CONEIXEMENT I SOCIETAT 10 ARTICLES
THE CATALAN BLOGOSPHERE
Mercè Molist*
The most recent phenomenon to emerge and become popular on the Internet is blogging. This is clearly shown by the figures, according to which the number of blogs in the world doubles every five months. The Catalan lan- guage community is no exception to this development and, in the short space of time since 1999, blogs in Catalan have sprung up on the most diverse subjects by a wide range of authors from totally unknown individuals to poli- ticians and well-known singers and writers. This revolution has been made possible due to the appearance of free services for storing and creating blogs, which make it very easy for anyone without any technical know-how to keep a blog, and also the Catapings and Bitàcoles.net directories, which one can use to find blogs in Catalan. These services form the backbone of the Catalan blogosphere, or “catosphere”, as some like to refer to it, which is based mostly on voluntary work, i.e. nobody makes any money out of it and everything is done out of vocation. Although it does not exert the important social and political influence that blogging has achieved in the United States, the catosphere is becoming increasingly important because of the fundamental need in Catalonia for mass media in the Catalan language.
Abstract
1. Introduction 2. Weblog or dip…? 3. “Look what I’ve found” 4. A short history of the Catalan blogosphere 5. Services for Catalan blogs 6. So who are the bloggers? 7. The catosphere 8. One way to conclude
* Mercè Molist is a journalist and writer.
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1. Introduction 2. Weblog or dip…?
There are more than fourteen million people in Just from these figures one can see that a large- the world with a blog on the Internet, which is scale explosion is taking place, which is difficult to twice the population of Catalonia, and 80,000 quantify down to the millimetre and also difficult new ones are opened every day around the pla- to explain because, to start with, there is little net.1 This is according to the statistics although agreement on what a blog is. In Catalonia, more- one cannot always believe statistics that appear over, there is the added difficulty of what to call a on the Internet as it is always changing and the- blog: the English term weblog (or web log) was re are areas that never come to light. Other until recently translated into Catalan by the data, gathered by the blog monitoring service TERMCAT3 as diari interactiu personal (personal Technorati, point to at least twenty million blogs. interactive diary), which led to the “dip” acronym Choose the figure you most like. that was heavily criticised because it was too far removed from the original word in English and did Nevertheless, these figures will no longer be va- not exactly correspond with the definition of we- lid when you read this and there will be many blog. The TERMCAT finally rectified in October more blogs in the world. According to one of the 2005 and decided on a new translation, that of most recent studies on the subject carried out bloc4 as the name for the medium, and blocaire by the Technorati team and published on Sifry’s for the person who comments or asks questions Alerts,2 the total number of blogs has doubled on blogs, i.e. the blogger or weblogger. This deci- every five months over the last three years. This sion also started a controversy as some people means that in three years the blogosphere has considered that it was wrong to compare a note- undergone a thirty-fold increase and, with a mi- pad (bloc in Catalan) with a weblog and so, out of nimum of 70,000 new blogs every day, one new habit, they continued to use the terms weblog, blog appears every second. More dazzling data: blog and also bitàcola.5 All of these terms, in addi- between 700,000 and 1.3 million articles are tion to “bloc”, are used indiscriminately today. written and published on blogs in the world every day, representing 33,000 articles per hour Now that we know more or less what term is used, or 9.2 per second. we need to agree what we are talking about. The
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TERMCAT gives the definition of “bloc” as being “a In five years, the universe of blogs has experienced a webpage, which is generally of a personal and non- kind of Big Bang that has led to the growth of all institutional nature, with a chronological structure kinds of services that orbit around it, for example, that is regularly updated and which gives informa- websites offering free space and tools that are very tion or opinions on different subjects.” easy to use to set up one’s own blog, others that in- form you every time a blog that you are interested in Following the appearance of this new form of publica- has been updated, and blog search engines such as tion on the Internet in the late nineties, there has been Technorati and Google’s Blog Search, which just ap- an ongoing discussion as to what a blog is and isn’t. peared relatively recently. Awards for the best blogs The short and sweet of a blog is that it is a website are regularly organised around the world, corporate where one or various persons regularly publish links interests are beginning to set up businesses aimed to other Internet sites, comment news or talk about at them, and even new social phenomena have ap- their lives. Every new individual article or entry is peared, such as people being fired from work for ha- known as a post. Posts appear in reverse chronologi- ving made inappropriate comments on their blogs. cal order, with the latest at the top and older ones lo- As compensation, organisations such as the Elec- wer down. Most blogs let readers make comments, tronic Frontier Foundation6 and Reporters Without which sometimes generate discussions that are Borders7 post manuals and guidebooks for people more interesting than the post that generated them. who want to keep a blog anonymously without any political or work-related reprisals.
A blog is a website where one or various One of the more appropriate definitions of a blog is 8 persons regularly publish links to other In- that given by Technorati: “A weblog, or blog, is a personal journal on the web. Weblogs express as ternet sites, comment news or talk about many different subjects and opinions as there are their lives. people writing them. Some blogs are highly in- fluential and have enormous readership while others are primarily intended for a close circle of fa- The basic structure of a blog consists of a central co- mily and friends. The power of weblogs is that they lumn, where articles are published (posted), and dif- allow millions of people to easily publish their ide- ferent sections where there is no end of articles that as, and millions more to comment on them. Blogs have been posted and a list of other blogs that the are a fluid, dynamic medium, more akin to a 'con- blogger considers to be of interest and recommends versation' than to a library – which is how the Web to his or her readers. Some blogs only give links, has often been described in the past. With an in- others only contain text, and blog content can vary creasing number of people reading, writing, and from comic strips to photographs (photoblogs) or au- commenting on blogs, the way we use the Web is dio sound files (podcasts). Some post everything and shifting in a fundamental way. Instead of being anything. passive consumers of information, more and more
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Internet users are becoming active participants. Enric Gil gives another definition in his study, “Blo- Weblogs let everyone have a voice.” gosfera: les bitàcoles i l’audiència” (“Blogosphere: blogs and the blog audience”), the first research to Wikipedia, the English language encyclopaedia, gi- be carried out in Catalonia on the subject: “The term ves a very extensive definition9 of a blog, which is is currently used to designate what are mainly per- summarised very well in its sister encyclopaedia the sonal websites that offer a series of chronologically Viquipèdia (in Catalan, pron. Vickipaedia):10 “A we- organised contents, an essential aspect when it co- blog (also known as blog, web log, bloc, dip or bità- mes to describing what it is, in that the organisation cola) is a personal writing space on the Internet. It of the contents according to the moment in time can be defined as an online diary, a website that a that they were written is what turns a website into a person periodically uses to write. A weblog is blog. [...] Time in an essential element in the blog, gi- designed so that, as in a diary, each entry has a date ven that one is reminded of it everywhere: the hour of publication so that the person who is writing and and/or date a post was sent, a monthly calendar those who are reading can follow the chain of every- showing the days when contributions have been thing that has been posted and edited. They can be made, the display of permanent links by days (per- classified according to different types, the most po- malinks), the date and time of comments, files in pular being where an adolescent explains the de- chronological order, etc. This involvement with time, tails of his/her life. Diaries used to be kept under the inherited from its original role as a listing, defines a bed, now they are posted on the Internet. Another new dimension for online publication that has points type of weblog that has much more impact is where in common with journalism.”11 experts talk on a particular subject. Many people use their weblogs to transmit their expert knowled- Gil explains that there are basically two types of blog, ge, thereby benefiting the entire community and in both of which have evolved as a result of develop- addition becoming well known. Political weblogs, ments in blogging: “Branum’s distinction between from candidates in electoral campaigns to people what he calls filter-style and free-style is very revea- who use their blogs to explain why their vote a cer- ling.12 In the first type, which is older, the emphasis is tain way, are also very popular. It is very common to on links to different websites (which offer postings see very heated discussions between different web- and other contents and resources of interest) that logs or weblog groups, thereby facilitating the invol- have been filtered by the author who acts as an inter- vement of citizens in the public democratic debate. preter of the global network from his/her locality: this Professional weblogs are also very important. There is a kind of pre-navigation that offers a selection of are groups of professionals who coordinate preferable websites to visit [...]. Free-style, on the amongst themselves and explain their projects in other hand, is based less on the outside world and their blogs, particularly to do with free software pro- more on the author’s inner world, with different types jects. Mention must also be made of weblogs that from the regular diary to less intimate ones that give just give information as in a regular diary.” daily assessments of what goes on in the world.”
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3. “Look what I’ve found” people in the US like Justin Hall who was beginning to experiment with the idea of the blog before it had The first weblogs were in fact chronological lists of been named as such.15 Another founder, Dave Winer, website links with a few added comments by the began a blog in 1996, which after a couple of name author. The essence of a weblog, a term invented in changes turned into the legendary Scripting News.16 1997 by Jorn Barger as a name for one of his websi- Other historic blogs that already existed at that time te pages, The Robot Wisdom Pages, that offered were Robot Wisdom Weblog and CamWorld. One of links of interest and was constantly updated,13 was Winer’s most important contributions was to equip a the expression “Look what I’ve found”, a way of filte- server so that every time a blog was updated a notifi- ring the enormous number of contents that was be- cation or alert was sent; in this way, all one had to do ginning to fill the Web. In 1999, Peter Merholz popu- was to monitor the server’s website to know when larised the abbreviated version, blog, by turning the there was any developments on the blogs. This struc- word “weblog” into the phrase “we blog”.14 The mo- ture is still used today by services like Bitàcoles.net vement began to spread rapidly at that time in the and Catapings. USA whereas in Catalonia it only was just beginning. Only the initiated few in Catalonia knew what a blog was in 1999. In the United States, however, an unres- trained explosion was beginning to take place, heigh- The most direct forerunner of the blog was tened by the appearance of services like Blogger17, the “What’s new” section that used to appe- which offered free space to Net users to post their own blogs easily and automatically just by creating an ar on the first Internet websites, where they account, selecting an appearance and name for a would explain, in chronological order, new blog, writing a post and clicking on “send”. It would developments on the Web or technical in- appear automatically as being posted. This not only meant that publishing via blogging had became de- formation (effectively “tech blogs”) for the mocratised and that many people could gain access teams that were running them. to it but that it also led to a change in the style of blog- ging from blogs that posted links to the kind of blog where the author would explain and deliberate on his/her life, it being much easier to write about what The most direct forerunner of the blog was the “Wha- happened on the week-end than to search for inte- t’s new” section that used to appear on the first Inter- resting links to serve as content. net websites, where they would explain, in chronolo- gical order, new developments on the Web or By 2001, blogs in the United States were growing not technical information (effectively “tech blogs”) for the just in number but also in influence. Blogs specialising teams that were running them. In 1994, there were in politics began to appear, some of them creating
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great controversies that reached the media and even emerged as a sphere of cultural activity and as an en- Congress. There is a comment on Wikipedia about tity in itself [...]. What stands out is the willingness to this: “One of the most significant events was the sud- share, a fact that implies interactivity, the possibility den emergence of an interest in the Iraq war, which of contributing and the need to know the opinion of saw both left-wing and right-wing bloggers taking others. It is a community convinced of the universa- measured and passionate points of view that did not lity of knowledge [...] which calls for the diversity of reflect the traditional left-right divide. The blogs which sources of information [...]. Bloggers live in a high- gathered news on Iraq, both left and right, exploded speed culture, immersed in a system dominated by in popularity, and Forbes magazine covered the phe- the economy of attention. There is a certain merito- nomenon. The use of blogs by established politicians cratic character in the ethics that they share together and political candidates –particularly Howard Dean with hackers, which is apparent in the marked need and Wesley Clark– to express opinions on the war for recognition of what they do. They are often mem- and other issues of the day, cemented their role as a bers of different communities of super users [...] and, news source. […] The Iraq war was the first "blog what is most important, they share a code, a way of war" in another way: bloggers in Baghdad gained wi- writing blogs, which is different to literary and journa- der readership, and one (Salam Pax) published a listic styles and marked by hypertext and the imme- book of his blog. Blogs also arose amongst soldiers diacy of the format.” serving in the Iraq war.” There are many similarities between the blogger and By 2004, all kinds of American politicians had their the journalist and this has led, for some years now, to own blog. Certain news media nowadays publish impassioned discussions where some declare that special sections where they follow what is said on blogging is the only possible form for mass media on the most important blogs, and well-known bloggers the Internet and that traditional means need to be often appear on radio and TV programmes. The De- recycled, while others affirm that there is room for mocrat and Republican conventions of 2004 allo- everybody and they criticise the blog for lacking cre- wed entry to bloggers with credentials similar to tho- dibility. A prevailing trend these days is open code se of journalists. In January 2005, the well-known journalism in blogs, where something not unlike the journal Fortune named eight bloggers who the cor- difference between proprietary software program- porate world “cannot afford to ignore.” mes, with closed code and where one pays for a li- cence, and free software programmes that are open Blogging has been created by people who, despite code and often cost free, takes place. being physically separated geographically, are con- nected mentally or spiritually. The word “blogosphe- Víctor Abellón has written an interesting essay19 on re” emerged from the word blog, meaning the totality blogs as a mass media, where he states that they re- of blogs and the culture and social network that they semble a never-ending conversation more than a create. Antonio Fumero, a blogosphere researcher, diary: “What blog readers value most highly, aside says in the article “¿Existe una blogocultura?”(Does from the author’s talent, is that blogs deal with sub- a blogosphere exist?):18 “The blogosphere has jects that do not appear in the traditional media, they
18. FUMERO, 2005. 19. ABELLÓN, 2005.
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offer a more complete point of view, and faster. [...] cross of blog lines index and comment on each According to one study, 61% of all blog readers de- other. Blog readers prefer personal diary-type clare that they read them because they think the au- blogs, which are the most common, followed by thors have a high level of integrity. [...] While it is true tech blogs (that focus on a technical subject). that the instantaneousness of the blogosphere redu- ces the life of information to nanoseconds, the conti- nuous mincing of blogs can keep a subject alive and 4. A short history of the Catalan blo- current much longer than in conventional journalism. gosphere [...] The most important cultural influence of blogs has been to break the barrier traditionally separating The history of the Catalan blogosphere is obscure the consumers from the producers of information. and full of gaps. The first blogs, or at least the first The readers are also a kind of editorial staff where ones to be noticed, were group tech blogs. A group ideas get absorbed, remixed and republished.” blog is where anyone can post messages, which are then selected by a team of moderators. The bi- The characteristics of the Catalan blogosphere coin- lingual blog Bulma (Bergantells Usuaris de GNU/Li- cide to a great degree with this description. Very few nux de Mallorca i Afegitons) appeared in 199822: a studies have been done on the Catalan blogging blog on technical subjects, in just one year it grew by community and there are even fewer statistics. Ne- 3,000% and is currently the most popular tech blog vertheless, the profile of Catalan bloggers is not so in Catalonia, with 25,000 hits (visits) daily. Then different to that of Spanish bloggers, who have also come the blogs of the Catalan Java Users Associa- been studied very little. On the initiative of several tion23, Cat-linux24, and the GNU/Linux Association at Spanish bloggers, two very defining surveys have the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya,25 which been carried out in recent years20, 21 that can be were set up in 2000, and the Caliu (Catalan GNU/Li- adapted to the blogging scene in Catalonia. nux Users)26 and PuntBarra27 blogs, set up in 2002. Another blog specialising in technical subjects, al- These data show that the majority of bloggers are though in this case the work of a sole author, is Ei- male, with less than one third being females. The nes!28, set up in 2002. All of these are still running. typical age of a blogger is between twenty to twenty-six and they are often old hand Net users, In addition to the tech blogs, other group blogs on with five or more years of experience. More than half social and political issues appeared, like Racó cata- have only had a blog up and running for less than a là, which was started 1999. Personal blogs also be- year and the majority know other bloggers either gan to appear at this point. In 1999, the first known personally or online, a fact that leads to the network- personal blog in Catalan, El forat by Sergi Llorens, type character of the blogosphere, where a criss- made its appearance. Notes al marge, by Carles
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Miró, was started in 2001 and Les paraules i els dies, call that you could easily consult all of the blogs in by Teresa Amat, in 2002, both of which no longer the list. Now that there are so many, it’d be impossi- exist. Un poc de blog,29 by Andreu Coll from Ibiza, ble. Neglect in the running of the portal led to the ap- S’illot,30 by Pere Marí (also from Ibiza), and Flop31, pearance, at the end of 2004, of Catapings, another started in 2002 and are still running. Laia Gargallo, index of blogs in Catalan that, in a way, created a se- author of the La Flaneuse blog, recalls, “Flop was the cond surge in the Catalan blogosphere, which was first blog that I discovered in Catalan. Through it, I saw much more powerful in that the number of blogs there were more in Catalan. Up until that time, I had was much greater. Catapings is now trailing some- only found them in Spanish. Blogs written in Catalan what, in the same way that Bitàcoles did before.” didn’t appear in Spanish weblog directories.” And he adds: “I wouldn’t dare to hazard a guess at Sergi Llorens explains: “I remember when there just the number of blogs in Catalan that there are today, four or five of us with websites with the format of what there are countless, although I’m sure that there are is today known as the weblog, and we all knew each not as many as sometimes people claim. Many other. Then one day, a couple of personal websites blogs are abandoned, that’s normal because it’s as appeared that were more elaborate, that received easy to start a blog as it is to close one. That’s no big many more hits, and from then on weblogs began to deal, although maybe it will take a bit longer for the mushroom. They were all in Spanish, OK, and only definitive leap to occur, it seems to be unstoppable.” people with the know-how could do them because No one can really say how many active blogs there there weren’t all of the facilities that have appeared in are in Catalan. The only guideline is the blogs that recent years. The first weblog that I remember in Ca- alert (and go ‘ping’) Catapings and Bitàcoles.net talan was Gumets; there was also the blog that Albert every time they are updated, which means they are set up before Diària,32 Realitats i miratges,33 and a still active. Catapings currently receives update couple more that no longer exist.” alerts from around 2,400 blogs in Catalan at the pre- sent time, although there are possibly many more The take-off of Catalan blogs began in 2003, when that do not send alerts and are active just the same. the majority of services in Catalan for blog storage It is not compulsory to figure on the blog directories and directories were started, and it was in 2004 to have a blog, and less so if one wants to blog in se- when the explosion took place. Jordi Torà, from Gu- cret or discretely. mets, explains: “The Bitàcoles.net blog, which ap- peared in 2003, gave great impetus to the pheno- menon. Not just in terms of the indexing of blogs 5. Services for blogs in Catalan exclusively in Catalan for the first time but for the fact that it made their existence known. It was an index The Catalan blogosphere is small and simple com- that led to the recognition for the first time of the po- pared to the seething English language blogos- tential of blogging in Catalan. In the beginning, I re- phere but it does have sufficient elements that en-
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able it to develop without any problem. There are make a statistical count. Another big problem, ac- two blog directories, Bitàcoles.net34 and Cata- cording to Dani Prados, are junk blogs that just con- pings.35 “Bitàcoles.net was set up in May 2003 at a tain advertising: “The way it works is that, when a time when there was no more than a hundred blog gets updated, we receive a notification alert. blogs in Catalan. At that time, you’d get ten or Some people take advantage of this mechanism, twelve update alerts in a day, now you get more their blogs needn’t be in Catalan nor have anything than a hundred”, explains Dani Prados. Bitàco- to do with the subject, to send us alerts saying they les.net was the first service of this type for the Ca- are just advertising, as a way of appearing in our di- talan blogosphere: “We saw there were similar ser- rectory. This leads to a deterioration in the contents vices in other languages but not in Catalan and we and can even cause the server to crash.” thought this needed to be remedied. The Comuni- catek.com company let us use their infrastructure According to the latest data from Sifry’s Alerts, bet- and two of the partners of Comunicatek worked on ween 2 and 8% of new blogs created in the world it, although from then on we’ve had a group of pe- are junk blogs, which are created just for advertising ople collaborating in the maintenance.” Last No- purposes so they mix with authentic blogs in the big vember, Bitàcoles.net received the first prize in the directories. Some of the creators of these false Forum E-Tech’s “Excellence in language proces- blogs add the names of well-known bloggers so sing in Catalan” category. that, when someone makes a search on the Internet with the name of these bloggers, the ad blog appe- ars. Deceptive marketing practices affect not only the blog directories but also bloggers who allow According to the latest data from Sifry’s comments to be posted on their blogs: it is not at all Alerts, between 2 and 8% of new blogs crea- surprising for there to be specialised robots posting ted in the world are junk blogs, which are cre- ads that have nothing to do with the blog or the arti- cle that is being commented. ated just for advertising purposes so they mix with authentic blogs in the big directories. All of this forms part of the day-to-day adventures of the blogosphere, in which the Catalan community participates in a fully empowered way and where, Dani Prados comments, “there is a very important Dani Prados recognises that, while there must be number of personal blogs that are difficult to classify thousands of blogs in Catalan, it is probable that the according to subject matter, together with a lack of majority are either inactive or used very little. This is specialised blogs. There also hasn’t been very one of the big problems with blogs: they are easy to much business practice going on around all of this, start but maintaining them is more complicated be- maybe because of the lack of a critical mass of cause it requires a lot of willpower and one also ne- users. What there is, however, and it’s the number eds to have things to explain. The high rate at which one virtue of the catosphere, is the involvement of they are abandoned therefore makes it difficult to the majority of bloggers.”
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This involvement is clearly seen in another of the ser- ce maintained on his own by Jordi Salvadó, who vices that have emerged in recent years and continue explains: “I covered all of the expenses myself up to grow, the offer of blog storage and easy tools to until the beginning of 2005 but now it’s impossible. create and update blogs, where, as in the case of the With the high number of visits it was necessary to majority of these services, there is no economic inte- contract a specialised server and it’s expensive. rest, i.e. they are free. The most popular ones in Cata- We’re looking for some kind of advertising or may- lan are Blocat.com, Cibernautes, Blocs de Balear- be way to offer paying services.” Most of the blogs web, Lacomunitat.net and Blocs de MésVilaweb. at Lamevaweb.info, and the rest of the blogosphe- The last one is the only paying one that exists. re as well, are on personal subjects, and he adds that they are “a mix of current affairs with each indi- Cibernautes.com36 is one of the longest running sto- vidual’s personal experiences. It’s a reflection of rage services. It was officially launched on 19 Au- what society is thinking about, especially the ones gust 2003 by Marc Ordinas, who currently does the on politics, music, film, humour, curiosities, and maintenance on his own, with the help of the desig- philosophy.” Salvadó particularly mentions Mis- ners Simon Lepp and Albert Alomar. According to satge rebut,40 Mek,41 Gotes d’Isnel,42 Quaderns,43 Ordinas: “The matter of financing is very simple: I TagoMago,44 El diari vermell,45 El declivi de pay for everything and that way I don’t owe anybody Niqmad46 and L’encant de les coses petites.47 anything. I set up Cibernautes because there was no tool available to make blogs in Catalan in those Jordi Salvadó is content that he has never had to days. Today we get between ten and twenty thou- censor the content of any blog except for those that sand hits every month and have created 532 blogs, he has erased because they had been created and although only a very small percentage continues to left with no content: “In our entire history we’ve only be updated.” The most visited blog at Cibernautes had one complaint warning us to close a blog, the is Dídac López’s,37 one of the few on in science in contents of which, they claimed, were illegal; after Catalan. Marc Ordinas reproaches the Catalan blo- checking it, however, it just turned out to be one of tho- gosphere for not using “standard tools so that it se typical political discussions.” The attitude of some would be easier to share resources and contents.” users is saddening on the other hand: “People aren’t very appreciative of the work you do for them. Espe- Blocat.com38 first appeared in August 2003 with cially with the demands that people make regarding the name Lamevaweb.info.39 Today it has 2,769 re- things that are taken for granted which in reality invol- gistered blogs, of which 500 are active, and ve a high level of commitment and/or cost, such as 50,000 hits per month. Lamevaweb.info is a servi- perpetual continuity of the service, user support and
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that it always runs perfectly. People don’t take into blogs by politicians like Cecili Buele,56 Toni Roig57 and account that everything is done altruistically.” As far Antoni Reus.58 This service has also had the occasio- as the Catalan blogosphere is concerned, there is a nal problem due to comments posted on blogs, ac- lack of “a common nexus for finding blogs, where all cording to Elena Vera, the manager: “One or two existing blogs are categorised”. users have received formal complaints to do with libel, which were resolved amicably.” This is an issue that Lacomunitat.net48 is another long established sto- reoccurs in the blogging world: the freedom to explain rage service. It was started on 11 September 2003 whatever one wants to sometimes clashes with other by Volom, a designer, and Karleskop, a program- people’s sensitivity. This is why there is increasing talk mer: “Our idea was for everybody to have some- of the need for ethics59 when writing a blog. where where they could say whatever they wanted to, with no restrictions and very little technical know-how, and above all the freedom to do it in 6. So who are the bloggers? Catalan. There are 985 blogs registered with us al- though many of them, around 80%, are created for Although the number of blogs in Catalan is not an fun and are then forgotten about. The majority are outstanding fact in the global blogosphere, their personal and a few are political. As the hardware quality certainly is. A review of the different blogs in where the blogs are stored, which we pay for our- Catalan confirms the saying that Catalonia is a selves, is abroad, no-one’s ever threatened to cen- country of learning. Many personal blogs are really sor us for any blog content although we have re- literature blogs written by anonymous bloggers ceived anonymous threats.” Of the different blogs who explain their thoughts, concerns and things on Lacomunitat.net, particular mention is made of that happen from one day to the next in creative Blog de notes de Rigola.49 ways, and who are not shy when it comes to wri- ting poetry. Catalonia is also a country where there Bloc de Balearweb50 is a free service that appeared in have always been many artists: the percentage of 2004 specifically for the blogging community in the Catalan blogs that post comics and beautiful de- Balearic Islands and is open as well to all Catalan sign work is very high. bloggers. It currently houses 162 active blogs, inclu- ding Jutipiris,51 by the Minorcan authoress Esperança It is actually impossible to make a selection of the Camps, a blog by the geographer Climent Picornell,52 best blogs in Catalan. Anonymous individuals and the old hand blog Potti,53 El lector híbrid,54 by the wri- people who have become famous in the media ter Miquel Bezares, the anonymous Octubrina55 and share their lives and miracles in the catosphere,
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with examples that are of very high quality. The list Lletra 2005 Award, and Relats en català,84 which includes politicians like Miquel Iceta,60 Joan Puig won the same award in 2004. Cordon,61 the mayor of Argentona, Antoni Soy,62 the senator Miquel Bofill,63 the activist Enric Bo- Some blogs are quite curious, like La dona del rràs,64 the director of the Observatori per a la So- temps,85 which is kept up by some anonymous ad- cietat de la Informació, Llorenç Valverde,65 and po- mirers of the weather lady on TV3, Mònica López; litical informers such as Tumbuctú,66 Maresme one blog that specialises in trees, Amics arbres;86 El Confidencial67 and Eivissa Confidencial;68 musi- diari vermell,87 which is blatantly sexual; one that is cians like Quimi Portet;69 journalists such as Saül erotic, Nocturns,88 and one that offers links to cu- Gordillo;70 philosophers like Ramon Alcoberro71 rious websites, Zootoon.89 There are blogs where and Josep-Maria Terricabras;72 linguists like Ga- people describe their travels,90 others on films like briel Bibiloni,73 and an increasingly important SuntoryTime91 or culture in general such as Amb throng of writers, such as Xulio Ricardo Trigo, who compte.92 There are bloggers that get together in has two blogs,74, 75 Jesús Cardona,76 Biel Mesqui- communities such as Planeta Softcatalà,93 where da,77 Carles Bellver,78 David Figueres,79 Joan Josep the blogs of computer experts from all over the Isern80 and Josep Porcar;81 literary figures like Oriol country coexist. There are blogs that post comic Izquierdo,82 the El Llibreter blog,83 which won the strips such as Déu vos guard94 and El forat.95 There
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is even a blog in Catalan maintained from Alghero mat, the interesting conversations and debates.99 (Sardinia, Italy).96 The most interesting thing, however, was the fact in itself of the encounter as legitimisation of the The list is long and it does not include Catalan blog- phenomenon and the existence of a Catalan blo- gers who write in Spanish. Vilaweb made a selec- gosphere. tion of some of the best blogs in Catalan last sum- mer (2005).97 Another interesting list is the one on Antoni Ibàñez gives his opinion of the catosphere: literary blogs maintained by the Universitat Oberta “It’s a very open online community. Most of the old- de Catalunya (UOC, the Catalan Open University).98 hands all know each other. Certain divisions occur No list is exhaustive, however. The usual way to dis- sporadically but nothing serious. We sometimes cover new blogs is often, on the one hand, to visit get on each other’s nerves a bit and that can crea- the Bitàcoles.net and Catapings directories and, on te bad feelings, but there are affinities as well. Just the other, to look in the listings of recommended like in real society. In general, there are more things links posted on blogs. One blog leads to another that unite us than separate us. The fact of being a and to another, in a journey that is linear and beco- blogger is already a point of mutual recognition. As mes more nebulous. Enric Gil says in his article,100 we’re an online aristo- cracy, a very inbred Net user elite. We’re always lin- king up with each other and it’s logical to quote 7. La catosphere friends more than people you don’t know very much. What I like about the catosphere is the free- Catosfera is a term invented by Antoni Ibàñez, who dom that it radiates and the kind of healthy anarchy maintains the blog Tros de Quòniam. It could be that’s full of supportive individualism. Shared defined as a synonym of the Catalan blogosphere, knowledge, interactivity, creativity. We’re pioneers of all of the blogs written in Catalan and the online and aware of it.” community that has built up around blogs. Not everybody agrees with the term nor with the fact The artificers behind the Vaca.mu blog are also that there is just one catosphere developing uni- convinced that one can talk of the existence of a formly. They claim instead that there are different catosphere: it is an online community that is groups of bloggers, or capelletes (chapels), united “growing more and more, and we all get on well to- by the same interests, that every so often organise gether. What’s lacking is more specialised we- encounters. The most important took place in blogs, the majority being of a personal nature and June 2005 in Sant Cugat, organised by the Institu- with a very small public, and we lack the necessary ció de les Lletres Catalanes, with the collaboration feeling of a community to be able to change things. of Vilaweb. Writers and bloggers came together to This is why the boom of Catalan weblogs hasn’t re- discuss the human and spiritual aspects of writing ached its upper limit yet. It needs important perso- and blogging. Toni Sala transcribed, in blog for- nalities to create blogs and webloggers need to
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become more specialised, this would make the only united because of the fact that we post a blog. catosphere sturdy enough to make up for any There are many blogospheres and everybody has shortcomings in the more conventional press in to find his or her own one.” Catalan.” Jordi Torà, the founder of Gumets, is another who Xavier Borràs, author of the Bandera negra blog, does not believe in the catosphere as a harmonic also understands the term “catosphere” in this online community: “There’s just a few of us and we way, and he describes it as “an invisible network, a don’t necessarily get on, and the time when you spirit of community, of sharing and doing things for see the unity amongst bloggers is precisely when free, giving advice, dividing up that which bonds us there are quarrels. This is why group initiatives are together, and building in order for things to be sha- rare. If a catosphere exists, it’s very individualistic, red in common, all of which give the idea of a kind it doesn’t work as a community as such. I have a of solid and compact territory. This is particularly very good relationship with some bloggers, we visible in blogs in Catalan. To start off with, there meet up occasionally, we’ve done the occasional are many youngsters who, at the literary level, are project together, but it’s a relationship more like a showing the spirit and ability that many institution- group of friends than a wide community.” On the alised writers who are fond of literature would envy. other hand, he is firmly convinced of the importan- On the other hand, the libertarian spirit that is so ce of blogs in Catalan: “All of the new writers that typical of Catalonia has resulted in this unfolding there are can be likened to a fantastic quarry. OK, being disorganised and uncoordinated and, may- we’re light years away from the influence that be, its richness and diversity are like they are preci- American blogs have on society, but people tend sely because of this.” to find out about things more and more from the In- ternet. The time will come when we are consolida- Jaume Subirana, who maintains the blog Flux, ted: information that is even faster, and from a dif- stresses the point: “I believe in the online existence ferent viewpoint from the usual.” of the catosphere. There’s a certain spirit of com- munity, a weave of references, the superposition- ing of recommended links and a criss-cross of hits going on.” Benjamí Villoslada, who started Bitassa We’re light years away from the influence that a lloure, is not so sure, however: “Seen from the American blogs have on society, but people outside, I see competence in the number of hits of each blog, the ways to get hits and the impact of tend to find out about things more and more different blogs on the media. This competence is from the Internet, comprehensible but destructive. If someone gets a lot of hits and they deal with subjects that we per- sonally don’t like, one shouldn’t scorn the site or those who visit it: we are all people with different li- Laia Gargallo also thinks that “all this about the ca- kes. The Internet is big and diverse enough, there- tosphere doesn’t seem to be real to me. Aside ’s people for everything. Wanting to put it all into from the general context, which one could define just one thing called the catosphere gives rise to as writing in Catalan or blogging in Catalonia, the tension because people are very different. We are groups are very small and made up of circles with
41 CONEIXEMENT I SOCIETAT 10 ARTICLES
intersections that correspond to different interests, write. We often look to the US and the idea that ages, inclinations, blogging techniques, etc. There weblogs should be journalism as a kind of pressu- is however a certain feeling of having something in re factor. They’re forgetting something that’s very common with everybody who maintains a blog. In important: most of us blog as a way of passing the this respect, I think there’s a shortage in the catos- time and to enjoy this way of publishing.” phere of serious directories and reliable studies on the development of blogs in Catalonia, and I’m not keen on the aspirations of some people to set 8. One way to conclude themselves up as leaders. The catosphere is often somewhere that’s more like a school playground.” A result of the possibilities of communication via the Internet, the Catalan blogosphere is a dispersed phenomenon made up of different groups and indivi- duals, albeit the latter are only a few, who go it alone. The need for mass media in Catalan has genera- This does not make it any different from blogosphe- ted the appearance of many blogs that speciali- res in other languages. The same thing happens in the Spanish and English speaking blogospheres, the se in information on the realities of the current difference being that the Catalan one is smaller, a situation in Catalonia, which are written in pure kind of miniature blogosphere that, notwithstanding, journalistic style and cover different areas in- contains all the necessary elements to stay alive, in- cluding the technical aspects –blog storage services cluding politics, ecology and technology. and directories– and all the human elements –top quality, old hand bloggers, interrelationship, albeit good and bad, between bloggers, and readers who make comments. There is very little female presence Sergi Llorens, who is behind El forat, adds: “I know in the catosphere although this is more noticeable in many bloggers, they’re all really nice people. We blogging than in other areas of the Internet. do our own thing at El forat and help anybody who asks, just as we would expect them to help us. Ca- The history of the catosphere also imitates that of talan bloggers don’t need to be a group of friends other blogospheres, the adventure beginning with for the sake of it. The blogosphere is a reflection of technical blogs and the most recent development society where, in the same way that one has favou- being the surge of personal blogs, which have been rites, one also has arguments. Unfortunately, there of noteworthy interest to politicians, writers –both are very few of us. More drive is necessary, people well-known and unknown– and journalists, the most should help each other more and there should be advanced of which were blogging straight away. fewer people who, just because they want to stand One curiously successful blog and a shining light in out, tread on others. Somebody said that writing a the catosphere is the group blog on political issues, blog is an act of egotism and they’re right in a way. Racó català, a product of the particular situation in The problem is when this egotism results in many which Catalonia finds itself. Another very specific is- people using these systems without actively colla- sue concerning language and the need for mass borating and, moreover, discrediting the initiatives media in Catalan has generated the appearance of that exist. Quite simply, we’re just a few freaks who many blogs that specialise in information on the rea-
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lities of the current situation in Catalonia, which are As is said at the beginning, this is a world that is diffi- written in pure journalistic style and cover different cult to quantify and describe exactly. There are as areas including politics, ecology and technology. many types of blogs as people who write them, each one having their own opinions and networks of One result of language borders is that different blo- relationships. One thing that can be said is that the gospheres have tended to develop independently, Catalan blogosphere is a full-fledged entity and its except in the case of the English blogosphere, development is increasing. Moreover, the catos- which is the point of reference for all the rest and phere is proving to be a key factor for reviving the where many Catalan blogs link up to. On the other Catalan spirit on the Internet, which began to wane hand, communication between the Catalan and at the end of the nineties due to a period of econo- Spanish communities has tended to be non-exis- mic speculation and subsequent deflating of the tent, especially on the Spanish-speaking side, bubble. The majority of the Internet pioneers in which has ignored Catalan blogs because they do Spain are Catalan and through them a Catalan com- not understand what is said in Catalan. Likewise, munity has developed that, as a result of these ma- competitions for the best blogs organised in Spain, croeconomic events, became fragmented and de- such as the Bitácoras.com award, often have a sec- pressed, and new services, projects and tion for “the best blog in Catalan”; on the other hand, communities no longer appeared. The blogosphe- one often finds links on Catalan blogs that go to re, however, has seen the rebirth of the Catalan posts appearing on Spanish blogs. community on the Internet.
References
ABELLÓN, V. “Las bitácoras han borrado la tradicional frontera entre consumidores y productores de información”. Bitácoras.org (March 2005). Available at: http://www.bitacoras.org/index.php?id=C0_26_1.
BRANUM, J.B. The Blogging Phenomenon. An Overview and Theoretical Consideration. Oklahoma City (Oklahoma): University School of Law, 2001. Available at: http://www.ajy.net/jmb/blogphenomenon.htm.
FUMERO, A. “¿Existe una blogocultura?”. Antoine’s Blog. Infotecnología, Empresa y Sociedad (May 2005). Available at: http://antoniofumero.blogspot.com/2005/05/existe-una-blogocultura.html.
GIL, E. Blogosfera: les bitàcoles i l’audiència [online PhD study]. Barcelona: UOC (PhD studies; TD05-012), 2005. Available at: http://www.uoc.edu/in3/dt/cat/gil0705.pdf.
POLLOCK, H. “Who Let the Blogs Out?”. Yahoo Internet Life (May 2001). Available at: http://www.yil.com/features/feature.asp?volume= 07&issue=05&keyword=blogs.
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ANNEX: Various blogs in catalan
This small selection of Catalan weblogs is a sample than 3,500 links.” The blog is updated between two of the high quality blogging to be found in the catos- and five times every day, with between five to ten phere. Unfortunately, it is not possible to include all new links daily, where anyone can add comments: the weblogs that deserve to be here and a selection “The idea is for each link to generate a small forum has been made in order to analyse more in depth either to give one’s opinion or quite simply just to the motivation behind them, their experience and post things for the sake of nonsense. Some of them points of view. receive a lot of comments whereas the majority, around 70%, don’t receive any.”
Vaca.mu 101 On average, between 300 and 350 people visit Vaca.mu every day, and the blog has recently incor- There are very few blogs in Catalan like Vaca.mu al- porated a mail address for information on new devel- though in the early days of the global blogosphere opments for those who do not have time to go online. they all had the same format, namely, listings of web- Other added services are the popular weekly comic page links that filter the endless content found on the strip, “Vaca i guineu” (Cow and fox), the occasional Internet. Vaca.mu was started in 2003 by Joan Barea survey, a forum and, every so often, free computer and Jesús Corrius, both graduates in audio-visual desktop wallpaper. “The greatest satisfaction is our communication: “We wanted to set up a humorous users, who are very loyal in general. The key to suc- website along the lines of the leading websites in cess in our opinion is for it to be easy and enjoyable to English, like Fark.com, zFilter.com, Fazed.net, read: the articles aren’t long and it’s easy to select Digg.com, which you can read quickly and where whatever you’re interested in. We must be due some users go quite a few times every day, creating a tight merit as well for selecting the links and titling them sense of community. And it was very clear that we with a humorous twist. We try and take things calmly had to like the links ourselves above all else.” so things don’t become a burden”.
Vaca.mu is a group blog: “Anybody can send a link and registered users can add news. Everything Racó català 102 goes through the hands of the moderators first and they decide whether to post something or not. We Racó català has broken many records in that it was only post news that matches the type of humour the first blog totally in Catalan, it is the blog that cur- we’re into. We currently have a database with more rently receives the highest number of hits, and it is
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the only one that receives a grant. It is not consid- professors and also young kids of fifteen as well, ered to be a blog however but an “online communi- one of which finally confessed he was twenty-four. ty”, although it was started as a blog, its structure They’re people from all over Catalonia, as well as continues to be the same as a blog, and most of the many Catalans living abroad who use Racó català blogging community still considers it to be a blog. as a tool for staying in contact with Catalonia. There are also people who aren’t Catalan, there’s a Despite the slight confusion concerning its defini- couple in Madrid who have learned Catalan and tion, the subject matter of Racó català is very clearly they participate along with everyone else.” political (above all) and social news. They them- selves define it as “the information centre for Catalo- All of this commotion means that managing the nia”. Joan Camp explains its origins: “It began in community, Joan Camp says, is “an incredible to- 1999 when Guillem made the most of the space he do, there’s problems every five minutes. Us man- was offered at the university to make a small web- agers fix the majority of things but problems in the page to find resources in Catalan.103 It was like a blog forums are beyond us and, bit by bit, we’ve created although at that time the concept didn’t exist: things users who are capable of moderating them and were done just with html code. PHP-Nuke (a pro- solving any grudges. Only registered users can par- gramme for making blogs) was installed later on, ticipate in the forums whereas anyone can con- and we were pioneers in this aspect of blogging in tribute news whether they are registered or anony- Catalan. There was just three of us back then and mous.” They receive a constant avalanche of since then we haven’t stopped programming, up- messages: “People don’t stop sending us mails dating and improving, and offering new, parallel with doubts that we always try to reply to. We’ve re- services that have served to create the sensation of ceived mails asking us the opening times of muse- community, with forums, surveys, internal messag- ums, implausible things for a degree project or infor- ing, our own chat, and webpage storage.” mation on the private life of Mònica Terribas. Some days we have a good laugh.” They also organise en- Our intention was to make an online newspaper: counters where one can feel this feedback: “We “We’re not journalists, we’re not even from the Hu- brought together a hundred Racó users in Valencia, manities, we’re all from business studies, engi- a full coach load of us went. Every so often we or- neering and computer engineering but over time ganise encounters out of which music groups, plat- we’ve acquired a certain style and a wide audi- forms, campaigns, websites, friends and couples ence. Writing was like a game. It was all about writ- have all emerged.” ing everything that you were thinking that wasn’t being said, and writing it in a different way. We nev- Another front of interactivity is the forums: “They’re er envisaged that we’d get to have 8,000 regis- like chats. We are by far the most active forums in tered users and between 15,000 and 20,000 sin- Catalan. We’ve evidently had to close entire dis- gle hits a day. We’re grown incredibly in the last cussions. We were very careful at the beginning two years. There are people who participate in but over time you learn to control that shaky hand: everything. There are singers, writers, politicians, I know of loads of forums that have had to close
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because they got out of control.” Racó català has- No institution has got really involved with the Cata- n’t lost control and neither have they gone astray: lan Internet and, on the other hand, they’ve paid mil- “Our blogging community is absolutely political lions to Yahoo! and Microsoft to translate a few stu- and we don’t hide that. There are also large sec- pid things into Catalan.” tions on culture and society but we basically try to respond to and establish unity for the belief in Another blog landmark achieved by few others is Catalan autonomy, both left and right-wing, and the impact that Racó català has had on society. help different groups, platforms and associations “The Leche Pascual boycott started on Racó and that are repeatedly ignored by the mass media to had a very far-reaching effect. There have been oth- be heard. We’re apolitical ourselves, no manager er similar cases and, believe me, it’s scary to see the is affiliated with any party or political entity.” Spe- Racó home page appear on Spanish TV or hear a cialising in politics has led to the occasional prob- top-ranking politician talk about us in a committee.” lem: “The president of Coalició Valenciana called Another social effect of Catalan blogs, says Joan our service provider to say that we were putting Camp, is that “people get used to writing and de- out data on his personal particulars. It turned out nouncing things. The only option open to you before that some hothead was putting the man’s address was to write a letter to the editor of some newspa- and private telephone number on all our forums. per. Now people say whatever they want, when they We erased them and, from that day on, we’ve want, and they read whatever they want to read. been much more careful.” And the big media holdings are trembling because it seems that something is slipping through their fin- One source of great satisfaction for Racó català re- gers.” The next thing they are preparing at Racó cently has been a grant from the Catalan govern- català is an audio blog or, as Joan Camp says, “the ment: “We spent six years paying the expenses out first online Catalan radio”. of our own pockets. We went from one server to an- other as we were constantly growing. It sometimes made us mad, working every day and then having to PuntBarra 104 pay at the end of the month, especially when some user would criticise us; you’d get the feeling they One of the leading tech blogs in Catalan, PuntBarra were ungrateful. Bit by bit, we started to include ad- is a direct heir of the English Slashdot and the Span- vertising to cover expenses and a stall on the day of ish Barrapunto. It was set up at the beginning of the Catalan national holiday (Onze de Setembre, 2002 and currently receives around 2,500 hits a September 11). We finally got our first grant this year day. It is managed by four people, including the from the Catalan government’s Secretariat for Com- founder, David Poblador: “We coordinate between munications.” They are of the opinion that there is a ourselves online because we’re hundreds of kilo- lack of advertising and money in the Catalan blo- metres apart. As moderators, we attend to the post- gosphere: “We’re still living in poverty. There are lots ing of news and also the editing and correction of of good Catalan webpages that are kept going by contributions from users.” It is a group blog where people with incredible morale and perseverance. anybody can send articles, which get posted if they
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pass the filter of moderators. There is very little eco- ready taken it. So I changed the o for a u, and that nomic expense, says Poblador: “Rinho Systems was how Gumets came into being.” provides us with hosting and the regular helpers are all volunteers.” The average number of daily hits is 130, with peaks up to 600, which is quite a considerable number for PuntBarra has turned into a unique website that’s a blog that is not updated every day and only when well known and much frequented and, in addition to the authors feel like it. Readers can leave comments technical news services, it offers users the free use on the articles and also make contributions. “Each of Jabber, an instant messenger service. The key to comment is a little prize in that you know someone success has been, according to Poblador, “the pos- has read what you’ve written and decided to spend sibility for people to have somewhere to talk about some of their time to write something back to you. I technical subjects and free software in Catalan and also get e.mails from people who have found the fact that participation has been very open. For Gumets quite by chance and they like it. They want me personally it’s given me the possibility to get to to find out how to write on the blog or how to do a know many people, share experiences regarding similar website. I enjoy making suggestions as to technical aspects and, above all, it has provided me what they can do because I also started that way”, with some wonderful friendships”. explains Torà.
In addition to articles (they call them gumets), they Gumets 105 offer other services including columns on a range of subjects, the sale of T-shirts and badges, photo- Gumets is a group blog on different subjects, basi- graphs, and interviews. Just like many other blog- cally whatever enters the authors’ minds, which in- gers, Jordi has been through the stage where he clude poetry, thoughts, reflections, nonsense, etc. wanted to close the blog down or to rethink it due to The design and the colour orange are both charac- the pressure of constantly having to update it: teristic. The content is the work of Pere (Iósódéu), “When I said I couldn’t keep up with the rhythm, a lot Mar, Sara and Jordi Torà, who is the inventor, and a of people thought I was giving up and they set up twenty two year old female Architecture student in the “We want Gumets” campaign, where they sent Barcelona who does most of the writing: “The blog me e.mails encouraging me not to give up.” Another was started at a time when I had no idea what a example of the popularity of Gumets is that some blog was, in 2003. I found a webpage in English articles have gone beyond the computer screen where someone was writing whatever they felt like and been published in fanzines. There was even and I thought, that’s what I’d like to do. The name one, “Desitjant moresc”, that was a finalist in a love came to me from something that entered my mind letters competition. “One anecdote, which was very one day: “All sizes, shapes and colours”, referring satisfying, was when I read the latest book by to the blog content and it tallied perfectly with a Jaume Cabré, Les veus del Pamano, and liked it so sticker (a kind of children’s sweet), but when I tried much that I contacted him to see if I could interview to acquire the dominion name, someone had al- him for Gumets. He was more than willing”.
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La Flaneuse 106 make gross and unpleasant comments, you can’t get away from it, but I don’t think it’s worthwhile This is a very well designed personal blog, made by censoring them.” one of the few female blog authoresses: “I once posted a comment that said, “Guys, where are The readers’ feedback has also increased over you?” I got upset that the only comments I received time and has even exceeded the comments sec- were from males. More females are appearing now. tion: “I’ve recently received e.mails asking me to I believe that women have always tended to write go over someone’s project, book or website and, if personal diaries, or we were taught that it was a I think it’s appropriate, to talk about it in La Fla- “feminine” thing to do, and maybe this is why we’re neuse.” This feedback sometimes goes too far, more daring in the world of Internet weblogs”, ex- she says: “For a long time, the blog’s caption was plains Laia Gargallo, the author of La Flaneuse. Laia Rufus, a dog on a painted silver pin that I often was born in 1976 and works in cultural manage- wear on the lapel of my jacket. I received an e.mail ment. She started the blog in February 2003: “I was one day from an unknown person saying that unemployed and would spend hours at home read- they’d seen me and recognised the Rufus pin but ing and on the Internet. A short news item in a ma- they were too embarrassed to come up to me and gazine led me to a Spanish blog directory. I began say something.” to randomly zap from one blog to the next, and after a few hours I started my own. It’s become a small Despite bugbears like this, she is not interested in part of me these days. I don’t like the pressure of advertising La Flaneuse in the conventional ways feeling that I have to update it every day though, that most other Catalan blogs do, that is, being and I make sure that never more than a week goes accessible via RSS (really simple syndication), a by without doing it but I don’t let it get to be an obli- very useful tool for quickly consulting the content gation where I have to keep an eye on it.” and changes to blogs that you are interested in, and alerting Catapings and Bitàcoles.net of up- The readers’ comments are a very important part dates, both of which are essential if you want hits of the blog for Laia: “The possibility of being able on your blog. “Yes, it’s true, you think you’re the to bridge the gap with them, of responding to their greatest and get wrapped up in your own weblog proposals and listening to their opinions. I like to as if it were your own child, you go through a stage think of it in the same way as I’d organise a party: where you’re obsessed by statistics, if you’ve re- you’re the host with everyone finding their own ceived any new comments, or looking for other way to have fun and getting to know new people blogs that list your link. I don’t think there’s any- in your space. The comments are one thing that is thing wrong in that, provided that you take stock always unpredictable. I’ve never erased any, ex- of it all and are humble when you appear in public cept for junk mail, which is an eternal struggle. I’ve or on stage”, she explains. Particular care is given only written once to the author of a comment to to the aesthetics of La Flaneuse, the results of ask if they could change it because it revealed which are achieved through the help of a friend where I was working in my real job. People also and the occasional use of photographs.
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L’aeroplà del Raval 107 tion: I always play with this, I tell stories that are half real and half invented. Some people believe them Another female blogger is Tina Vallès, who is 29 and and you get some very funny comments.” a translator. She started her personal blog, L’aero- plà del Raval, in December 2003: “It was more con- The best thing about keeping a blog, she says, is the venient than sending texts to friends and I wanted to feedback: “I like it when they read my writing and have my own space where I could put whatever I make comments about it, or they give me more in- wanted”, explains this experienced Net user who formation about something I’ve jotted down, or also keeps a professional website108 and another when they contradict me. The comments are some- blog that she recently set up on cooking, El rebost times more interesting than the article. It has also de l’aeroplà.109 She clearly likes blogs: “It’s a positive been a way for me to practice because, although experience because, aside from the readers and I’ve only had a blog for a couple of years, I’ve been having a good time, I’ve learned so many things writing for much longer; it has helped me to gain from the comments and also from reading other confidence and to see which texts work.” The worst similar blogs, and I’ve also got to know, although thing for her is “the shortage of time when I have a lot only online, some really interesting people, and I’ve of work; then the blog becomes a burden and all of a even got some work from it and proposals to collab- sudden I get to feel indebted to the readers.” orate, etc. Things wouldn’t be the same for me if L’aeroplà had never existed.” El forat 110 She usually writes between two and five articles every week and, in addition to sending alerts to the This is one of the longest established personal blogs regular directories, she also sends out an e.mail bul- on the Catalan Internet. It was started at the end of letin to her friends and relations. The daily number of 1999 by Sergi Llorens, a graphic designer from the hits is between 100 and 150. “There are people who neighbourhood of Sants in Barcelona: “At that time, I make comments on the blog and others who prefer didn’t know that I was writing a weblog, it was a web- to do so privately by e.mail. Relations and friends page where I’d write my nonsense, a substitute for give me their comments in person. Everybody the years I spent doing radio. I’m one of the freaks makes suggestions for subjects, obviously. I’ve also who saw the Internet here grow, and I’ve been on it received criticisms, especially about the comments. for seven years now. First I had the typical personal I don’t answer the anonymous criticisms that come website with sections on my family, pictures of my in, whereas I do try and answer those from people dog, etc.” He defines his blog as “a humorous who identify themselves. If anyone posts a com- weblog with my type of humour. The overall intention ment that I consider to be offensive, I erase it. I could is to make people laugh. I update it on a daily basis tell you many anecdotes about this, especially asso- and unfortunately I don’t make any money at all out of ciated with the confusion between reality and fic- it. The advertising that appears is a favour to friends.”
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Even though the occasionally surreal content of El when they emerge and they’re very pleasing: forat does not invite people to leave comments, it “Whenever someone refers to you or they send you does receive an important number of hits: “There’s an e.mail to congratulate you, there’s nothing you always a minimum of 400 hits a day and occasional- can do but to try and hold back a tear of emotion.” ly this goes up to 800. There are services, such as the page name generator, which on their own re- ceive more than 500 hits”, he explains. The majority Mails per a Hipàtia111 of bloggers usually participate in other blogs, either posting comments or providing articles. Sergi is no One of the heavyweights on the Catalan Internet, exception: “I take part in Anna’s blog (who also Mails per a Hipàtia is the personal blog of Vicent writes for El forat), Mek, I post links on Nikochan.net, Partal: “All of my hard disks have been called Hipàtia I do comic strips for Racó català and drawings for in homage to the last librarian in Alexandria, one of many websites.” At the same time, other people the most important women of science in antiquity. from the blogging world help out with El forat and When we suggested to Vilaweb about making are involved there, like Ramon Forns and Ani López, blogs, I was the first one to try them out and I always who handle the programming, Menxu, who is a mul- sought not to talk about hearsay”. He liked it so timedia expert, and Anna, Ester and Marçal, who much that he stayed: “I have a great time. It’s like write articles. when you’re a young child and someone passes you a secret note on a slip of paper; you have an One of the main aspects of El forat is the comic idea in your mind, you jot it down, and that’s that. It strips, which Sergi does: “It’s been curious to see the doesn’t need to be really well done because it’s just course that the blog has taken since the appearance a quick note.” of the first comic strip. The website is more colourful, it’s more alive and people seem to like it. Many peo- Despite the fact that Mails per a Hipàtia has been up ple send me mails with the mythical question, “How and running for more than a year, Vicent Partal do you do the comic strips?” Well, I pick up my pen, maintains, “I’m still not sure of what I’m doing with and I don’t use any computer software”, he says the blog, I keep testing. One day, for example, I proudly. However, the key to the success of El forat posted a comment explaining that I was feeling bad has not just been the comic strips, he says, but that because of something I’d done at work and that I “we’re always seeking to create new things, howev- was upset with myself. I was so surprised when er silly they may seem, and being constant in what people started calling me to ask how I was feeling. we do. And, despite the fact that we don’t make any So I gave up this more personal side –I realised the money out of it, we ensure that things are well pro- degree to which it was a public showcase.” And duced. People who go to El Forat probably think it’s very much so, as is illustrated by another anecdote: really well done. But we don’t do anything better than “I once posted something with an mp3 file contain- anybody else, we just add ideas that could enter ing some music I’d done. Letters continued to arrive anyone’s head, the difference being that we work on months later asking me about it. I find it amusing. it until they emerge.” The greatest satisfaction is Another time I said that I was going to spend a few
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days organising my library in alphabetical order dur- is not a question of technical standards but one of ing the summer; since then I’ve received e.mails attitudes. The discussion everywhere –press, radio, from people who do the same and they give me ad- TV, etc.–, is between passive and active users. vice on how to do it.” Blogs are the active users’ banner or, what’s more, the most active of the active! Blogs are having a big Partal says that he is not sure how many people read impact, they’ve revived the original Net where you’d his blog, although he is surprised at the amount of write and they’d just read. So much passivity was feedback, especially from “people who I meet in the getting to be dangerous. Blogging is one of the best street that say they’ve read this or that”. He also lets pieces of news in years.” people post comments on his blog, a sign of courage in someone who is a well-known personali- ty like he is: “I haven’t always accepted them, but I Bandera negra 112 think it’s worse not to accept. Sometimes I get an- noyed by the person who turns up, says some non- This won the 2004 Bitacoras.com award for the sense and then takes off, especially if they’re anony- best blog in Catalan. It was set up by the forty-eight mous. It seems unfair to me that you work for a while year old journalist Xavier Borràs Calvo who was and then someone comes and all they do is insult born in Gràcia in Barcelona: “I started it in March you. Of course, this obviously forms part of the 2003 although previous to that, when the tools that process and there’s no point in worrying about it.” are available today didn’t exist, I moved heaven and earth to do something similar. The name is a hom- Vicent Partal is a journalist by profession and thinks age to Salvador Puig i Antich, to the memory of the that writing for the blog is different to writing an opin- black flag that flew the morning of March 2 1974 ion in a newspaper: “It’s very different. The blog is over the Model prison when he was executed by more like a notebook.” Regarding the impact of garotte. A black flag is also the sign of freedom. I blogs on Catalan society, he says, “it’s early days started it and I maintain it to publish whatever I feel yet. Nevertheless, in general and everywhere, in- like, above all topics and issues that are not very well cluding here, they are more interesting and amusing known, things that are both personal (texts and po- than the newspapers. Everything on the Internet in ems) and issues that are more political.” Xavier Bor- Catalonia has been done with the big companies ràs also keeps another blog, Ecodiari,113 which deals and government against us. Personal and group ini- with ecological issues. tiatives, however, have extended the network, and blogs are the maximum expression of this: you write Borràs is an old hand Net user and, prior to blog- and that’s it. I think that blogs are very appropriate ging, he already had his own personal webpage: for the model of how the Catalan network runs and “It’s not that a blog is better than a webpage but that’s why they’re so successful.” that it’s used in a different way. It is much more ef- fective though. I update it at least four or five times His views on blogs and the future are clear: “How a month, although there have been times when this fits in the broader discussion going on right now I’ve published three or four articles in a week.
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What I most like is that I can publish over the Inter- graphs. The weblog is the medium where all of this net, via e.mail and also with my cell phone.” It en- is harmonised together. For me, the total blog ables readers to make comments on the articles would be where you could add all of the communi- because, “I think that if someone wants to poke cation tools and art, all in one place and, if possible, their nose into something I’ve said, all the better to do live unmotivated uncut journalism.” because it’s more interactive. Many people prefer however to tell me things via e.mail, above all the Xavier Borràs, like the majority of bloggers, believes loyal readers. More than friends, I’d say that I’ve that one important consequence of blogs in Cata- made a few enemies through the blog because I lan is the fact that the panorama for linguistic com- don’t hold my tongue, especially in matters of na- munication in Catalan, with very little press in Cata- tional politics. There was even one individual who lan up until the present time, has broadened: wanted to take me to court for one of my articles.” “Moreover, the very fact that there are tools for making blogs in Catalan shows how important the He is firmly convinced that the political establish- phenomenon is. The Catalan character matches ment follows his blog: “The information services of very well with this way of publishing. I’d like to see it the Department of the Presidency are addicted to it spread extensively, with a wireless network cover- because it gives clues to certain politicians so that ing all of Catalonia so you could publish on your they don’t end up worse off than they actually are.” blog, for example, from somewhere in the Pyre- He calculates that he has an average of fifteen nees. As far as the impact of blogs on society is readers a day, with sporadic peaks: “Like when concerned, there are cases like that of Flix and there was the terrorist attacks in Madrid I received Sau115 where I would say more things have been around 300 hits due to the fact that I had already published in blogs than in the press. At least you’re put forward that morning that, quite logically, it had- not held back in blogs like you are by the company n’t been perpetrated by ETA.” There was another that you work for, by advertisers or by government peak when another article titled “More parasites in grants. And socially speaking, blogs are helping to the family” with a photomontage was published114 spread the idea of sharing and generosity.” on account of the announcement of Princess Letí- cia’s pregnancy: “I only received one comment on As far as the future of blogs is concerned, he the blog although I did get a lot of e.mails.” thinks that, “in the medium term, they’ll transform into a means of their own so that different blogs As a journalist, he is of the opinion that writing for a dealing with a particular subject will get append- blog is different to writing for a newspaper: “I would ed together in one and they’ll turn into a means speak of it as a new genre and a new kind of journal- of collaboration. Information portals and blogs ism. It’s not a newspaper, it’s a blog. As a journalist, will be so close to each other that ultimately there I’ve always used blogs, small ones, to take notes. will be weblog portals that are more powerful It’s more or less the same thing: the drafts are the than an information portal. Despite the fact that links, scattered notes that are saved in folders ac- the idea of the blog fits very well with that of im- cording to subject, and the images are the photo- mediate consumption (the present-day God), it’s
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odd how the majority of them are lacking any more hits. I’m accustomed to talking in small groups.” motive or intent to dupe you or make an immedi- Nevertheless, Villoslada’s preferred small format ate profit out of you. This is why I think there must does not prevent articles on Bitassa a lloure from be something Zen about the whole thing.” occasionally appearing on sites at the top of the list on the Google search engine: “This means that the managers of the websites I’m talking about see Bitassa a lloure 116 critical comments about their sites straight away. Some of them have resolved this straight away Benjamí Villoslada i Gil, a forty-one year old com- whereas others haven’t said anything, although I’ve puter expert from Sineu, Majorca, is the author of later found out that some comment of mine has this blog on Net culture and other crazes. He start- created a hubbub.” ed the blog in August 2004 because “it seemed to me like the Net thing since e.mail. Bitassa is a word The best thing he likes about blogs is “being able that came up in conversation with Jordi Vendrell to explain things in a medium that matches the the journalist and means a pile of bits. The adden- spirit of the Net, i.e. it is individual, person-to-per- dum “a lloure” is a Majorcan expression that son, accessible, easy to find, and to follow and means to have the freedom (to…). It fits the blog maintain”. He believes that the impact of blogging because it is a whole pile of bits that lets me speak is greater than it appears; “When people have a freely about whatever I feel like. I also do articles for powerful publishing tool at home, it’s going to influ- some news media, where I have to talk about the ence society a very great deal, although it’s as nat- things they commission me to talk about and in the ural as it is silent. That’s how great revolutions take tone of voice that they ask for. But not on the blog. place. The problem is that they want to classify it Explaining things is a necessity for me. I used to do as a minor genre, yet what you have is each indi- it by e.mail, and I’d send to lists and friends. The vidual as an editor in the making. Never again will it blog is a much more effective way of explaining be possible to measure the quantity of publica- things. It costs money but it’s profitable; there is no tions that there are in Catalan in the same way. We direct income but it does give one exposure.” don’t need to wait for some company to get in- volved or for it to be economically viable. With It also helps him to find friends: “I’ve made friends blogs, we no longer depend on the starter’s gun through the blog. And some friends that I already –or the coup de grâce– of any publishing editor. It’s had before the blog have given me great gifts in the not a minor genre, it’s different. It’s adapted to a form of comments, possibly because the blog lets way of reading and writing. If you know how to you explain things that you agree on more accurate- make the most of it you can do whatever you want. ly. The importance of the number of hits, on the oth- It’s much easier to get on with it this way, see the er hand, is relative: it’s great that they read you but results, the response of the readers. It’s not neces- the number shouldn’t condition anything. The sary to write until you’ll filled a book so they can ask month I started I received an average of a hundred fifteen euros for it because this way they can read it hits a day. Now I wouldn’t change a thing just to get anywhere in the world.”
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Villoslada is clearly delighted with blogging: “It’s a Flux 117 new way of publishing, in small doses without the need for any large investment and that enables it to Vilaweb published a selection of the best blogs in be cost-free, with results that are just as useful as Catalan in the summer of 2005, in which some of the publishing on paper because, let’s not fool our- abovementioned appeared together with Flux, which selves, aside from a few exceptions, nobody lives it defined as, “a literary blog, the noteblog of Jaume from the books they publish. I’m convinced that the Subirana the writer and current director of the Institu- blog will become a very important form of publishing ció de les Lletres Catalanes. Subirana has found Flux in Catalan and there’s a lot of surprises in store.” He and the blogosphere to be the ideal place for re- lets us in on a few of them: “There will be a change in search and reflection in the form of his annotations, the tool so that publishing becomes more diverse. which are a cross between poetic impressions and The name weblog has been good to popularise the the time-honoured diary. The blog often offers prose phenomenon but it will go out of fashion. More and and verses by other authors. Making the best of the more contents will be classified in different ways resources on the Internet, Flux is carefully done and other than by date, and the distinction between he enjoys looking for images that are appropriate to whether what people do fits or doesn’t fit the defini- and that reinforce the text. He writes on it almost tion of a blog will become less clear. Now we all pu- every day. It is a much frequented blog despite the blish in the form of a diary because that’s what the fact that there is no option for making comments.” tool lets us do. It’s inevitable however that blogs will become increasingly flexible and the definition of the Subirana does not accept comments because he blog will end up becoming more blurred. The impor- says that “I thought about it but on the blogs that I tant thing will be for Net publishing to be something liked, it seemed to me that the comments inevitably that is thought out specifically for the Net, i.e. in brought the whole tone down, a highway to the small regular doses.” blogger’s endogamy, and one more proof that too many people confuse anonymity with a licence to This future scenario has a lot to do with the deci- do whatever they please and bad manners. On top sions made by the companies that produce the of that, if I already had doubts about whether I’d be tools for making blogs, as in the case of Google, capable of maintaining the blog active, the one thing which owns Blogger, the most famous site on the I was sure about was that I wouldn’t have any time Internet for free blog hosting, and provides the tools to answer comments. But I suppose the main rea- for creating them. Villoslada is concerned about one son is that I never saw Flux as being a network dia- aspect concerning the big corporate companies: logue experience but more as another of my litera- “They keep the databases with the items that peo- ture’s tentacles.... Moreover, us writers are used to ple note in their blogs. Will they still exist in a hundred writing on our own.” years time? Will future generations be able to read them? We can access them as long as they let us. I Flux first appeared in November 2003: “I’d been fol- suppose that little by little the more experienced lowing a handful of blogs for a few months and one bloggers will take note of details like this.” afternoon I opened Blogger to check whether it was
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as easy as they made out. Just over an hour later, send me (those who I know and who have my ad- without hardly realising it, I found myself in the mid- dress, obviously). My interest in the blogosphere, dle of an adventure I wasn’t sure was real or not. more than Flux specifically, has enabled me to get to Right up until the present time. I had the idea that know people who maintain other blogs that I follow; fragments of my notebooks would somehow get for me, those who are responsible for Combray,118 El published in some paper format. Direct online writ- llibreter,119 L’aeroplà del Raval, La Flaneuse, L’efecte ing has become increasingly important since then. I Jauss120 and Quaderns121 are a new subspecies of called it Flux because I like the word, it’s a private writer that I like.” joke (there’s a poem with this title in my latest book) and, above all, because it gave and still gives a good The thing about blogging that gives him the great- picture of what is happening, the diverse and potent est satisfaction is “writing and editing in quasi-real flux of these online notebooks, all linked up and time something that is literary and at the same time changing.” Jaume Subirana previously had a per- something more than that, the dialogue with myself sonal website but, he says, “they are two very differ- and what I’m concerned about or interested in, cur- ent things. The webpage is static whereas the blog rent affairs or other blogs, whatever.... I suppose I doesn’t stop moving and growing and changing. haven’t given up because I still like to sit down and The webpage is an ad and the blog is a notebook. go through the whole process from writing to public The technology also has something to do with it: editing.” With all the qualities that he has disco- you need to hire someone for a webpage whereas vered in blogs, he is surprised at the “limited suc- with the weblog you just do it yourself.” cess (of blogs), and that of websites and other tools used by the writers’ guild”. For this very reason, As with all bloggers, he is delighted: “For me there’s blog writing often takes on a journalistic aspect, no time wasted. I like writing, surfing the Internet, which Subirana does not refute: “With the differ- linking things up (when I chat, when I think, when I’m ence that it has two important consequences: a working), so I do a whole lot of things that I like doing blog has an opinion column, and there is no news in maintaining Flux.” His readers, and Flux has an editor controlling it. So, on the one hand, you can average of ninety hits a day according to Subirana’s talk about whatever you want and use the terms calculations, are also delighted: “I don’t see it as a you prefer and, on the other, when you’re starting popular blog (if popularity is measured in metres) out you lack the far-reaching effect of and assumed and anyway I haven’t done anything for it to be like recognition of the headline story.” that, apart from writing what I write and how I write it. I do feel though that people that I’m interested in fol- Compared to the press, blogs have less of an im- low my work and comment on it and that’s a real pact on Catalan society. Even so, he says: “It’s privilege. A link in a leading blog is worth more to me greater than people think, at least the ones who than a record number of hits. I get a moderate think about it. Blogs affect a small sector but one amount of feedback through messages that people that is highly motivated and connected with other
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authorities. One should never underestimate the im- There’ve been times when I’ve removed them, but a portance of relationship networks, and blogging in blog without comments is lame, mute, it lacks inter- this respect is a highly interesting one.” activity with the reader. There’s the obvious risk of the anonymous: people who insult you or make un- pleasant comments. I reply to them as well. I believe Tros de Quòniam 122 that this interactivity greatly enriches the blog. Peo- ple must be able to freely say whatever they want Tros de Quòniam is somewhat the enfant terrible of and to retort and criticise you. There’s an average of blogs in Catalan. It received the most votes two seven to fifteen comments per post. The record is years running in the popular vote of the Lletra award, seventy comments, one day when I ran Quim possibly because of the author’s clear way of speak- Monzó down. Provocation forms part of the TdQ ing. Antoni Ibàñez Ros, who is forty-one years old style, which somewhat clumsy, interruptive and and from Vallromanes, is a writer and secondary cynical. Provoking the readers stimulates their inac- school philosophy teacher: “I wrote my first article for tive neurons, one looks for a reaction. It’s more im- Tros de Quòniam [TdQ] on the morning of January 1, pulse than brains, obviously, but nothing important. 2004. In principle, it is an online continuation of my And the chaos means you get more hits and fame.” book Tros de Quòniam, vademècum de sàtires, which won the Second Jaume Maspons award for That’s how it is, with TdQ getting between 300 and Humour and Satire. “Tros de quòniam” is one of my 400 hits a day, a respectable number for a personal favorite insults.” Antoni Ibàñez is the perfect example blog. On November 2 last year, immediately after of a converted Luddite: “I was against computers the debate on the Catalan Statute of Autonomy in but three or four years ago my daily dealings with the Madrid, there were almost 700: “In addition to com- kids at school made me see that I had to get with it ments, people also send me many e.mails. Several otherwise I wouldn’t be able to understand them. posts have resulted from readers’ suggestions. They helped me a lot at the beginning. Now I’ve got Most TdQ devotees have their own blog. I’ve made quite a few websites and I use the weblog as a nerve many friends through the catosphere, in general centre where I link up to other pages.” very nice people, and we often help each other out. In person, I must know between ten and fifteen He likes the blog invention so much that he even has bloggers but the figure for online acquaintances is a motto for it, Nulle dies sine post: “Writing a post di- very high. The catosphere brings many people to- ary becomes a healthy habit. It’s a way of becoming gether, and increasingly so.” Antoni Ibàñez originally skilful at writing, and to become a writer you need to coined the expression catosphere: “I’m always in- write. It doesn’t cost me anything neither do I make venting words, neologisms, and then I see other anything out of it. It’s a great platform for promoting people using them, like catosphere, desvirtualitzar myself as a writer.” One of the most amusing sec- (word in Catalan meaning to take from an online or tions on his blog is the comments that people make “virtual” context and apply it in a “real” context), au- and that on occasions have turned into pitched bat- diopost, videopost, etc. You have to invent things as tles.123 “The subject of comments is a difficult one. you go along.”
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He continues to have new words up his sleeve, such reckon I’d take a laptop into hospital with me to as ciberescriptura (cyberscript): “It’s a new genre, send posts from my bed. But I never go too much possibly the rudiments of the new literature of the into myself. It’s difficult to not end up talking about twenty first century. There are also shortcomings in yourself and this is why one needs a mask. TdQ is the catosphere: not very much high quality, many not exactly me but one of my possible sides. Fiction people open a blog and make spelling mistakes or sometimes blends with reality and readers never talk a lot of drivel. A very high percentage of blogs are know if you’re making it up or not. It’s amusing. If I totally irrelevant, but they help the authors to learn. I didn’t have a good time, I would have given it up admire the endeavours of teenager bloggers who long ago. I do what I love to do, i.e. writing. And I get into it.” Concerning his own personal experi- have the proof that people read me, 300 hits a day. ence, he points to the technical problems, “especial- How many writers can say that? I also get free pu- ly at the beginning, I had no idea and I’ve learned blicity for myself and I know some highly interesting everything on my own and with the help of other people. I don’t know why more people don’t blog.” bloggers”, and the satisfaction: “Numerous sources, you write for free, you edit yourself, people every- Ibàñez is convinced of the contribution that blogs where can read you (I have people translating for me have made to Catalan culture: “We’re doing a lot for into English, French and Spanish), you connect with the Catalan language on the Internet and this isn’t people that are highly interesting, you learn a lot, and being recognised. The main use of the blog is the the freedom that you get from blogging.” personal type, but bloggers can also be useful social- ly speaking: we can all explain what goes on in our For this reason, he says, “I take it very seriously, as if street, in our town or city. And it’s interesting because each post was the next chapter of a never-ending it’s not controlled nor politicised. People are fed up novel, an endless online diary. I spend all day long with the same old news everywhere and they’re de- thinking about possible posts. If I were to get sick, I manding authenticity, the truth and immediacy.”
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