The Swedish blogosphere is insulated by language, as most of its constituents blog in Swedish. That’s how it goes in most European countries, large and small, and the upshot is that for Europe’s blog-fueled social networks, the transmission of ideas between them takes more effort than in a monoglot US.<\/p>\n
What to do? You compensate. You bring in Europe’s big-picture guys and get them to give you a dose of perspective, a sense of the larger front that Swedish bloggers are part of. You compare notes (How do French papers use blogs? Do Swedish CEOs blog?), and call out the similarities and differences. Each European linguistic zone’s blogosphere is a microclimate, and hence a de facto testbed for ideas. Having a continent full of mini-Darwinian social networking laboratories can be a source of strength, though it is then up to the likes of Ben<\/a>, Jyri<\/a>, Lo\u2018c<\/a> (and Moz<\/a> further afield with Asia) to crosspollinate. And I think there are some Swedish bloggers who’d be very adept at taking on a similar role.<\/p>\n That’s what I saw happen at Bloggforum 3<\/a>. But something similar happened at a personal level. Swedish bloggers weren’t just getting to know the social technologists through their presentations — Jyri, Moz, Lo\u2018c and Ben in turn faced an audience of representative blogging Swedes, mingled with them during the breaks, and made their own impressions. Several volunteered that they were impressed with the quality of the debate that ended their talks. Crosspollination is a two-way process — Bloggforum 3, in its own small way, signals to the rest of Europe that in Sweden here be bloggers<\/em>.<\/p>\n Thanks to everyone for attending, and to everyone who participated on panel discussions or made a presentation, and thanks also to Erik<\/a> and Rebecca<\/a> for being such seamless organizational partners. The whole thing was a blast, and worth every minute of preparation.<\/p>\n Now, what do you want for Bloggforum 4?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Swedish blogosphere is insulated by language, as most of its constituents blog in Swedish. That’s how it goes in most European countries, large and small, and the upshot is that for Europe’s blog-fueled social networks, the transmission of ideas … Continue reading