odd to say nice things on one hand and then go out of your way to make sure you don’t give any credit to the blogs on the other. I know you’re way into all this SEO stuff than I am, and that you weren’t too happy about my post in which I said I didn’t like SEO, but still…
fiLi
| April 23rd, 2007 at 12:13 pm #
Geeezz… okay, fine. Fixed.
fiLi
| April 23rd, 2007 at 12:23 pm #
?!
I honestly don’t understand what you want from me. I apologize for recommending you in my post, it won’t happen again.
Mark
| April 23rd, 2007 at 1:04 pm #
No, no. I meant the fact that you made Daniels and mine rel=nofollow, but made the other links normal. I seemed really weird. Was it unintentional? If so, I apologize for the comment.
Mark
| April 23rd, 2007 at 1:06 pm #
Now, I see you’ve edited the post and made Daniel’s link a normal one, while removing mine entirely. What’s up?
Mark
| April 23rd, 2007 at 1:09 pm #
What do you mean? What’s the geez for? What’s fixed? Are you blogging in Chinese now?
Mark
| April 23rd, 2007 at 2:16 pm #
This threaded comments plugin is neat.
Michael Turton
| April 24th, 2007 at 9:03 am #
I agree. It’s way cool.
fiLi, your post stimulated a lot of thinking on my part. Thanks…
Michael
路人甲 --- Passerby #A
| April 24th, 2007 at 6:36 pm #
I’m just a passerby who just happened to bump onto these rediculous posts.
What’s up?
It means … YOU”RE REMOVED FROM THE RECOMMENDED LISTS is what’s up. You can’t read posts written in English or you simply refused to accept the truth that:
You’re REMOVED! zilch, zip, nada, 沒有﹐冇﹐niente, nichts, nothing, nil …
MJ Klein
| January 5th, 2008 at 1:06 pm #
“it is my impression there is no concern about integrating with the local blogging community. Integration with local bloggers is one of the main issues that Michael and I deal with.” “The lack of general sentiment for this feeling in the larger blogging community may be the reason why we have had so much trouble achieving this goal.”
Scott, what are you talking about? what do you have to “deal with” concerning the blogging community? what the heck is this “integration” anyway? how are we supposed to be integrated? to what purpose? i found these comments disturbing. it’s as if you’re suggesting that all of us line up and get with your program. perhaps this “lack of general sentiment” is because no one gets it. please clarify.
one reason that i quit all kinds of clubs and associations back in the early 1990s is that there is always someone who comes along and wants to control others. you can’t form any kind of club without attracting those types. sooner or later someone will attain the office of club President and start trying to tell others what to do - and then the point of the club is lost. this is beginning to sound like one of those situations.
nevertheless, one way to begin might be to make sure that people know what’s going on. if i had a dollar for every time i found out about an event after it happened…. my blog has an “Events” page. i attempt to tell people about things before they happen, instead of them reading a nice article with pretty photographs of something they could have attended, but missed because they didn’t know about it.
if i could get one wish, it would be that people stop using the term “blogging” to refer to politicking. if some people want to form political unions or whatever, they are free to do so. having a website on a blogging platform doesn’t require one to get involved in politics, saving the world, or current trends, does it?
“Nobody blogs on history or art or music or literature with any regularity. Nobody blogs on law or business.”
Scott, do you write for other bloggers, or do you write with the general public in mind? with the exception of Guide to Overseas Outsourcing (which i keep totally separate), i blog on what i do and what i like, and i don’t write with other bloggers in mind as the target audience. i make no apologizes for that. here’s what it comes down to: i’ve been a professional entertainer my entire life. my blog is entertainment. blogging for me is nothing different that my national talk radio show, or recording a new album. it’s a set of creative works that i broadcast to the public in a medium that happens to have international access.
so my question is this: why does it bother you that blogs are largely entertainment? after all that is what the blog was created for.
i’ve heard this kind of whine long enough. i suggest that you come up with some plan, organization, union, whatever, with the purposes and goals and purposes clearly outlined so that the “socially conscience” among us can join it and feel better about themselves. in the meantime, the blog reading community will go on doing what they do - reading the blogs that they enjoy.
MJ Klein’s last blog post..Stories From My Past: The Trick
MJ Klein
| January 5th, 2008 at 1:14 pm #
btw, i feel as if someone were talking about me behind my back.
1. a “conference” about English bloggers to an audience of non-English speakers, given in Chinese.
2. the event was largely un-announced.
3. only 3 English bloggers were present.
4. those bloggers chose to complain to the Taiwanese audience that the English blogging community doesn’t apparently meet up to their expectations (as opposed to simply informing the audience about the English blogosphere as it is).
anyone else feel like deleting their totally useless waste of server space they call a blog after reading this?
MJ Klein’s last blog post..Stories From My Past: The Trick