Jakarta is (sort of) tops for bloggingEnda Nasution, the Godfather of Indonesian blogging, discovered
this link which purports to show that, based on content and comments posting, Jakarta is on a par with London and some 28 other conurbations worldwide when it comes to blogging.
I don't believe there's any significance to this information, partly because I can't find any statistics and also because there's no information about how many readers there are. I've always thought that all writing is meant to be read and by that definition there are few, if any, influential blogs in Indonesia, let alone Jakarta.
Vanity writing which was once confined to diaries you didn't want your parents to read, is now open to all. The majority of blogs are of the "
I kissed the cat, hit the boyfriend and this is a picture of me shopping" variety. I don't read those, but if they are the start of a journey to a deeper written literacy, then that can only be good.
Maybe it is dumbing down, but then so are the majority of the printed media. I can't wholly agree, therefore, with author Andrew Keen who is not so keen on us amateurs clogging up hyperspace. In fact, he regularly gives talks entitled "
The message is dead: how Web 2.0 is reducing all marketing to spam". He's also written a book about it,
The Cult Of The Amateur, just to prove that his writing has somewhat more validity than that of we blogging cloggers.
(Of course, Jakartass is not a clogging blogger because ~ plug, plug ~ I have a book coming out next month.)That 'proper' writers seem to think that they are better than we 'amateurs' is pure élitism. What is true is that in order to survive, the printed media has had to adapt and adopt a hyperspace presence. The
Guardian newspaper, for example has more online readers than off. That our fingers remain ink free is possibly a bonus; what is more relevant is the interactivity which enables readers to participate in the issues which shape our lives.
And the use of the internet is one such
online debate.
Seven hours in a good public library, or in a good university library, is qualitatively different from seven hours on the internet. That difference is what the younger generation will have to deal with.I agree with that sentiment and I hope that "the younger generation" here in Indonesia will lengthen their attention spans and put down in coherent form (rather than SMS shorthand) their hopes, dreams and opinions.
Some do and there is good writing on a wide variety of topics within the localised hyperspace, so here are a few blogs I've come across or revisited recently.
Ragil links to me but doesn't blog that often.
As he says,
reading and/or writing is said as an enlightening activity. I think, it is a profound statement. These two activities were used to be my favourite activities which i lost them somehow along the way. Hence, I do hope that this blog will resurrect that missing piece. So now, I will try to let the idea flowing and sparkling...
Keep at it, Ragil, keep at it.
Bataviase is ALL about Jakarta with links to important city information such as
guided tours ,
upcoming art exhibitions,
theatre and concert gigs, transport news and much more.
Linguistic confusionI wrote a month or two ago, there are some really good pics of Jakartan life on
Kulo Net, but I wasn't sure what language it's in. But now I do.
Just for clarification, “crazy” language used in this blog is Estonian :) I wonder how
Apa si? translates.
Taylor is in Jogja for the summer and is gradually finding himself being sucked in, which is a good sign. And I say this without meaning to sound patronising, but it's good to see an American citizen taking the travel advisories issued by the US embassy with the bucketful of salt they deserve.
Planet Mole is a website about Indonesia by Barrie Lie-Birchall, a freelance writer, who
has traveled throughout the archipelago of Indonesia for nearly three decades and has written and published numerous travel articles in magazines and newspapers globally. Barrie has lived in various places in Indonesia immersing himself into the culture and way of life. His greatest passions are his love of life, his love of writing, and of course, Indonesia.
Sounds somewhat like Jakartass, so why no link, Barrie?
After all,
Ayen, who says that Jakartass is his fave blog, does. Thanks, A.
And then there's
Mat Solo who is in Malaysia but is a friend of Indonesia. That he's given Jakartass a link is not why I'm reciprocating. Nope, it's because we have very similar musical tastes and his
reviews of gigs he can get to in Malaysia and
we can't hear here make me exceedingly envious. Or perhaps it's his writing about them.
Review Jakartass? If you want to, please do it
here.
Labels: blogging
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