The BlogWalk train continues - Civic Journalism

And the BlogWalk train has come to Mechelen. Topic: civic journalism. First time a BlogWalk meeting was held in my native tongue (although there was one non-Dutch speaker called Brice with whom I unfortunately didn't talk). Again a day full of interesting conversations, however the discussions were all over the place, not focusing on the topic. I haven't learned new insights in the topic and no answers to the basic questions I have: Why is this an interesting topic? Why is this an issue? Are bloggers the right people to discuss this topic with?

Maybe the lack of answers had to do with the group that was attending. Previous BlogWalk meetings I had a clear idea beforehand of the ideas and opinions on the subject of the others attending. This time it was harder to prepare since I didn't know most of the Belgium guests, and their blogs (if they had one) were mostly personal, without professional focus. And there was no get together diner the night before. Therefore it took time to get to know the other participants first before we could get the discussion going. Besides the time to get to know each other I got the impression that the topic could be interesting, but there was a lack of good basic questions that were being asked. We didn't focus on terminology and didn't lay out the field so we had a clear understanding what we were talking about. Or is the topic simply too big (or too small!) to handle?

Although the discussions might not have lifted my spirit, it was very nice to meet new people and reinforce existing contacts. Yesterday, I learned about the subtle differences between the Dutch and the Flemish. And had lovely meals and beers in the cute town of Mechelen. Next stop: Innsbruck.

Permalink | TrackBack (by Elmine Wijnia on May 21, 2005 08:18 PM)