www.etsy.com - a site that enables people to sell or buy handmade stuff - I was not particularly impressed by the quality but ok, maybe it will develop.
The other one was Laotian Silk - high quality, high-end hand-made hand-died silk from Laos made according to grandmother traditions with modern elements. I have respect for these kinds of projects and always appreciate it. They also sell it in Paris, France - worth a visit maybe.
To go back to the order of the day and avoiding the subject of the credit crunch or the US elections, which is already covered elsewhere, I will just report my musings of the whole phenomena of blogs and networking, lest I risk loosing my potential non-female audience.
It is obvious that social networking sites are there to stay and there is no point in discussing their evil or good sides, as we can no longer imagine our future without them. What amazes me, is how different the perception of different writers is on the issue. I was reading an article in the Financiele Dagblad (in Dutch) just a week back and they reported that the world of blogs is on it's deathbed, basically. Their observation was that most blogs lay there abandoned, conversations are drying up, authors repeating themselves and running out of interesting subjects, etc, etc. I was perplexed to hear it from a journalist - if there is any other profession that benefits more from blogs as an open source, free, accessible sea of public opinion and debate then I don't know which one it is!
I was first confronted with the idea of blogs through the book by Thomas L. Friedman The World is Flat and basically, as I understood it, no matter what kind of new technology we obtain, it's not what matters. It's the content of information that gets spread around with that technology that will have the most impact. It's the oldfashioned value of quality against quantity Ï am talking about. The blog viability ("bliability"?) depends on the depth of postings and how well it relates to reader's interests. The better the idea posted, the more successful the blog. And it is only natural, that any kind of empty nonsence that gets published just for the sake of it, will be filtered out with time.
Having a blog is one thing, having something to say is a totally different matter altogether.
In reaction to articles that write about how to make blogs earn money, I believe - it's not the blog, it's the content (read: writer) that is the driving factor. Not the number of hits, not any quantitative formula. The ideas and the brain that propells it and speaks to the minds of the readers.
When John F. Kennedy won the televised debate in the election campaign in the 60'ies - it was not the TV that made him win, it was the content that he brought to it. He was youthful, intelligent and everyone got to see it for himself.
In other words, saying the blogs are dying out is just like when they said that the TV would replace radio. It's different, it's new and it's there to stay.
Other then the limits of political correctness and the smart idea of avoiding going into the touchy subjects others might disapprove of, the net is a limitless possibility of expressing your ideas. There are lots of blogs reporting on Russia, for example, and it is amazing to notice that the language barrier contributes immensely to the gap between cultures. Nobody contests information on Russia because nobody knows any better for the lack of translations. More then that, few people know it's history and culture first-hand to be able to understand the mentality. Myths get a life of it's own and claim to be the ultimate source of guidance on this subject. On the other end of the spectrum the Russian and particularly Soviet culture is experiencing a sort of renaissance due to easy access to the net and exchange of contect that is uniquely Soviet and understood by anyone who had grown up in the Soviet Union (irrespective of ethnicity). Unknown to westerners, no person having lived in the Soviet Union would dislike some of the TV cartoons that have been broadcasted in the 70-80'ies on the main TV channel. Designed for children, powerful grown-up messages on human values are contained in them, such as greed, kindness, knowledge, love of the ones near, plus a healthy dose of humour and traditional wisdom. Such cultural common points bring no ideology or propaganda with them and remind the whole Soviet population of their origins. No westerner can understand those or share the feelings or nostalgia they bring. There is no point in translating those - some of these cartoons have intrinsic meaning that has no equivalent in other languages. The "virtual" Soviet Union in the minds and the hearts of internet users builds stronger ties and enriches their world, having nothing to do with politics.
Obviously the proliferation of social networking sites have prompted money-making companies to establish each their own social networking sites that, I am sure, will be obligatory for their employees. I have nothing against corporate profits, but I do have everything against bad service. Statistics shows that social networking sites of individual firms have not turned profitable yet. I suppose, the potent "ginny in the bottle" of employee creativity is something each employer would desperately wish to tap into and which persistently refuses to stay in the designated "corporate" bottle. By analogy, we can conclude that political agenda's or any ideology will have the same fate as corporate attempts to capture the spirit of public communication.
The following transcript of a short e-mail exchange of a young, bright and highly qualified female professional speaks volumes on how individual content of blogs, social network sites, corporate brains or political opinions can not be captured for someone else's commercial gain, or individual agenda (and also exemplifies the east-west cultural gap):
"I am facing a work-related dillema. To accept a position as head of a department in a large Russian company and lead a group of 8 or "selling" myself into "slavery" to a western firm - there are so many of those in Russia right now, they service other firms on conquering the Russian market. My opinion is that bosses of such firms still beleive that professionals from Eastern Europe will labour for pennies (although they do offer fairly good pay). But for that pay they consider you to be their property. Work does not consist of anything other then reporting and checklists. I like mostly content-related work, so that is not a choice for me."
Draw your own conclusions, I would say.
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2 comments:
Fascinating. Good thing I stumbled on this post and the blog itself. Count me as a new member of the non-female audience.
I am glad to read some interesting opinion and I am mesmerized by the languege.
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