Social Media Cafe in Manchester

The very first Social Media Cafe is opening its doors in Manchester tomorrow, 11th November, 2008, at 6 pm, at The Northern in 56 Tib St. It is curious in a way to see this happening, the backdrop being the much-discussed issue of whether or not blogging has died. Since 2006, Manchester bloggers have been meeting in many places across the city, and in 2007 the meet-ups were particularly powered by the BBC Manchester Blog. With its demise in spring 2008, nothing has been happening until August when I found a video on YouTube of one of the first ever blogmeets (I wasn’t even writing any blogs then yet), and boy, did I feel nostalgic! I posted about the video on my main blog, and out of a sudden a huge interest originated. So huge in fact that I saw myself co-organising the blogmeet with Sarah Hartley of the M.E.N. All of us who went there got a tour of the newsroom and a nice chat in the pub afterwards, but ideas were thrown around, particularly that of the Social Media Cafe, and having a panel of speakers.

Well, the great news is that both these ideas have now been given the green light, and I’m looking forward to The Blogging Is Dead debate. On the surface it does look like that blogging is dead, and the bloggers’ meetings are to be changed by a Social Media Cafe. Symptomatic, you may say. Not quite so, in my opinion, if only because the original “blogging is dead” article and the subsequent reactions have all appeared in blogs. What we see instead is how communication is being reinstated, and the status it is being given. A couple of years ago the talk of the town was the “communities”: how they grow, who belongs there, how to be a part or to be expelled, etc. Now the talk has shifted to “networking” and “following”. The most amazing thing is that all this is happening in real time, you can’t stop and think: should I or should I not? It does to an extent look like either being with, or out. And because you tweet quicker than you can blog, the feeling, naturally, is that of the end of the world (of blogging).

My view – regarding the “blogging is dead” statement – is very simple. Blogging as a platform has much evolved, and will continue so. Blogging as a medium has also evolved, and the word “microblogging”, in the end, does owe a part of itself to “blogging”. Indeed, there are more people who want to blog, not least because there are people who profess the beauty of blogging (and I am one of them, undoubtedly). So, what is dying then? The purpose, surely. And here is the rub, and it is actually printed on the front page of WordPress.com: you are urged to start a blog “to express yourself”. This is true even for a business blog, for in the end a business that ventures into blogging is expressing something, be it their policy, product, or expertise. Well, what happens if someone expresses their “self” better than you? Or if the whole process of “self-expression” is too much of a labour? The beginning of a blog may be a technical question, but the blog’s sustainability rests entirely in one’s personal resources. And by that I don’t mean money or even the time you have to spare on your blogging efforts. What you know, what you remember, and how you use this, are the cornerstones of a successful blogging venture. Or, indeed, almost any venture, which is why I like quoting George Orwell’s four reasons for writing: they are totally applicable to blogging. As far as Notebooks – Los Cuadernos de Julia goes, there are over 300 posts, lots of great projects highlighted and covered, and if you follow down the sidebar you’ll find the categories of the blog. It is clear even to me that there is too much to write about yet.

More to follow after the debate.