Posted on September 5, 2008 - by Frank

Blog Action Day 2008 - Poverty (with video)

I don’t think I am overstating it when I assert that the potential exists for bloggers to determine and shape what the world talks about. This can be seen on a minor level when influential blogs cover issues that are then picked up and spread around the internet by other bloggers and sometimes by mainstream media. The blogging platform is so recognised that mainstream media sites generally have rebranded many of their regular columns online as “blogs”.

The ability for a conversation to take shape within hours around an issue raised by one influential blogger is startling. The internet and the blogging community has made the world a very small place.

Imagine this potential being enhanced for one day, when thousands of blogs unite and agree to write around one issue on that day. Blog Action Day 2007 saw such a thing take place with around 20,000 blogs, including some of the most prominent blogs in the world and notable leaders from around the world writing in a way that made the topic of the environment accesible for their readers. Readership across all 20,000 blogs was in the millions.

Blog Action Day 2008 will take place on October 15, with the topic being poverty. At the time of writing this, there are already 3,623 registered blogs and a collective readership of over 7,000,000. The Humanitarian Chronicle will be added to that list.

The sheer number of blogs means that the global conversation on the internet has the potential to truly focus towards poverty on that day, with each blog bringing its own unique approach to the issue and inviting readers to engage the issue in a way distinct to the overall theme of that blog.

First and last, the purpose of Blog Action Day is to create a discussion. We ask bloggers to take a single day out of their schedule and focus it on an important issue.

By doing so on the same day, the blogging community effectively changes the conversation on the web and focuses audiences around the globe on that issue.

Out of this discussion naturally flow actions, advice, ideas, plans, and empowerment.

From the smallest online journals, to huge online magazines, to EU ministers, to professionals and amateurs, Blog Action Day is about mass participation. Anyone is free to join in on Blog Action Day and there is no limit on the number of posts, the type of posts or the direction of thoughts and opinions.

Take the opportunity to join The Humanitarian Chronicle and thousands of others on October 15 as we participate in Blog Action Day and steer the globe in a conversation about poverty. Check out www.blogactionday.org to find out how.

Update: The Humanitarian Chronicle is now officially registered to participate in Blog Action Day 2008.