Sweden | Media Culpa

Swedish bloggers commit to posting 50,000 blog posts in 100 days

Fredrik Wass Foto Johanna Hanno

The blogosphere may have reached its pinnacle some years ago, but some are doing their best to reignite their blogs. My friend Fredrik Wass last year decided to post every day for 100 days in a row in an effort to keep his blog more active. This year he is repeating the challenge, with one big difference. A lot of bloggers are accepting the challenge too, more than 500 Swedish bloggers have now decided to post 100 blog posts each for 100 days. In total, if all succeed, that would amount to 50,000 blog posts.

Fredrik explains the challenge with #blogg100.

“#Blogg100 is a blog challenge started by me, a Swedish tech and business journalist and blogger. It’s about finding your inner blogger voice again. By having to publish at least one post every day, 100 subsequent days in a row, hopefully you’ll end up with a number of great blog posts in the end. Facebook and Twitter have kept us busy posting short messages. This blog challenge is about getting back to that old familiar feeling of running your blog, interacting with your visitors and creating community. #Blogg100 was first arranged in 2012. This year there are about 520 Swedish blogs participating in the challenge. Blogging is time invested in your own platform, not someone else’s meeting space. There’s also an opportunity to reflect upon freedom of speech and the notion that we’re all able to speak our minds in a free and democratic society.”

I decided to ask Fredrik about the challenge.

Why did you decide to blog each day for a hundred days (last year)?
It was just a thing I came up with trying to find my old blog spirit again. Occupied with “short social media” like Twitter and Facebook, I’ve been blogging less the last couple of years. I knew putting myself up to the challenge of blogging everyday for 100 days in a row would be beneficial not only for traffic volume, comments and feeback, but also to inspire me and make me learn new stuff.

What did you learn about blogging the last time you blogged a hundred days in a row?
That it’s a mindset, and also that I really had missed the sense of community and engagement that blogging really is, especially when you’re not blogging for business or pr, just for your own pleasure. I got a lot more comments on my posts and also I felt more up to date with what was going on within my field of interest.

How many blogs are participating this year?
Last time I checked there were 521 blogs that are registered for the challenge.

Why do you think so many are willing to participate?
I think that many people have made the same conclusion that I did. They have been blogging for a while but are now realizing that they are publishing less content on their blogs but more shorter updates on Facebook and Twitter. In another interview I said that blogging is time invested in your own platform, not someone else’s meeting space, and I still think that it’s a valid thought. There’s also an opportunity to reflect upon freedom of speech and the notion that we’re all able to speak our minds in a free and democratic society.

Do you think this initiative will have any long term effects on the blogs that participate or on the Swedish blogosphere in general?
Well, if everyone finishes the challenge there will be 50 000 blog posts published at the end of it. So I guess that’s one big footprint that we would make. But I think the greatest effect from Blogg100 is the sense of community amongst fellow bloggers. I almost feel like I’m back in the good old days when there was about 300 blogs in Sweden in total and you could pretty much keep track on every blogger out there. Now there’s of course hundreds of thousands of blogs, in Sweden. I’ve started a Facebook group for all the bloggers in the challenge and the discussions are really active and intense. One can feel the engagement that a lot of us have for blog related questions and issues. It’s beautiful.

Any other interesting aspects of this project worth mentioning?
At the end of Blogg100 I’m planning to arrange some sort of meetup. I think it would be interesting to talk about blogging today compared to 6-7 years ago when it really hit big in Sweden. Blogging today is much more integrated in other services and platforms. For instance, a Facebook status update could be described as a blog post I guess. It would also be interesting to talk about the blog as a tool for change in societies, and how it could be used for activism.

I decided early on that I would not participate myself. I realized that I would most certainly fail after a few days due to lack of time, but I salute all the bloggers that dare to take on such a massive challenge. Good luck everyone.

Here’s a list of all participating bloggers (in Swedish): http://bisonblog.se/2013/01/vi-som-ar-med-i-blogg100/

Footnote: Blog is “blogg” in Swedish.

Photo: Johanna Hanno

Instagram throws out users under the age of 13

Several Swedish bloggers and media report that Instagram users under the age of 13 have had their accounts closed or frozen the last few days. In some cases, users are required by Instagram to provide their age, in other cases they have to prove their age with identification documents. These incidents are occuring at the same time as Instagram’s new User Agreement entered into force, which harmonized with Facebook’s agreement. My own children confirm that this is actually happening right now.

Users that Instagram suspect are under 13 have had their accounts locked and are sent a message that says they are required to send in an image of and ID such as a passport or a school ID (which is unusual in Sweden) to prove their age. Some are also finding that their Facebook accounts are also locked and according to Deeped Niclas Strandh, there are signs that some are locked out of their Facebook accounts, but that the accounts are still live. This means that others could comment on their walls and posts but they are unable to respond themselves.

“My daughter’s Instagram account was locked and got this message, says Björn Sveen to SVT. She is 12 years and 9 months so she can not just send in a picture of her passport to prove that she’s 13, not that I would let her send it a picture with such sensitive information.”

Screen shots of the messages from Instagram and Facebook can be found both on svt.se and Deeped Niclas Strand, see links above.

I have not seen any similar reports outside of Sweden. Do you know of any more cases?

Flickr image via wiccked.

“Sweden” – the world’s most democratic Twitter account

What would you do if you were able to tweet on behalf of an entire country for a week? Would you recommend things to do and places to see, share opinions and ideas? Or would you use foul language, post pictures of fruit that look like genitals and post links to your own site? The former is at least the idea that one person should do for a week for Sweden’s official Twitter account @sweden, “the world’s most democratic Twitter account”.

The project Curators of Sweden is an initiative of the Swedish institute and VisitSweden. The idea is that:

“…each curator will share both their own and relevant third party’s thoughts, stories, information and other content that is somehow linked to Sweden. The idea is that the curators, through their tweets, create interest and arouse curiosity for Sweden and the wide range the country has to offer. The expectation is that the curators will paint a picture of Sweden, different to that usually obtained through traditional media.”

Now, what a brilliant idea to turn to the crowd and let ordinary Swedes share their views on Sweden. The only problem with letting go of control is that, well, you have little control. You see, there is one thing I’m not particulary impressed with in this campaign so far, and that is the actual tweeting.

The whole purpose of this activity is that the tweets should be linked to Sweden and create interest in Sweden. But I have a hard time seeing that tweets containing foul language, mentions of dreams of racist jokes or jokes about planning terrorist attacks on Twitter are what the Swedish Institute had in mind.

Or images of fruit that look like…

Then I also find it a bit unprofessional to use this opportunity to repeatedly link to your own website (in this case the news site Ajour.se).

My intention is not to pick on this tweeter. I’m not offended and I can see the humour in most of this. I also understand you must have a high tolerance for the type of content or it would run the risk of being boring. And there are plenty of links that have a Swedish connection (although many don’t). But there’s a time and place for everything, and as an observer, this is not the kind of content that I appreciate being posted on the @sweden Twitter account.

This leads me to question if the “curators of Sweden” were given any rules or guidelines and if so, what the account owners are doing to make sure these guidelines are followed. At least they articulate, in the disclaimer, that tweets may be removed, which indicates some sort of monitoring and rules.

“Si/VisitSweden do not endorse any Curator Submission or any opinion, recommendation, or advice expressed therein, and Si/VisitSweden expressly disclaims any and all liability in connection with Curator Submissions.

Si/VisitSweden reserves the right to remove Curator Submissions without prior notice.”

I really like the idea with Curators of Sweden and I hope it picks up some pace. Right now, I’m just underwhelmed.