Dates for this Expert Group will be announced soon, watch this space for more information!

Here is the update on the dates of our next panel: we will meet tomorrow (Thursday, 22nd of October) at 2.30 GMT time, as well as on Friday at 2.30 GMT time. Both sessions will last 3 hrs and will be dedicated to social media in Latin America, but also global topics (Google Wave, Technorati State of Blogosphere). Do join us then!:)

You can also find notes from previous panel (on social media in Asia) here: http://www.slideshare.net/1000heads/wom-expert-groups-asia

I am around, so if you have questions let me know here or @presleysylwia; we will start at 2.30 GMT

We will start in about an hour;)

Good Afternoon Sylwia. So here we go. The day is here. I hope its going to be another Valuable Discussion on the Latin American Socialmedia Trends.

Hi, nice to see you here, how are you?

I am doing Great. have tough routines these days due to some projects. otherwise I am Rocking I liked your idea to engage people from all the regions so that they can compare their trends with the Subject Region. (Latin America) I am sure we are expecting alot of different Regions joining today.

Hi guys, writing to you from Warsaw, Poland. I am sure this will be an interesting  disussion.

Hi Dawid! Nice to see you here too!:)

Hasnain, Dawid - I know it's boring, but for benefit of newcomers can you say few words about yourselves?;)

Hasnain, I hope this idea will evolve, the more we do it, the more interesting it gets. Next discussion will be on Africa, and I think mid December we will do one on Europe. By then we should have basis for more discussion on trends rather than the state of social media in different regions;)

Ok Sylwia. I'm working at "Agencja Spolem" which is a Social Media Marketing Agency. My duty is to develop strategies for brands in Social Media space. I blog a little on SocialMedia.PL. It's in Polish, so don't bother. If you want to know me better, my twitter username is @dawidpacha. 90% of my tweets are in English and Social Media related.

thank you!:)

You are welcome. I would love to hear more on this outrage over a proposed 3% telecommunications tax in Mexico. How much has the social media spread to traditional media?

I am just grabbing a coffee and be back in a second. Just to bring up one of the issues related to Latin America, few links:

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/10/20/mexico-net-advocates.html

http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/10/22/mexico-the-internet-as-a-necessity-not-a-luxury/

Check it out and let me know what you think!;)

Ah, Dawid, you're reading my mind! be back in a sec;)

Buenos dias a todos,

Do you think it is a way to raise more taxes (as unfair it is for lower income house), or to gain a control of who is doing what on internet?

Bonjour Marianne!:) How are you? Can you let us know few words about yourself?

I think it is rather a way of raising more taxes...

Tomorrow @ernestopriego  will join us, he is based in London, and posted this one:

http://neverneutral.wordpress.com/2009/10/20/internetnecesario/

(btw, my connection is playing, if I am slow in response I do apologise!;)

Hola! I'm Francisco from Bolivia, currently living in the UK though...I'll be jumping in and out as work demands some attention

Hi Sylwia,

Sure: I am French living in the UK, experienced in marketing (product), and branding strategy, and developing my knowledge of social media ...

thank you!:)

so going back to the taxation in Mexico, here is what @ernestopriego wrote:

'

All this happens in the context of important recent events in the world that have placed both fast broadband access as a human right and Twitter as an agent of change in healthy democracies. In the UK, Twitter has shown a real power to change things.

Developed nations, used to seeing their taxes used for (mostly) good uses, may wonder what’s the big fuss about a 3% tax. Considering the Mexican context of rampant corruption and endemic inequality, taxing as a sumptuous good an essential tool for information exchange, international commerce and social construction of knowledge is counterintuitive and by all means unacceptable.'

Hola Francisco! Marianne and Francisco, I am happy to see you both here

The law was passed yesterday morning, btw, and I must say I have not seen a lot of buzz around it in global social media, sadly...did you?

Hellow David , Marianne & Fransisco. I am Hasnain. for Pakistan Asia.

I am a web consultant and a Socialmedia Enthusiast. I am working for http://www.genexbs.com

My twitter acc is @Socializedweb & also find me of facebook.com/socialstream

last months discussion on Socialmedia Trends in Asia Helped me Enhance my knowledge & Again its going to be Great for all of Us.

In France, Jacques Seguela, the star advert mind of a generation branded internet ' the worst thing that happened to humankind' for its ability to 'instantly' destroy a person reputation

A lot of coverage on that one !

Hi, I'm Ben. Based in the UK, working at a digital agency, and have a client expanding to LatAm. Interested in finding out more about the area!

(twitter account is @benrmatthews)

ehm, what about the advantages? what is this sudden fair of social media? I mean, ok not sudden, but I would expect governments slowly getting used to social media...or maybe it is going to be a constant struggle, in the end, web is in a way anarchy...

hi Ben, nice to see you here;)

@sylwia hi

'founding member of @twestival' ? I am impressed!:)

It'd be interesting to hear if LatAm has their own social networks, a la China, or whether they use the same platforms as the US/UK, e.g. twitter, facebook, etc

@sylwia - Yep, founding member - @amanda was the main leader though, especially on the global angle

Freedom of speech and Latin America... do they go together? Went recently to an exhibition of graphic street art http://fondation.cartier.com/ and tagging buildings have been a long time around as a way to express rebellion against government...

Marianne, is this it? http://www.theinquirer.fr/2009/10/20/jacques-seguela-internet-la-plus-grande-saloperie-quaient-jamais-inventee-les-hommes.html  - just for reference;)

yes, saloperie = vasura= trash!

I think filtering and other means to restrict internet are present in Latin America and in other regions, however social media does develop drastically, regardless of those. We talked to people from Middle East, and from Asia - where filtering is present too, even if you look at social media events - there is plenty of those...

I saw a presentation on events in Mexico, there were plenty, here is an article about barcamps in Equador...the are just few examples:

http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/09/01/ecuador-the-latest-barcamp-held-in-santa-elena-province/

Ben, so - just out of interest, as I am great twestival fan - do you know how the idea of twestival started?

Social Media is indeed a democratization of content. People in Latin America have a lot to say. And filtered or not, the voice will come to our attention. Like it did in case of last Twitter Trends.

We are waiting for few attendees from the region, and I am not sure who will join today - few people confirmed tomorrow. I am interested in your general impressions about regional vs global social media - do you think global developments lead the regional developments or vice versa?

Dawid, I agree, I think the development cannot be stopped, I am interested to see though - how quickly the changes will come? Remember http://www.ccjacquismith.co.uk/  case in the UK? It had an immediate effect, I wonder how it;s going to work in Mexico...the law was passed in the end:/

I also wonder if there is anything the global social media players can do to support the change?

Francisco, do you think bloggers in the region are able to put pressure on the government?

Ben, are you a member of HI5 or Orkut? those seem to be quite strong in Latin America...

Just a thought...one of the biggest problems in Latam are inequalities...where very few people are very rich, a rather medium size proportion of middle class and a huge amount of population just by or below the poverty line. Most of these people will never use Internet, let alone Social-Media and priorities on the segment are health and infrastructure.

We are the lucky ones who have access to all the benefits of the modern world but I am sure that the less fortunate won't mind us paying a bit more as a (very small) way of redistribution??. That said...it needs to be done under full transparency and REAL redistribution....which "probably" will never happen...as said just a thought.

Agreed, Francisco - in case of Mexico we are talking about monopoly of service operators - not only government - it is a big barrier to fight:/ Also, if only 6% of country population has a broadband connection it is difficult to put pressure on both government and internet providers...it is a really difficult one, in my opinion it should be exactly the government who ensures the web is cheap and contributes to the development of the country - even if there are other issues to tackle.

@sylwia - re Twestival.

Basically, in London we were organising football games through twitter. In the pub after one game (where all the best ideas happen), we thought we should do a bigger tweetup but get everyone down for a party and do it for a good cause. The first London event was so oversubscribed that we had people signing up to twitter just so they could come along!

@amanda then took the idea and made it global, the rest is history.

So in other words by making it more expensive to get the access to the internet, goverment can control society more easily.

Anyway, back to the covnersation - lots of gret nuggets here

Hasnain, what is the situation in Pakistan - I mean obviously filtering is there, but you still have good access to the web, no?

@sylwia I'm aware of both Hi5 and Orkut, not a member of either though. Might have to sign up now...

Ben, was the first event the Twestival in Nov 2008? The one jsut before Twinterval?

Hello, Joining in from Colombia.

I do think that internet pressure is quite small in Latin America. There is so little internet penetration that it really is a "luxury" to have internet...

However, the tax makes it so that more people shy away from it... so it will remain a luxury. There is so much corruption in the Mexican government that it seems that fighting for a 3% tax on internet is not worth it. There are other pressing matters: violence, kidnappings, femicide....

Yes Dawid, but I think the problem is more complex - you would have thought the government wants to support development, but this seems not always the case...I just wonder if global social media can help in this issue specifically...

Ben, I know that Hi5 must be popular in Mexico, as my colleagues from there usually contact me via this network. I saw a good video about it somewhere, will try to digg it out for you in a sec...

here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fRJ6IX6WoQ

Hi Jules, thank you for joining! what do you think are the trends in current social media in Latin America?

Yes, I understand your point - still, I think the bloggers we do see, strive to spread the word about importance of the web in the area, no? there are the events too - barcamps, meet ups and finally twestival too!

@sylwia the firs tone was 25 September 2008 in trafalgar square, london. Twinterval wasn't really a twestival, just a stop gap before February's event as there was so much demand.

@sylwia - thanks for sharing the video!

Ben asked earlier about the most popular social networks, do you (Francisco, Jules) agree that Orkut and HI5 are popular? It's my idea, so I would love to know how popular - compared to those - Facebook is...

Ben - thx, I like the Twinterval too - it was good to meet people involved in Twestival there;)

online video streaming is the latest trend I've been seeing

Not via mobile devices necessarily, but through their laptops, or cameras connected to computers. Talk shows have been cropping up, people have been interviewing political characters, public personalities and "blogstars"

Just to show you how problems are different depending on the country I will tell you about recent case from Poland. Our Football (soccer) team representation is really weak. They loose games, one after another. And we will be hosts of EURO 2012 championships. It will be a disaster. So our Fotball fans blaim the organization called PZPN, which is similair to UEFA. It is corrupted and inefficient. That is what we know for a long time. Just week ago a website has been activated: http://www.koniecpzpn.pl/ (meaning "the end of PZPN"). So far 304996 football fans signed this letter up. I say this is not an issue to me. Countries have bigger problems regarding democracy, humar rights. And yet in Poland the level of football is such a great issue on the internet. I feel like nobody is really interested here in global problems.

@jules - using profiles such as ustream.tv?

Sylwia. I think Orkut is popular in Brazil, but not necessarily in the Spanish speaking communities. Colombia is Facebook 100%, Hi5 fell out of favor a while back. Same in Costa Rica.

I know that Flogger is common in Chile and Argentina, and now with tweens and young teens all over as well.

benrmatthews, using ustream and livestream as well

depends on the type of internet connection used and equipment, trial and error seems to show that for some people, ustream clogs up, and for others it is livestream that doesn't work that well.

but those 2 are the most popular, with ustream leading the way.

ah, apologies then, I communicate with my Mexican colleagues via HI5, did not know it was 'old fashioned' hehe, thank you for your info Jules!:)

It really depends on the country, as far as Bolivia... Facebook is king. Twitter is trying to catch up but nowhere close...myspace was good at some point but died a couple of years ago, same for hi5

well. maybe not in Mexico, i'm not that familiar with ALL the blogospheres as Francisco says, it depends on the country, and strangely, on the demographic.

Hi all, i work for Riot on Brazil and latin America.  Here in Brazil Orkut is still huge, but the upper class is migrting to Facebook.  On the other countries everything depends, Facebook is the biggest social network in most part pf them, but HI5 has a bigg space also.

I do know people who still use myspace, but regarding marketing trends, they are mostly focusing on twitter and facebook. Twitter is also going strong in both Colombia and Costa Rica.

Hi Thiago, nice to see you here:)

I think here, in the UK mySpace is dominated by artists and musicians rather than people wanting to network generally...

Hi Sylwia, thanks for the invitation

Twitter is gorwing fast too, but still reaches only a slice of the users in most countries (technology and communication enthusiats)  in Brazil Twitter is reaching the big crowd now, specially because of celebrties that are startng to use them.

@Jules Rincon. How many people use microblogging services in Colombia? Is it like 10% of Social Networking Users? In Poland it is about 5%.

So we are saying that next to local (I mean country and community) preferables, Facebook, Orkut, HI5 and Twitter are in the lead in Latin America?

Yes Sylwia, i agree with you. But orkut is only popular in Brazil.

BTW I am amazed how Polish community does not pick up Twitter - probably because we have a mirror service called Blip and now a new one, Sledzik. Is there something like that in Latin America too? I mean service working like Twitter but aimed at local communities?

Those did not work in France, did work in Germany and Netherlands I think...

Brazil is a world power on twitter, 5th biggest twitter-user in the world...only behind the US, India, Germany and the UK

wow, and now with Rio Olympics on the way, it will only grow stronger;)

Interesting how events like Olympics, Iran Elections etc boots up Twitter popularity in different regions...

forget the Olympics (well maybe not forget), but they also have the World Cup!

Jules, you mentioned streaming is growing in importance - I think we tend to underestimate the power of visual messages - videos are still amongts the most viewed type of content across the globe no?

ah, right, World Cup too! sorry!

I've got to jump off as clients are calling!

Thanks all for the insight and feel free to contact me through twitter if anything else comes up

Sylwia - thanks for hosting! Will be spreading the good word about these events.

Thank you for stepping by, Ben, come over tomorrow too, if you can - otherwise the chat will stay on-line for everyone to read;) Will stay in touch via Twitter;)

so anyone any thoughts on video, photo, audio content - I am not only talking about Latin America;)

Dawid, sorry, was tending to something else: I don't know statistics sadly :/ but we aren't many. There are moments when there is a boom, right now, mass media has been covering news and referring to twitter as sources. We had two instances this past week, so I'm guessing twitter usage increases as media mentions it more.

Thiago - do you work with video bloggers for instance?

It is easier to talk than to type for many, and in a video session you can have different guests speaking, and with a moderator keeping track of twitter or chat participation, then you have live interaction with the audience.

Marianne - do you see video, photo, audio blogging or content in general - growing in importance in France?

Dawid - I honestly do not know what is the situation with this in Poland, must admit:(

Marianne should know how it is on the French Guyana;;;

Hi, I'm Juan from Perú, Sylwia invited me to this conversation and although I' m doing a lot of things right now (taking breakfast one of them) I´ll be glad to answer your questions...

Hi Juan, nice to see you had a sec to join us! Enjoy the breakfast btw:)

Sylwia, that do u mean exactly with video bloggers?

@Jules at least you have one place. Like @Syliwa said. We have Twitter, Sledzik, Spinacz, Pinger and more coming. But sth is changing. Poles are picking Facebook. On checkfacebook.com Poland is number 1 country in terms of growth 32%. China is nr 2.

I mean - Jules mentioned that videostreamign becomes more popular - I wonder what is the general popularity of video content - do you see emerging video bloggers, bloggers who work mainly with podcasts and also - photo bloggers?

What I am trying to work out is a trend - I personally use more visual content myself, and I see that instead of classical video bloggers we have more bloggers combining text with other types of content.

Hi all, sorry I am a bit late!

podcasts are still the ugly child in the family... it is harder to promote podcast content and to create rapport with listeners... so some podcasters are experimenting with streaming the audio live, and then having it up for download. That creates the immediate connection with listeners, but also is available for download

Hi Thomas, nice to see you here, how are you?

Hi Sylwia and all, I am fine, just back from the Barcamp Saigon Organizers Meeting..

btw perfect timing, we are just talking about video, audio and photo content, and you are a podcaster:D exciting, how is the planning going? when is the barcamp happening?

Hi Juan! I've noticed a strong relationship between Peruvian and Bolivian bloggers in the past, a sort of affinity...on the other hand both countries have now a slightly callous politic relationship (because o the presidents and other reasons) do you think this affects the social-media bonding that was working so well a few years ago? and this question could also be extrapolated to other countries in real serious conflicts...

i got it.

well, we work a lot with video content, but not virals. beacuse a viral video is just a bet.

Now videostreaming is very popular all around latin america, a few yers ago beacsause of the internet connection was necessary to adapt a few ideas to images, instead of videos.

Right now we are doing a campign for nokia n97 in mexico that uses video content on a promotional mechanic http://www.n97blog.com.mx/

Barcamp was supposed to be at Nov 29, but we have to delay to Dec 6 or Dec16 because the venue ist not available..and we thinking about having belly dance lessons during coffee break.. what might be funny because most of the attendees are men of course

Jules, that makes sense. Podcasting - as opposed to lifestreaming - required a bit of work, no? (please correct me, I am so not in the picture when it comes to podcasts!:/)

Jules and Sylwia, podcasting is a bit of work compared to live streaming, mainly because of the editing (if you edit)

Videostream on the other hand has it limits on connections.. in most cases not more then 100 people can watch it.. and it's not really working in coutries with slow internet connections I guess

haha, bellydance? make sure you record few videos for us, please:) but seriously, sounds great!

Thiago - I see - do you see video bloggers in your region, or bloggers who combine text with video?

@Francisco Yeah, there were a sort of affinity, like u say, now political crashes between our presidents is creating friction on the blogosphere too, I can see it in  my own blog, when I reported about things like the Diablada or the ekeko. But dont think is sooo bad, because is helping to get the truth about themes that were not so many known but many people.

well, a few weeks ago, when the Costa Rican ex-president was sentenced, there were more than 4000 people watching the online streaming done by a newspaper. So it can be done!

Yes sylwia...as far as I know, in all latin america this is very common.

You see, Thomas, I am more than happy to record podcast on iPhone and upload it to AudioBoo, but not sure if I would have patience to work on editing it...as for lifestreaming yes - technical limitations are an issue everywhere:/

you dont need editing.. you can also just upload it..

Jules, that's cool. I think people always prefer video if available

yes, especially because when it is live, there is also a lot of twitter action going on simultaneously. However, this does mean that less people are blogging about the content... they are microblogging it

@francisco there are more friction between peruvian and chilean bloggers, but that is something you will find at all levels, relationswith out southern neighbord are complicated

Actually I think its not Stream vs Podcast.. once you stream you can also record it and upload it so people can download later.. it's also not video vs. audio or text vs. picture.. just use all these channels,

So you are saying, Thomas, that in Asia all of those channels are used? btw are you in touch with German social media too?

Juan can you explain why its complicated?

Sylwia, I think people use in Asia as well as in Germany whatever is available and suits them. But in Germany there are also Bloggers who will never do a video, or podcasters who dont really write a blogpost..

Jules - http://technorati.com/blogging/feature/state-of-the-blogosphere-2009/ confirms that - it states that some of the blogging content moves away to microblogging...

Do you submit your podcasts to iTunes? Could you share links?

@Juan yeah I noticed that as well, one of the most exquisite online debates I've ever seen was one about "pisco"...it started off very well and nice and ended with insults and fight proposals between Chileans and Peruvians, it was hilarious. Can't remember where it was but if you google pisco debate you'll find hundreds... there are also facebook groups and many others...

You dont submit the podcast to itunes, you just submit your RSS feed adress. But most of my downloads are coming through itunes.. so its the most popular podcatcher

Thomas - can you tell us more about the barcamp you are working on?

Jules, Thiago, Juan - any upcoming social media events in your region?

Dawid - I think last time Preetam mentioned a barcamp or meet up in Gdansk, have you heard about it?

@thomaswanhoff for things that happened more than 100 years ago, there were a war in which Peru and bolivia lost part of its territory (and Chile won it) and there is a big resentment from there. I now there have been more recent wars that have been forgotten between other countries in another parts of the world, but that's how things went here. Chile is always doing things that offend some peruvians like to say Pisco is chilean, or  things like that...

Monik, are you around? (sorry guys, Monik joined Asia topic, I wonder if he is still around)

Barcamp is a un-conference. People gathering and looking for a venue, some infrastructure (rooms, projectors, food and yes, t-shirts) and everyone is a participant. meaning you can speak there or helping serving coffee, whatever you like.

There are lots of social media events in Brazil, small ones happen all the time.  The biggest one is Campus Party in Jan.  This weekend we are organizing Nokia Camp, an event for 200 opinion leaders with workshops and activities.

Juan, actually that what happens with Thailand and Cambodia and Cambodia and Vietnam and Vietnam and China and, at least when its about soccer, between Germany and the Netherlands

So the one you are working on is in Saigon, right? Preetam Rai mentioned last time that in Asia people travel to different events, do you expect attendees from other parts of Asia too? Can you share the event url with us?

@Syliwa, havent heard of it.

This monday there is a MobileMonday event in Medellin. in Costa Rica there is a conference called Trancyberiano  in november on how to do business online. Then I'm organizing a cooking-blogging-food event in Costa Rica for november, they are also organizing a TEDPuraVida satellite event for march.

Dawid - will look for a link, btw do you remember Euro 2008? when Poles lost the game with Germany I was watching the reactions of bloggers on both sides - (Castrol) it was really interesting to see forum members in Poland really upset, but leading Polish football bloggers analysing the game and staying rather subjective.

thomas, but there are lot of business between chile and peru, first came chileans wanting to buy everyting, now it is peruvians entrepeneurs who are slowly introducing themselves in chile

Jules - cooking blogging food event? tell me more - I should put you in touch with @tojulius, Italian social media event blogger who did smth similiar in London, actually I think he still does! ah, now I am hungry:)

Yeah there is a group of people (me included) travelling to nearby Barcamps in SE Asia. I think thats good because it transports ideas arround

everyone - are most of those vents covered on-line? can you share the hashtags with me plz, I would love to follow them on Twitter at least;)

Juan, same in SE Asia,. Cambodia is depending on Thailand, but still having border conflicts about a historic site..

Sylwia, not to mention tensions between England and German when it comes to football

Sylwia, #barcamppp (Barcamp Phnom Penh), #barcampsaigon. oh, and it looks as we will have a Barcamp in Myanmar soon as well

Dawid - http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2010 - summer next year in Gdansk, Preetam si coming, and I am hoping to go too;)

Thomas - thx for the hashtag - as for England - Germany: yes - I remember UK sending undercover security forces together with fans to Germany!:/

I never thought I would talk about football:)

Another question we have talked about in relation to Asia - and I am interested in how it works in Latin America - is prominent bloggers. Generally speaking, web is fragmenting, and more and more niche communities develop. Do you see (and do feel free to talk abotu all your regions - Fracisco - Spain?, Marianne - France?) still prominent bloggers around?

What about pressure on bloggers or networks from governments in South America? Any problems with censorships there? Anything blocked?

Sylwia, basically there are a few of us who write about food and cooking... so we'll get together at a restaurant of a twitterer/blogger, discuss cooking, food and online tools. we sometimes tweet about cooking under #foodtography

@Sylwia I know Polish internet users crying out loud after every failure of our fotball team. At least we have other sports we are pretty good at.

There is going to be a wordcamp (I suppose is world but the email said it so) in november here in Lima, not much info about it right now

sorry guys, but I have to leave the group for today, the office is being closed and I have tom move. Will read your discussion later on.

Juan there are wordcamps, they usually focus on wordpress topics

See you Dawid!

Thx for joining us Dawid!

Jules, it's a cool idea, I like it - can I borrow it for somehing I am doing in the UK? You see we have this Polish/English blog about food and I was looking for an idea to bring UK based polish bloggers in one event, but most of them are women - blogging about food - perfect match for what you have mentioned;)

Thomas, do you attend events in Germany too?

I would like to do that in Vietnam as well..

Thomas - you mean a wordcamp? I have never been to one:( not even sure where is the closest one, but will ask around;)

Here in Peru there is a curious thing, most popular bloggers are journalists, and they are using their relationship with media to auto design themselves as "influential" or things like that, but they are a very closed circle indeed, and with the level of internet penetration here, they sure only influence their family or friends

well, we'll be streaming the event, I could liveblog in english... and we could connect. I don't know if we could do live skype video, it usually sucks in terms of video quality and audio

BUT we could include a video entry from you Sylwia!

ah, let's do that:) do you want one of me preparing something and talking about social media in the meantime, it would be great to connect:)

Sylwia, me neither just remember there were some wordcamps in Germany and Thailand

Juan, I see. Is it specific for Peru, or do you think that is the case in other parts of Latin America too?

Hi all,

i´m really sorry but i have to go to other meeting ins 15 minutes. I will read the discussion later. Thanks for the invitation.

I will see if someone of my team can join you in the discussion.

Bye Thiago

Bye Thiago, thank you for joining!:)

Thomas - can I ask you about blogging in Germany? I cannot help but have the impression that German bloggers take blogging very seriously, I mean everyone has to have Impressum (disclosure), I heard from my German friends that you are googled when you come for a job interview - hence people do not like to take risks when blogging (engage with brands etc) - is this true?

And I will ask everyone about another general new development - Google Wave - any initial thoughts? Thomas, are you on the wave?

Ok, yes you have to have a Impressum, at least you need to give a vaild adress. And I guess bosses all over the world are doing social network checks in these days.. but blogging is not risky at all. I think the problem of blosg in Germany is that the most popoluar blogger are still blogging about blogging

Yes I am on the Wave.. great tool so far. But it is in an early stage, and it's not a chat or social network

Sylwia, I really dont know about other countries here in SouthAmerica, but I think it is something of a natural thing (but maybe strange) in a growing blogosphere, after all journalists study to manage medias, but people from other carreers are failing here to make it into the public blogosphere, but there are a lot of alternate nets, and lots of people working on them, I think is a matter of time that they get to massive knowledege

Jules, Juan - you are on the wave too, no?

Juan, I understand what you are saying, it is a natural next step!

Juan I have a journalist background too. I think one reason why so many journalists are blogging is that they are used to do writing

I am in the wave, but found it boring, maybe I haven't really involved on it

As for me, I find that using the wave is affecting me already. Because the typing happens real time I start to consider what I type more even in other places now - on Skype, Twitter, even here...

I'm also on the wave

but haven't seen how to put it to use....

I think wave still needs a lot of work, but will change the way we communicate and collaborate on text, that one I am sure off. I just think it will be (already is actually ) difficult to manage content there:/

Juan, it's a collaboration tool. So if you don't have people to collaborate on wave, it's kind of useless. But imagine we would do this talk on wave and would be able to throw pictures in and documents and can edit stuff.. thats just one way to use it

I am excited about the idea of having it hosted on my blog and letting others talk - it feels like letting a group of people to your house and leaving them to party as you go out for a walk - we will host discussions but won;t be able to moderate them all the time...

and yes, as you are saying Thomas - being able to work with different types of content in one place. what are the initial reactions in your regions?

mixed.. people here in vietnam used the survey feature and some games.. not so many gadgets and bots are available right now.. so it needs time to develop.

In Germany most of public waves talking about wave I tried to start to write an essay about economy in asia on wave and invited people to work together on it.. but no response so far

how did you invite them? on or outside of wave? that is the thing - not everyone is on it yet, and it's pretty slow still...

I just twittered about it and on facebook

I did not really invite certain people, i started a public wave..

I think we started talking about it in Global Voices wave - for GV Lingua project (translations) it might be potentially  a good tool for collaboration! Juan, do you agree?

Yeah, there are 2 waves on GV lingua I think, but they have (slowened...?) sorry 4 my english

They have slowed down, yes, I think because we are all in different time zones:/ and we did not think (yet;) about setting up a date for trying it out;)

thats the cool thing in wave (once its working), I can type in Geramn and you guys see it translated in realtime in the language you prefer.. there is a English-Vietnamese bot already working,

I think we used the bot called aunt-rosie, which allows translations - just as you said. the whole real time idea is great, but also scary - I see people who join it simply admitting it is freaky to see others typing:)

Sorry Sylwia, got to run! enjoyed the talk!

I am pretty sure that google has to provide an option to switch of live typing

thank you for joining us, Jules!

Bye Jules

I would expect them to, really. I also miss having a status option - I cannot work out who is active, who isn't...

Status is there already.. and again, its not so much a chat. it doesnt matter if people are online or not if you are creating a document together..

is it, where?

But yes, sometimes you may want to know if someone is there right now.. actually the green dot says this.. click on your profile picture in google wave.. whats your name on wave?

sylwiapresley@googlewave.com

ah, green dot, it''s new isn't? noticed it few days ago, but had no idea what it is for:/ I would like to know if someone I am starting to talk to is on the other side right now, in case if I am trying to catch them via different channels and want to work out which one is faster, but you are right - it is aimed to be collaboration tool, so obviously it's not a priority

I think for now it indicated that the person is online on google, not necessarily on wave

find me on wave thomas.wanhoff@googlewave.com and see my status

Aha, ok, completely different question - how did you get involved in all the social media events in Asia?

I only see myself with the green point all the times i've been to GW

me too, Juan

Thomas, no, I do not see you with green dot, just myself

I see some other people with a green dot

Juan, a question relating to something you said earlier - blogging vs journalism. You said that journalists pick up blogging, does it affect, change blogosphere in any way? I mean journalism per definition is about delivering facts, blogging about writing about opinions, I am fascinated how those two work next to each other, but interested how journalists blog...

I havent been able to find how to invite another people too

if you want to invite people who are not on the wave, you need to have an e-mail with invites, did you get that?

nop

Thomas - really bizarre. I cannot see anyone else just myself! How about we try to work on smth together sometime?

Juan, when did you join the wave? I had to wait a week to receive e-mail with invitations for others...

It changed, people not on internet thing, believes blogs are a thing of journalist now...  the other uses of blogs are very little known

btw - interesting one Google Wave Etiquette - https://wave.google.com/wave/?pli=1#restored:wave:googlewave.com!w%2BWiwX0j4iZ

oops, not sure if the link came out right...

just copy the whole thing...

I joined a week ago, but I was in the jungle, poor conectivity, so didnt do anything

Yeah there are a lot of public waves about it as well

I am sure you will get the invite mail fairly soon then, Juan!

Hi guys!

Hi!!!

Hi Camilla!

hey, I'm Camilla from 1000heads Sorry I'm late, work got a bit hectic! How is everyone?

HI Camilla, how are you?

Good thanks Syl, you?

We are just talking about the Google wave;)

I am ok, thx:)

Ah yes, the famous Google wave! I haven't been granted an invitation yet - is it as cool as people make out?

I was just about to suggest slowly wrapping up! Camilla, you had questions about the region I think - do you want to ask Juan now, or wait with it for tomorrow, when there is more of us?

Is there another one tomorrow?

Juan, Thomas - do you have any other questions?

yes, the same time, 2.30 PM London time;) for 3 hrs

Not yet.. and its already 11 pm here

also, there might be people simply reading us now, if anyone has any questions - please let us know

ah! thank you for staying up so long Thomas!:)

oh cool - I'll make sure I can jump in then - I have some questions for the Latin America guys

Juan - and you - thank you for jumping on the web so early!:) I hope you will have a nice day!:)

Bye everyone!

Camilla, thank you for coming, and do come back tomorrow:)

see you tomorrow guys, adios!

Chau!!!

see you all .. bye!

I am very glad we had a fruitful discussion, I definitely learned few interesting things, and look forward to record myself making food and talkign about social media for Jules;) If you have any other ideas or project, pelase do share them with us:)

Thank you once again for all your time!:)

If you cannot join us tomorrow, this topic is always open, with history of the chat avaialable, and if you want to get in touch with attendees, let me know @presleysylwia;)

also, next topic with be dedicated to Africa, and the one in December to European social media  - I really hope you can join us there. Dates are not confirmed, but I am aiming for 3rd Thu-Fri of the month;)

Thank you and bye!

Hello :|

haha I got here too late

But its never too late @Diego. I am sure Discussion we have engaged today will be helpful for you to read. also join us 2moro at the same time.

tomorrow at 2pm GMT, right?

its actually 2:30 GMT. where are you from? if you can give small introduction. that will be helpful. because people are going to read this discussion later on aswell. if you have the detailed Agenda of this discussion then thats great. other wise also give your email address so I can email you so you can with preparation tomorrow.

I actually was invited by Sylwia from Global Voices =) I'm a voluntary author and Lingua Editor for Global Voices in Portuguese! In Brazil we are at GMT -3.

I'd love to have the detailed Agenda for tomorrow!! Here is my email: diegocasaes at gmail.com

I have sent you the Agenda in email. please do read it and also list your socialmedia links where people can find you. you can find out more about me on Twitter @Socializedweb. I am leaving now. Times Over. I am going home now. I hope to see you 2moro

Just got the email. Thank you very much =)

Thank you Hasnain for sending it over!:) I am mailing Diego now wit a reminder;)

Hope to see you all today at 2.30 PM GMT! Have a light Friday!

Please use #womexperts hashtag on Twitter when referring to this event;)

As suggested by attendees, I have also set up a LinkedIn group: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2418512&trk=anet_ug_grppro

Hi, I think we will be starting as soon as others arrive;)

Buenos dias, ¿qué tal?

Hi Paulus, I am fine and you?:)

* pouring some coffee is *

ah, coffee, I forgot mine!:/

Paulus, did you add your link to LinkedIn group?

I did, as a "News" item. Thx for suggesting this.

Hello all =)

Hello Diego! 

Hi Diego! How are you? I am sorry I was not around last night!:(

I was wondering if I should set up FB group or page for the #womexperts, what do you think?

Apologies, Paulus and Diego - can you please say a few words about yourself - just for the benefit of attendees of this discussion?;)

Don't worry. I missed the time yesterday. I also decided to come earlier today because we're having different timezones because of daylight saving times.

And yes, it'd be nice to have a FB group!

Sure: I'm Diego Casaes, a 21-year-old Brazilian Bachelor of Tourism, but passionate for Journalism and citizen media. I'm currently a voluntary author and Portuguese Language Editor for Global Voices Online. I also write for some Brazilian blogs. I work as a freelance translator as well =)

I still struggle with deciding if page or group is better, shall we go for a group then?

Sure, I am a professional speaker about new media, living in Amsterdam, Holland. I am also editor of a blog about internet video and love to travel.

To be honest, I am not a big fan of these FB pages and LinkedIn groups. Too static. If we have to, choose one.

Also, before we start chatting about different topics, please note that we have a topic for Noverber: Africa, and for December: Europe.

I think in a group we can discuss other matters and create a sense of community around it. What do you think?

I see, ok. I will wait for others and see what they think.

Paulus, both LinkedIn group and FB group were suggested by few attendees - just to allow you all to connect outside of this place;) and share links.

For now, I will leave just the LinkedIn one;)

That's fine with me. Sorry for the rant.

I wanted to start to talk about the taxation in Mexico, but @ernestopriego  mentioned he would join us a bit later, so how about sharing impressions about Google Wave?

Paulus, actually I like when people rant - good to know what everyone thinks:) I appreciate that:)

(I am well known for ranting myself:P)

I really liked Google Wave, but I hope Google get it to work properly ASAP. It is still a little annoying sometimes.

What were your fist impressions? love or hate?:)

So far, I like Google Wave a lot. I was losing love for classic email rapidly - because of Twitter - and IMHO this is definitely a "better email".

Paulus, did you move most of your conversations from e-mail to Twitter?

Love, certainly haha. It is addictive too.

Diego, I guess at the moment we can only see the backbone of it, no? I still cannot predict how it would change the way we communicate and collaborate as we do not see a lot of extensions...although yesterday Thomas convincing us all that it should be seen as a tool for collaboration mainly, no so for communicating..

Yes, I think like 70% of my email (including newsletters I no longer need).

Diego, indeed, but I do find it difficult to keep an eye on my work mail, gmail, Twitter and wave...3 was ok to follow, 4 seems to be too much..:P

Hola everyone, just catching up with the conversation, Francisco from Bolivia (living in the UK) here.

Ola Francisco!

Paulus, interesting how we all use Twitter differently - I use it differently than gmail, so I use both (50%/50%). But yes, 50% moved away from gmail this way to Twitter...

Hi Francisco, welcome back! we are just talking about Google Wave and looking at how conversations moved from e-mail to Twitter

Diego, how about you - how did Twitter change your ways of communicating?

and I spend one hour less each day going through the RSS feeds. If there's something really important going on, I will hear it on Twitter.

Well, I don't use Twitter to replace email but, I do think it really changed the way I reach people.

For instance, to reach the audience of my blog and to reach other bloggers in Brazil. We often use twitter instead of leaving comments in the comment box.

Paulus - you see, I agree here - if I want to find out something here and now I do go to Twitter first!

It is also becoming a tool for cyber-activism in Brazil and it replaces most of my RSS feeds too

Diego, you have mentioned smth very interesting, I had this discussion with @blogtillyoudrop, a French blogger based in the UK recently. She was complaining that people do not comment so much any more! I do not have too many comments on my blog, but I do see more conversation on Twitter, and I do talk on Twitter about what I have posted on the blog...

Diego, can you give an example of this cyber-activism?

We use mainly to spread information on actual activism, for instance. There was this time when students were held in the Senate and the information was easily shared online.

There was also a time when a guy killed a dog and published the video in Youtube. In less then 1 hour we found his name and went to the police to sue him.

Good!

Hey everyone!

but the most of it is that we raise awareness in  many cases such as the bill that intends to tipify some internet activities as crimes.

Hi Camilla, nice to see you here;)

Hey Everyone. I am here but very busy with a client.just wanted to say hello to you all.

Hey Camilla are you from Lake Resort?

Hi Syl, Hey Hasnain, I'm from 1000heads! (London) what about yourself?

Hi Hasnain, nice to have you here:)

Sylwia, I too don't get many comments in my blog I feel like Twitter is really useful for that and we might not feel depressed without actual comments in the blog. I think both tools can interact. A good idea is to share a twitter feed in the blog sidebar so everyone will have an idea of what the audience is talking about the blog.

Assalaam alaikum, Hasnain. Aap kaise hain?

Hello Camilla!

Hi Paulus!

Wow. W-Salam Paulus. Mein Theek hoon ( I am Fine ) where did you learn it BTW?

The problem is that people often think that one tool replaces another, but that is not the case.

What are we all chatting about?

Diego, you know I actually think thanks to Twitter there is more conversation around my blog post - hence why I was so eager to use it for promoting GV Polska posts too. There, no one really comments, as it is a new site, but thx to Twitter I do know people read it - which is exactly why we do it!

Hasnain, I take Hindi/Urdu classes.

DIego, I so agree with you! I think all tools need to work together and it's up to the individual to decide what and how to use;)

Camilla, we talked a bit about Google Wave, but moved to how Twitter changed discussion, and Diego and I talked about the fact that instead of blog comments we talk abotu blog posts on Twitter

Sylwia had an interview with the a girl name Camilla from the Lake Resort. I thought you are that one. So you are from @1000heads. Great. I am from Pakistan. A web Consultant, Socialmedia Enthusiast & A Normel Being. I am on Twitter @Socializedweb.

@Paulus. Thats Great. so kya chal raha hai?

ah cool. Totally agree with the Twitter thing. On our site for STA TravelBuzz I always post the latest blog and get feedback via Twitter instead of blog posts now.

Diego, we talked about tolls, popular networks and sites in your area - in Brazil, in your opinion, what are the most popular sites? Where do people blog? Is Twitter popular? What social networks do you connect with your friends and other bloggers on? opps sorry, a lot of questions here:/

@Hasnain great! I will check out your tweets

Hasnain, yes, very right - Camilla was great in helping out with organising of Oxford Twestival!:)

Camilla, Paulus here is from Amsterdam and he was involved in their Twestival;)

Oh and yes Hasnain, that's me!

oh great, how diverse. Do we have any Latin American people here too?

Camilla - when you mention STATravel - is that UK audience or global?

haha Sylwia, well, people love Twitter in Brazil. We have almost 9 million users of Twitter here. It is very popular among bloggers as well, which is quite interesting.

Camilla> Diego;)

What about blogging platforms - Worpress?

We have a handful of bloggers who are very famous here. Indeed, many of them are sponsored by many companies as well. The majority of these are designer bloggers.

Wordpress rules over Brazil =P

I'd say only newcomer bloggers use Blogspot.

I am asking from Polish point of view really - Polish social media seems to develop a bit on seeparate platforms and people gradually move to global ones - we have onet.pl and blox.pl as blogging platform, only when you need more options, you move to Wordpress or Blogger...

but the most visited blogs use wordpress. Even the government's blogs and websites use Wordpress lol

wordpress is definitely the choice for most people I know. I have used it a few times and it's really simple (especially for someone like me who crys at the thought of HTML)

@hasnain What's "chal"? I think "trick"?

@ Camilla I remembered your name from that Audio Boo you had with Sylwia.

I think Wordpress Rules almost most of the Regions. @Diego & @Sylwia

indeed, and Diego - when you say popular bloggers are sponsored - do you have independent bloggers who are also influential?

Hasnain - I agree;)

@ Paulus Chaal is Trick. I meant whats going on? ( kya chal Raha hai)

@Hasnain oh yes.. the dreaded Audioboo! Syl likes to leap on people to get an interview.. Ox Twest was awesome though!

they are independent bloggers fortunate enough to win prizes and trips sponsored by private companies

It's really interesting for me personally to see that in Europe and Asia (I did not ask around other regions, to be honest) it's really difficult to identify 'best bloggers' unless you do it within a specific type of blogging, hobby etc...

For instance, just recently around 30 bloggers were sponsored by a Tourism Office of a city in the northeast of Brazil to visit the place and use social media to spread their experience.

And on the top of that comes paid, sponsored blogging, I think Preetam mentioned that in Asia, during barcamps he meets popular bloggers, who are actually sponsored

Diego, do they disclose that on their blog?

We could see many Flickr, Twitter, video posts, etc, etc. And the thing is, most of them have thousands of visits per month in their blogs!

@camilla I think Audio & Video Content adds more value to the Message you are spreading. I am more like an Audio Video Guy than the one who like to read & Write.

Indeed, they do disclose.

Camilla - it is truth - Hasnain is great in conversing over phone;) We spent about 2hrs talking about social media on the phone already!

Another example of this was that microsoft just sent special editions of Windows 7 in advance to many bloggers. Even though most of them use Mac =P

Diego - so the sponsorship has to be disclose, or it just happens (ethicist talkign out of me;))? I am just thinking about recent changes in the US where lack of disclosure is punishable, I think up to 1,000 USD (am I right?)...

Diego, really? how did they react?

And what about the readers - do they trust opinions of sponsored bloggers?

Hello all

Well, is just happens actually, which is very good we don't need laws for that as in the US.

btw - it's a quesiton to all of you, as most of you blog - do you think sponsored blogging is still a trusted opinion?

hi Thomas, great to see you back!:)

The bloggers reacted very nicely. Who doesn't? They received a copy hand-signed by MS CEO hahaha

Diego - valid point!:)

@Hasnain I can imagine blogs going that way soon.. audio and video! I like it though, it's still quite niche

Still, what do you all think - if a blogger posts sponsored content, is it still trusted?

It is interesting that the audience still trust their opinion. I think companies have realized that there is no chance to pay for good posts. If something is good, bloggers say it is good, if it is not, they also say. Things are very clear in this point.

In Holland, user generated video content is not exploding, yet. Not like mobile, that is.

In this interview Seth Godin mentioned that to trust a blogger's opinion nowadays it takes months of reading their content http://technorati.com/blogging/article/seth-godin-interview-sotb-2009/

Paulus, we have lots of podcasts here and some videocasts.

Yes, Jules mentioned yesterday that videostreamign is popular, is that the case in Brazil too?

One of my favorite podcasters is Bia Kunze. She is a blogger and podcasters of mobile technology. She reviews phones, pdas, etc

Diego, what language is Bia using?

videostreaming is slowly becoming popular. the only issue is that internet speed in Brazil is still awful and slow

Diego, your point 'If something is good, bloggers say it is good, if it is not, they also say.' is going to be my motto for a while - I completely agree with it!

@thomaswolf She podcast and blogs in portuguese =/

Can you give us her URL plz?

She went for the latest Sao Franciso web convention a few months ago sponsored by Nokia if I'm mistaken not =)

(Thomas is a podcaster too)

Here is the main website to all her links: http://www.garotasemfio.com.br/

the funny thing is: she is originally a Dentist

Diego, when you say podcasting video content is more popular - do you mean bloggers who specifically create only that type of content, or bloggers who add it to their textual content - regular blog posts?

One of the problems with many podcasters is that they are still in the technology business.. thats ok for them, but keeps podcasting still out of mass media.. there are not so many podcast about arts, science, a.s.o

Dentist! Reminds me of the taxi driver with PhD in Singapore http://taxidiary.blogspot.com/

Bia blogs and podcasts, but we have many exclusive podcasters.

Sylwia, I just love this taxi driver blog!!!

Anyway, we even have a prize in Brazil for podcasts.

You see my question was very personal, as I would like to use more of different types of content, but somehow am not in touch with bloggers who specialise in it - apart form Thomas;) - I mean I feel a gap between textual and other types of blogging myself...

Diego, do you have other blogging contests too?

I'd like to start podcast, but I don't like my voice hehehe We're experiencing some podcasts in the Think About it Competition this year.

DIego: btw I forgot to ask you how did the climate change blogging go? can you tell us all about the project? it's an interesting one, as it brigns a lot of nationalities!

@Sylwia Hmm, I don't recall any contest for blogs..

Sylwia, believe me the problem with the voice is very common, Everyone hates his voice at the beginning

Hasnain, Thomas, Camilla, Paulus - blogging contests in your regions?

Oh, absolutely!

Thomas - did you hate yours too? (say yes, and I will continue with my AudioBoos;))

Talking about taxi drivers, there's a brilliant blog (in Hindi) with podcasted interviews featuring Bombay cab drivers: Meter Down.

The competition is promoted by the EJC -European Journalism Centre and gathers more than 90 bloggers from 40 different nations!!!

So this year we blog about Climate Change: http://climatechange.thinkaboutit.eu/

awesome, thank you, Paulus!

Yes of course, in the beginning that was so strange for me to listen to my voice in the headphones and loudspeakers.. and it doesnt get better when suddenly 2000 people downloading that stuff

Diego, thx for the link, I think I saw a Polish girl there too;)

It is impressive because we have many different perspectives on the same subject, although I personally think that some of the contestants are only reproducing content from other blogs such as news blogs and adding just a little point of view.

Thomas - haha, but you did get used to it? when was the point, I mean what made you actually enjoy it?

Thomas, would you share our podcast with us? I'd like to listen to it

*your podcast, lol

See: I love writing, I enjoy writing in my journal (still have one on my desk - paper and pen I mean) and I like the blogging this way, but I feel strange about talking...

am used to it now.. maybe after some months.. its a science podcast in german language.. http://wissenschaft.wanhoff.de

Oh, German. Gee~~ I only know 2 or 3 words in German :~

talking of links and our presences, Paulus, can we have the link to your interview on Dutch TV please? I am sure other would like to see how your mainstream media appreciates opinions of social media specialists;)

Diego, you can still listen to Thomas;) It would be cool to have a tool translating podcasts, like Aunt Rosie on the wave translating blips;)

also, I think Camilla - you had a question related to social media in Latin America?

How mainstream media see bloggers in your countries? I ask that because in Brazil the media has always a stereotyped vision of blogs and twitter, and social media in general.

Hm, I am not sure if James is around, he knows better about UK situation, hold on...

As for Poland, oh well, bloggers are still seen as different media, but now and again social media phenomena appear on TV, the Simon's Cat viral for instance was shown on TV and discussed...

Here's my TV item: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UR7Lk-Bnx3c. It's in Dutch, but the basic idea will come through. It was well received in the Twitter community, maybe because it was a serious and even slightly positive item about Twitter in a gossip show

For instance, just yesterday there was this news in the TV about bloggers who succeed in raising money on the web, but they don't realize that most people don't look for money on the web...

What i love with youtube is that its kind of easy to integrate subtitles

Also, there were few scandals around social network Nasza-Klasa (based on finding friends from school) because marriages were falling apart because of old loves found on it:P

wow, Sylwia =O

Thank you, Paulus, so it was well received? great!

Well, the most 'populated' social network in Brazil is Orkut. Do you know it?

Thomas, true.

Diego, yes, I am there, but not used it at all, since I worked in Mexico and my collegues there use Hi5, although Jules told me yesterday that it is not so popular anymore

And we often see cases of racism, others being arrested for child pornography, and people who lack good sense and publish every information of their lives on it, turning themselves vulnerable to criminals.

Diego, Orkut used to be big in India, too, but now faces an all out attack by Facebook. Anything like that in Brasil?

Also, if you check chat history form yesterday I posted video of an Orkur employee about the network in your region;)

I'll look for this video.

Vietnam loves ing.vn and Facebook as well as Yahoo, while Cambodia goes with Hi5 like Thailand

People are discovering Facebook in Brazil yet...

Well, yes, Nasza-Klasa is also full of stupid content - actually there is a blog somewhere featuring the worst content form the social network, sorry, no idea about the url...

Thomas, really? so Hi5 is popular, how about Xing as opposed to LinkedIn?

hahaha, we have the same with Orkut here, Sylwia. It is a blog called "tolices do orkut" roughly translated as "stupidity in orkut"

Diego, if Orkut is strong, what do you think will make people move to FB?

haha, glad to see another global trend, Diego;)

because FB is becoming popular! and people love to be pop

easy, truth!:)

Diego - do you have any regional mirror services - we for instance have purely Polish microblogging platform, I know Germany has a Twitter mirroring services too...

XIng is more popular in GErmany than LinkedIN.. HI5 isnt even known in Germany, and just a few people using Orkut. More popular in Germany is SchuelerVZ, translated as Students-Lists..

Sylwia, in India Facebook offers a seamless and automated transition from Orkut to FB, tempting many users away.

Yes, I saw SchuelerVZ - how does it work? like Facebook? why 'Student' in the name?

do you mean url shortening?

Paulus, aha! smart...

No, Diego, I mean Twitter like services

we have some blog and podcast directories and a very good url shortening that catches podcast and blog posts: http://migre.me/

or other types of platforms - like brazilian photo sharing site? social network? I mean, Orkut is popular, but not specifically Brazilian...

hmm, not sure actually. I think we don't have such thing yet :p

Sylwia it was meant to target students

we have a blog platform actually

Thomas, thx!

http://www.brogui.com/ A brazilian blogging platform

Migre.me - just looking at it - what are the numbers in yellow icons? number of tweets? rating?

oh wait, I'm not sure if this brogui is still a blogging platform

Thomas - do you see a lot of German, specifically 'local' types of websites?

Paulus, I think I also saw Dutch microblogging platform, am I right?

Sylwia, the number says how many times it was clicked

migre.me was developed by @jonnyken another famous blogger in Brazil

yes, there are as i mentioned XING and schuelerVZ, as well as newspapers are building own communities, also popular are the netmoms

Diego, in Latin America - just generally speaking to what extend are the languages important in social media usage?

We have talked about different types of sites and looked at examples, but let's try to step a bit back and look at general trends - and please think of all your regions - do you think English speaking sites are dominant in all your regions?

Well, Brazilians are very egoistic when it comes to language, since we are the only ones who speak Portuguese in the whole continent hahaha, but most services are in Portuguese.

some of the services are in English as well, but with Portuguese language versions.

I rarely see anything in Spanish, though.

In Germany everyones speaks German on social networks.. in cambodia its usually english, mostly because of the khmer font.. vietnamese prefer Vietnamese

But still, we like translation services. For intance, we don't have many Portuguese translators for websites like TED.

*we lack.

Hi everybody... I'm Juan from Peru.

Hello, Juan!!!!

Hi Juan, nice to see you here:)

We are jsut talking about languages of social media;)

I think in general southamerica and asia are way more international than europe when it comes to the use of english... its accepted as a kind of second language, while European countries still use it rarely

Hi Juan

changing a little the subject, I still feel like we need more emphasis in citizen media. Even though we have the access, and mobile phones with internet connection are becoming popular, people don't use this for reporting news many times.

Thomas, very valid point, I agree, we will talk about Europe in December and I am sure this will come out as one of main trends there

Hi, thanks, sorry 4 being late, it's a bit early 4 me..

Hello Juan!

no worries at all, Juan!:)

I'm not very sure, Thomas.

Not all the people in Brazil speak English, so there is no way they would access English language sites and blogs

so most of the time we chat in Portuguese and we visit Portuguese-language sites and only that.

ok, Diego I was just assuming that

What percentage of Brazilians blogs in English (not exactly, just in your opinion) - what is the connection btw global English speaking and regional language speaking blogosphere - there must be

That is indeed a very good point to be discussed.

In Middle East I was told that Arabic speaking vs English speaking works fine, as some of Arabic speaking bloggers blog in ENglish as well, or at least meet in the same social media events

Because we lack content in Portuguese. And people are not encouraged to do so, just a handful of them blog and maintain their blogs alive. Now, this is changing slowly, but I'd love to see more action from people about this.

Well, I'd say most Technology blogs get their content from English-language blogs. And some bloggers (rarely) blog in English.

this way the innovation brought with English speaking global platforms combined with local start ups and ideas results in stronger networks, but still global seems to be something bloggers tent to want to take part in - (keep in mind I talked to English speaking bloggers!;P)

So, If I were to guess this percentage, I'd say less than 10% of all blogs have a notion of English or search for their content in English.

I see

Here in Peru is very similar, there is no blogging in english, you will find blog posts on Peru just on blogs made by expats...

Thomas - what would you say the percentage is in Asia?

What I mean is exactly what Sylwia describes.. I dont know many bloggers in Germany who have a blog in english..

Well, I can count on my fingers the bloggers who blog in English here hahaha

Paulus - you have an interesting situation as English is very popular in your country - how popular is Dutch blogging?

roughly 30 percent in english.. depends on the country

by expats I mean people from abroad living in peru

I think that in most latam countries there's a trendy culture of avoiding content in foreign languages and create material either in portuguese for brazil or spanish for other countries. The use of English or other foreign languages might be tagged as "pretentious" and "alienated" and looked down for that very same reason.

That is the problem, Francisco. It should not be seen as such.

good point fracisco

We should rather think of a way to reach a broader audience.

Hello everyone, here's Ernesto arriving late as always... apologies...

I actually think the issue is that most people don't feel confident to blog in English.

thats the same in Vietnam.. mainly because Vietnamese people don't feel comfortable with english.. (one simple reason is they don't really have good english skills)

We have some English-language blogs. The choice of language will be decided by the audience you want to reach, less by being able to write in English.

Hi Ernesto, nice for you to step by and do not worry, I planned it for 3 hrs so we can all fit it in - we are all around the globe;)

Cool, hi Sylwia, tanks for inviting me. I've been running all day

While in Cambodia English is more popular. We had this discussion on the Barcamp on Phnom Penh - wether to blog in Khmer or English

Can you relax now? Coffee?

yes please!

Ernesto - we are talking about trends in terms of what languages people blog in and why

Diego, in my country it's more like a strategic decision. Many people are confident enough to write in English. Still, the majority chooses Dutch.

I ee

Coffee for everyone

*see

brilliant!

and one from me: http://www.twitpic.com/isxl2

thx Thomas

thank you Thomas!:)

Ohhh that remembers me I still haven't taken breakfast...

thank you guys. so do you all blog?

khong co chi (your'e welcome)

Hahaha Juan, we're approaching lunch time here

Had Dinner 2 hours ago

Ernesto, I blog and podcast

I think we all do actually:) can we quicly share our Twitter names? @presleysylwia

I blog and tweet

ah, I will have dinner in 3-4 hrs...:/

@casaesdiego in English and @diegocasaes in Portuguese =)

but having a chocolate bar now:D

Spanish is a massive language with roughly 500 million! people speaking it... why would a Bolivian blogger for example bother to write in english or any other language...unless the people you want to reach is not on that 500 Million

@cyberjuan and @gvenespanol

Francisco - unless you want to network with English speaking bloggers - and that is why technology bloggers tend to blog in English no?

yeah, I mean, I blog mostly in English but also in Spanish. Same for my tweets.

I'd agree with you, Sylwia. But there are some subjects that would be nice if they're highlighted to a broader audience like Human Rights or citizen media (to share experience).

that's right, for example tweeting in english has brought me new followers...

I am Mexican, by the way. I live in London.

Thats the point Sylwia.. as long as you are talking to your own people, its just right to use your own language.

Anyway, that's when GV comes to the discussion hehehehe, to bridge the gap of languages

Spanish speaking blogosphere amazes me (another reason to learn Spanish for me!), which is visible now with taxation in Mexico, if you look at Twitter trends map, #internetnecesario is or at least was trending across Americas and in Spain...

I have mixed opinions about the subject... I have been blogging for more than 7 years now and I have lots of stories about the different reactions I get in one or other language (english and spanish)

Sorry, i had to pop out! Is anyone around from South/Latin America to answer a couple of questions about social media tools for travellers?

Diego, exactly - it works both ways - I personally think it's great to have English providing the bridge to network but a lot of regional developments, trends and really, lessons learned might be left out because of that. Global Voices is doing great job when it comes to citizen journalism, I hope to see more similiar platform for other topics...

Ernesto, really? for example?

Well, it´s all very subjective because it comes from personal experience...

...but I always get very nasty attacks from trolls whenever I write in Spanish...

that is what we are all sharing here - rather our personal views;)

really? why is that?

...and when I write in English the feedback tends to be more polite, respectful... unless I am writing about Mexico and then some Mexican comes in and insults me...

Well, I have seen the Mexican Internet culture change a lot in the last few years

you see, it's interesting...now that I think of it, my Polish blog has a good network of supporters, but most of them are based in the UK so understand my points. Whereas my few posts on Poland on Global Voices did receive criticism form Poland based bloggers...

but I think that in general there is a very immature usage of the tools

how did it change?

immature when compared to English speaking? what do you think Diego, Juan, Francisco?

(I said "in general", there are exceptions of course!)

Ohhh I've seen very agressive trolling in english too, not on  my blogs but mainly in forums or even at Youtube

oh yeah

I'm only talking about my personal blog in this case

Well, i often see many insult in portuguese blogs as well. And English comments are more polite, indeed.

not about overall Internet cultures across countries

especially when it comes to politics in Brazil

i can imagine, diego

'politics' was the most popular blog post tag acc. to Technorati State of Blogospere 2009

politics and human rights and popular themes.

I'm not sure if you saw the recent events in Rio de janeiro and the olympics results

well, many people are insulting the government saying stupid things, even though the civil society is also responsible to care for a better and peaceful environment

politics, futbol and neighboring countries are likely themes to trolls

the thing is, people tend to criticize the government but they don't do what they need to do, and this discussion is really often the same in the internet, but amplified.

I actually had an interesting negative feedback when I posted about a website featuring lives of Poles in the UK - but in a very negative and self-victimising way:P http://sylwiapresley.wordpress.com/2009/08/05/polish-action-not-sure-about-the-idea/ I even received an e-mail, pretty offensive:(

lately abortion has gone that way too

in Poland too, Juan

@all, I am sorry but I have to leave you.. will read the transcript tomorrow.. have a good day!

abortion is also a very heat topic in Brazilian internet.

yeah, it's true that sensible topics will attract more trolls, though some specialized message boards or blogs also have their own.

Well, this is the 'risk' of blogging - you will face a lot of supportive, but also negative opinions, which might be annoying but probably is best to ignore those..

totally, Sylwia. What interests me is how internet behavior reflects different cultures in some general way

I still think blog is best place to express our opinions;)

That also contributes to stereotypes.

ah, great question:) others?

for instance, I have said previously how Orkut has a bad image in Brazil.

We see cases of racism, child pornography, people being hostage, bank scams, etc, etc

ok, good bye then and see you next time

and this contributes to censorship, because these situations are the main argument of politicians who want to censor the web

Ernesto - I would be careful when I speak of other continents as I blog, network and work with mainly European bloggers, but I do see some trends in European regions..

Bye Thomas!

bye, thomas

(by thomas!)

Bye Thomas, thank you for joining!

I see Polish and Hungarian social media (countries I lived in) very isolated and very careful about entering the global arena, to the extent of having mirror websites

I'll be back in a few minutes. Lunch time!

In Spain, where culture is very conversational I saw blogs with 900 comments under a post (ok, football blogs, still!)

Enjoy, Diego;)

wow

I am sure Francisco knows more about it though

yeah, of course there is that whole aspect of blogging and the Internet in general that I really don't know about.

In Germany Thomas mentioned more German sites, also very strict rules of disclosure - I think it was the first country to look at legal aspects of blogging in this region..

I on the other hand am interested in tax issue you blogged about - what is happening now in Mexican blogosphere? I understand law was passed, no?

yeah, it did

so now broadband will pay a special tax of 3 per cent extra, it was deemed a luxury good

reminder for others: http://www.boingboing.net/2009/10/20/mexico-net-advocates.html and your post: http://neverneutral.wordpress.com/2009/10/20/internetnecesario/

thank you, Sylwia

what are the intila reactions of bloggers?

ah, sorry, INITIAL reactions I mean!grrr

well, what´s funny is that it was mostly through twitter rather than actual blogs

We have to be aware that the internet is like a big pool where everyone is swimming at the same time, there's people from very different backgrounds and education interacting. You can -most of the time- say whatever you want wherever you want. That brings racism mixed with activism which is also mixed with politics, etc. If you bring all the stupid people that have way too much free time and also evil people with strange hidden agendas...the mix is a molotov cocktail!      Thats where our own brains kick in to filter all this rubbish...

i came late to it, when i woke up in london they were going to bed, but the hash tag activity was going strong

Conversations like this are awesome because of that very reason...find people that is really worth talking and listening to...regardless of the language or region

yeah, so what Francisco describes happened during the InternetNecesario twitter demonstration against taxation

but to a very reduced level, in terms of trolling or idiocy

Francisco - I agree

I Agree @francisco

yeah, me too

Ernesto - is there still talk about it on Twitter? how do you think the tax will affect current blogosphere?

well, you know, i think most people BLOGGING won´t be THAT affected

the problem is how this sets the bar higher for people who dont have access to the internet

Diego..hold on he is away... Juan - are you still around?

and it affects the people's awareness of the need to develop digital engagement because now it is officially considered a luxury, what only the privileged can afford to get

Do you think our Rising Voices at GV could do smth in that area?

yeah

yesterday we talked about it a bit and I think it was you, Francisco, who made the comment about other issues taking priority, when it comes to developments, which does not make it any easier to raise general awareness about web usage?

for everyone - I am talking with Juan about this: http://rising.globalvoicesonline.org/

Ernesto - in this situation what interests me - is the option for bloggers taking the initiative to build projects, maybe even just events or blogging contests to raise awareness and encourage people to blog?

I know RV, they are cool

wow, cool

Do you? Are you in touch with someone there? There is GV Dutch in Amsterdam, I met the girls once there

well, RV focus on groups that has previously won a microbudget provided by RV, but there is a lot of people on their mailing list that is eager to colaborate ...

Ernesto - I am jsut bringing it up as an alternative solution, if there is a willingness to act, I am sure Rising Voices can help with ideas, we know few people actually in the region. Juan - are you involved in RV?

that's very cool. I have tweeted about it using the #InternetNecesario hash tag, will also talk directly to @apisanty who started the whole thing

Yes, in Holland they're all ladies, I think. Only know some by name.

So I think it would be just a be a matter of intending with them

Not really involved, but David Sasaki is a long time friend

you know, I think the whole #InternetNecesario was a very impromptu thing, a bit shapeless, without much awareness from the majority, but very quickly it showed it can learn how use social media more effectively... i think. it's certainly the first time a "serious" hash tag comes from the mexican twittersphere>!

Great, I am so glad this discussion can lead to actual solutions - at least potentially;)

Yes, Ernesto, I can put you in touch with David, just e-mail me at sylwiapresley@gmail.com plz

cool, just emailed you.

this RV project looks great. I did not know about it.

ok ,will do.

what are the social media events happening in Mexico, Ernesto? do you know of any?

Juan, Paulus, how about your countries?

yeah, I know that @apisanty is working with the @media140 people

and Im sure there's lots of marketing stuff that i do not know about. but i am not really into that side of corporate social media for advertisement etc...

We had a great Twitter cruise two weeks ago. 70+ tweeps partying on a boat, cruising the Amsterdam canals. That was kinda cool.

ah, yes, I read his recent blog post! now I know who you are talking about:) started following him on Twitter;)

I'm back =)

Ah, great idea, Paulus!

Diego - we are talking about events in our areas;)

Not so many events here, there were a conference about social media about a month ago, but organized by the catholic church, very funny, the cardenal himself saying: "boys, dont spend so much time on internet", but there were talkings with people from facebook, , google, microsoft, hi5, etc

hahaha

Is that material on-line somewhere, Juan?

We are going to have blogcamp in my state next month and campus party in January 2010

I´d had to look for it

But always focused in a few areas like advertising and journalism. People don't talk about other aspects of blogs like poetry, journaling, human rights, campaigning, etc.

Diego - did I ask you for links already?

As for Oxford, UK - here is a good one: http://oxford.geeknights.net/2009/nov-25th/

Always full of interesting innovations, my favourite place;)

in London there is a lot of stuff going on but most of it is alas! about marketing and product placement... but i managed to attend a conference in the houses of parliament about digital engagement which was interesting (no web site! lol)

diego, the same here

yeah, right there with Diego and Juan

Oxford social media cafe - we call it Oxford Tuttle - sorry, FB link:/ http://www.facebook.com/search/?q=oxford+tuttle&init=quick#/group.php?gid=52167372009&ref=search&sid=532936950.1002547128..1 ouch...

http://www.campus-party.com.br/

maybe better searching for 'oxford tuttle' on FB, apologies!

Paulus - do you have photos from the cruise on-line?:)

Diego - thank you!

a friend of mine also organizes events for Twitter users in my state: http://www.twitterba.blogsba.com.br/

and i think on the 29th of October we are expecting news on Twestivals too, no?

but those are fun events for having a beer or something

I've never gone to a Campus Party!

I am not a big fan of twitter myself but I think it's great how it gathers people together and it ends up creating new "real" friends...I made some friends without even liking twitter...that's cool.

here is one more form Oxford http://www.meetup.com/Oxford-Internet-Professionals/

ok guys need to leave you, RL is grabbing me by the neck

neither do I. I don't like those events very much, specially because they focus on advertising and few areas haha

@marlooz made a cool video of the cruise: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lh59XuZE6vE

Ernesto - thank you very much for joining us! I added link to LinkedIn group earlier, you can find us there;)

wow, cool to find people who don't think life is all about selling and buying...

Bye Ernesto!

Ernesto - for London events follow @tojulius;)

bye,take care ernesto....

Sylwia, would you please share the link for the Linkedin group again?

thank you, ill be around, and you can stay in touch with me on @ernestopriego on twitter

cya ernesto!

bye, francisco, diego, paulus, sylwia, all! hasta pronto y gracias

Paulus, great vid, thank you!:)

Feels like we're done for this session..

I'd like to see some events for talking about internet culture, films and how citizen media would improve that.

Diego - I think those events are aimed at people for whom business networking is important, but I find that there is a lot of cross over too when it comes for example to people involved in activism, social media for the cause - like Twestivals

Yes, I think we will slowly wrap up, but if you have any other links to share add them here or on LinkedIn;)

sure, although we lack this here. The most efficient activism example that used social media in Brazil is the Mega Não movement, agains the bill that censors the web here.

Diego, or the one we did this summer http://www.barcamptransparency-uk.org/

I think Ahmed Naguib mentioned similiar problem in Egypt where Twestival did not happen due to lack of understanding what it is about...:/

hey Syl, do you know if there's a way of adding a little bio on the side of the name so we can see where is each person from? i sort of lost track of who is who from where....something like Francisco (Spain, Bolivia, UK, Mars)

I'd like to know, how do u do to push issues that are not on the public agenda, ( i mean the media), when they do not have interest on things a little group thinks that there must be a public awareness on that. If u have had personal experiences on that.

ah, good thought, I will check it for you, Francisco!

thx!

Sylwia, thank you for moderating this! Looking fwd to next time.

Goodbye, all!! http://www.mobypicture.com/user/paulusveltman1/view/5600352

Juan, I did. This is how Barcamp Transparency came about!

oh, we also have this congress space called Oi Futuro sponsored by the telecom OI in Brazil

Bye Paulus, thank you for all your great input!

They work with a school in Rio and Sao Paulo if I'm mistaken not to share speechs and information on the use of technology in education.

bye Paulus catch you next time!

http://www.oifuturo.org.br/site#/

Juan - I was sitting in a barcamp session about CCTV cameras in Oxford and started talkign about some social media ethics issues that bother me and simply the fact we do not talk about it, someone made a joke - let's do a barcamp and Marcus (co-organiser) and I did it!

Once we did it (risking a bit of money, and fact no one will turn up - oh well, maybe our loyal friends:) it turned out that with basic explaining fo the issues we want to talk about we had 60 people there. And Google agreed to sponsor it then and in the future...but we needed to show that it is actually an important issue for many - just to be the first ones to say it, if that makes sense..

Haha if you find some sponsor for me I'd love to attend this barcamp

we plan to do few in Europe, if it works out, I am sure we would love to do one in Brazil!:) and I bet you, it will work out - just need to be stubborn and believe it's needed;)

Oi Future sounds like a great project!

I think this is why Twestival worked - people realised they can do it - and really at the end of the day even if it's a meet up with 5-10 people it's already a good beginning no?

Indeed.

Apologies, I tend to be too optimistic, but I am convinced that with good thinking and small team of committed people you can do it;)

I think no one answered a question Camilla did about travels tools...

ah, right! Camilla - are you still around?

but i really dont knnow about that....

Well, I'm always optimistic!

The greatest thing about social media is that if an idea is great and necessary it will break-through quickly and become a worldwide topic in no time...see the united break guitars case...

Travel tools? I think I was having lunch at that time. Could you please tell me what was her question?

yep,what travel tools?

I am not sure, Camilla?

You see, I'm actually very interested in that Especially because I'm applying for the Master degree in order to study how travel tools in web 2.0 might change our perspective in urban travel

so it's a very familiar and interesting topic for me

Hi guys, sorry! Had a meeting!

Francisco - yes, it is easy to spread ideas, but I think also to organise and promote events;)

what did you want to ask?

We have a Latin American themed meet up next week for people who love to travel and were going to have a social media spin on it, i was wondering if anyone had any good links/information on specific sites on Latin/South America regarding activities/meet-ups/sight seeing etc whilst their out there?

hmm

well, I'd recommend Fotopedia, Wiki Travel and Dopplr

they are not specific on latin america, but still are a good resource for travellers

syl, do you use skype?

Diego - do you know good travel bloggers form your area?

yes, sylwia.presley

yeah the big travel-fishes are good for a whole-region view...but if you want more detailed activities you would have to go country by country

As I said I really dont know about that, but I really like to travel...:) Seriously I think you should meet Jorge Gobbi from Argentina, he has a blog on travel issues

It might be a bit of  a long shot

Ironically, I don't follow many travel blogs, but I could list something later..

Juan, what is his URL?

I think what Camilla needs is a good starting point;)

Camilla, would you share your Twitter acc with us?

@girlterate

The blog is in spanish http://www.blogdeviajes.com.ar/

Check this one out it looks like a good glimpse of south-america http://www.unique-southamerica-travel-experience.com/thesouthamericatravellibrary.html

I actually wanted to start a travel blog, but sort of a community to share videos, audio and blog posts on different places. Is anyone interested?

U can find its author, Jorge, at @morrissey he recently organized a camp in BSAS about travel things

Brilliant! Ah, I am so happy we shared a lot of stuff today!:)

btw, Jorge is an author for GV too

I think he was involved in Twestival too, because I am following him:)

translating Twitter?wow...

I will slowly wrap up - do you have any more questions, links to share, ideas?

Not sure

all right then! I would like to thank you all very much for your input and the fact you have spent few hours with me:)

I have a feeling this idea is shaping into a nice community and I hope it will grow and give birth to a lot of projects and ideas;)

Next panel is planned for 19-20th of November when we will talk about social media in Africa - and as usual in general

I'll be looking forward for that!

We have a topic - Europe - for December too.

I will also put notes together and place them on SlideShare

I will try to tweet at all of you so you can connect there, and invite you to LinkedIn group

If you have any ideas on how to improve this one, or criticism as to what should be avoided etc - do let me know!:)

I will be fine to keep in touch online via twitter or anything else

Thank you - Juan, Diego, Camilla, Francisco - and to everyone who joined today and yesterday!

This chat history stays available too;)

Thank you! Bye! Have a lovely weekend!:)

Bye .. Chao Sylwia, Diego, Francisco, Camilla and everybody else

Bye all !

Bye!

oh sorry, i was busy....adios amigos!

oh this didnt refresh for me! is everyone gone?>