Soccer Dad

The j-blogosphere this week

Batya, the first lady of Jewish blogging hosted the latest edition - the "slow fast" one - of Haveil Havalim that focused largely on Second Annual Jewish blogging conferance.

From the little I read, I get thef feeling that more attention was paid to blogging (than to boasting) and I think that's good.

There were two posts about the convention that I wished to comment on. First Jameel wrote about his request:

Therefore, the logical question I asked was if the Israeli government wants our help to "Defend Israel" through the JBlogosphere (and we gladly help), why can't we get GPO Press Credentials? I was surprised that so many people applauded the question. Dermer promised he would take care of it. To help him with his promise -- if you are a serious blogger, drop me an email and I'll put together a request list to him.

(Subsequently, apparently the request was granted.)

Even without press credentials though, someone (or some bodies) at the foreign ministry should be aware of pro-Israel bloggers and how information filters through the blogosphere. You see the thing about bloggers is that we're 1) cheap and 2) easily flattered. Giving us a little extra attention might get us to be megaphones for messages you want to get out. That might entail being available to answer questions or direct us to sources. Even without the press credentials.

Media Backspin writes about blogger unity:

There's a well-meaning desire for greater unity among Jewish bloggers. But there was little consensus on what this unity would look like, or if the concept is even worth pursuing. After all, every blog is already filling a niche (or should be).

I would like to see bloggers expand their network of readers and natural allies. New bloggers need to develop their voice and establish their unique expertise.

As we all flex our creative muscles, unity will come from the ground up. We'll hopefully see more collaborative efforts and cross-promotion among bloggers.

There are certainly practical steps you can take. First of all Google Reader has improved tremendously in recent months. It has surpassed Bloglines as a blog reading utility. What can you do with Reader? You can use it to create groups. You can use it to keep people up to date on the most recent posts of your favorite blogs (look at the right sidebars of Elder of Ziyon, Life in Israel, The Lid or Jack's Shack to see what I mean.) You can tag posts you like or mark that you wish to share them with those who are following you. You can create blogrolls too. (See the left sidebar at Daled Amos to see how that's done.)

Getting back to the groups. If you create a group of your five favorite blogs, keep on top of them. If one of them blogs about a topic or news item you're interested in then either build on the post or add a gratuitous link to it at the end of your post. Blogging, to be successful has to be a cooperative effort. Very few bloggers can truly be islands.

I'm not yet fluent in most aspects of Web 2.0 stuff, but I do use Twitter. However Daled Amos told me about Twitter Feed. So I've automated twittering. (Or is that tweeting?) Regardless, I also realized that if I could automate twittering, I could twitter other blogs too and so I added other bloggers who I didn't think we're already on Twitter.

Finally I really think we need to give Batya, Leoraw and Jack their due for keeping Jewish blogging carnivals going and giving newer bloggers an extra opportunity to get discovered. One more word about Jack. By now he has been administering HH nearly as long as I did and shows no sign of slowing down. Regularly I see new blogs and new hosts and hostesses. And Jack leaves messages at am impossible number of blogs. So he's out there encouraging others. I know that what he does is underappreciated, but he deserves lots of credit for his promoting Jewish blogging.

So if you want to help host. If you can't or don't want to host then take five minutes a week and link to a carnival.