September 29, 2008
Bloggers the world over are standing up for a cause by writing down their thoughts on October 15. More than 4,500 bloggers have signed on to write about poverty in the second annual Blog Action Day that will reach an estimated more than 9.3 million blog readers.
“Global poverty is one of the most important and pressing issues facing our world today, and yet we in the First World often do very little about it. It seems like such an overwhelming and unsolvable problem that we give up and ignore it,” said Leo Babauta, from ZenHabits.net blog and Blog Action Day co-founder.
“But there's a lot we can do, as individuals and especially as developed nations. We can pressure our elected officials to relieve the oppressive burden of debt on these struggling Third World countries. We can remove trade requirements that we've forced upon them and that are preventing them from developing. We can come together to send aid in ways that will actually help people,” he said.
Bloggers are encouraged to connect their readers to the over-reaching topic of poverty through their specific blog topics, like cooking blogs exploring sustainable farming. Some of the world’s 100 most popular blogs, ranked by Technorati.com, have signed up, including Copyblogger.com, Mentalfloss.com and Torrentfreak.com
“As bloggers, we are often isolated within our blog, having disconnected discussions,” said Babauta, who lives in Guam and reaches more than 71,000 RSS feed subscribers. “But when we unite our voices like this, through Blog Action Day, we are coming together to have one discussion about something important, and by changing the discussion we are changing the world in at least one small way.”
“We thought, what if we spoke to them about a really important issue for one day, what could we actually do? So it started as sort of an experiment more than anything else,” according to event co-founder Cyan Ta’eed, who also worked on the day’s inception with her husband, and fellow blogger, Collis. The word-of-mouth action day turned into a blogosphere event, with more than 20,000 blogs posting about the environment. “Everybody just took it on and really wanted to do something positive with this audience that they had. It sort of spiraled out from there. It really affirms, to me at least, how willing and enthusiastic people are to get involved with a good cause,” said Ta’eed, who was ranked 30th in the 50 Most Influential Female Bloggers by blogging newsletter North x East.
Bloggers are also urged to make a donation, preferably the day’s earnings, to a nonprofit that tackles poverty. Blog Action Day coordinators chose to post nonprofits Kiva and The Global Fund on the event’s Web site, but Ta’heed explained “people are encouraged to find a charity they feel passionate about and donate to them if they choose to.” And coordinators say that fellow bloggers are already suggesting topics for next year’s day of action.
“We will probably talk to a bunch of bloggers to see what issues they see as important, but we will likely always choose something that means something real, around the world,” said Babauta. “Last year it was the environment. Next year it could be many things, from the future of technology to education to crime to the changing global economy.”
"I think our position is that we are not going to solve poverty in one day, obviously," said Ta’eed. “But we can say that we are positively contributing to a momentum that is being created. The really important thing is that people get talking about it, get acting on it.”
Source: Nonprofit Times Weekly. September 29, 2008.