Last April I participated in the coordination of the Bloggers area of the Campus Party Europe in Madrid. This was possible thanks to Jonan Basterra and Marcos Morales the masterminds behind Pixel y Dixel.

Beyond the great experience of spending a few days in a super-geeky event, I also had the opportunity to prepare with Jonan this study about the perception of the European Blogosphere based on the responses given by European bloggers invited to Campus Party Europe. This is not a scientific work, it is fully subjective but still bears a lot of interesting information that prompted a very interesting debate with my copresenter Ben Hammersley and with the audience.

The presentation starts by giving some numbers to make it easier to understand and manage the magnitudes of the numbers we talk about. It then dives into the responses given to the survey, which for me raises a lot of questions, and that really helped to spark the debate.

The presentation was broadcasted live by the event organizers, but I have not been able to find that video. Luckily, the people of Puntotic recorded the conference on their own and shared it with the world.

The European Blogosphere - Presentation Transcript

1. The European Blogosphere 

   Campus Party Europe 2010

   Monday, May 17 2010

2. Europe

   • 501.259.840 people
   • 27 countries
   • 23 official languages

3. Europe

   • 501.259.840 people
   • 27 countries
   • 23 official languages

   USA
   • 306.050.595 people
   • 1 country
   • 1 national language

4. Europe

   • 501.259.840 people
   • 27 countries
   • 23 official languages

   Spanish
   • 450.000.000
   native speakers

5. Blogs in Europe

   • 15-20 million blogs*

   * Estimate 

6. Blogs in Europe

   • 15-20 million blogs
   More active countries

   • France
   • United Kingdom
   • Poland
   • Spain
   • Finland

7. The blogosphere debate

   • Nicole Simon, Cruel to Be Kind. Interview by Jean-Yves Huwart for GlobeCorp

    

8. TOP European blogs 

   6 Political, 4 Tech

   3 English, 3 Spanish, 2 German, 1 Italian & 1 French

9. Top 50 European blogs (Alianzo)
10. Iain Dale's Diary
11. Netzpolitik.org

12. L'espresso blog

13. #cpartyeu Survey 

14. Subject of the European blogs
    

    others 7%

    Politics 16%
    Gossip&Celebrities  17%

    Personal 12%

    Technology 49% 

15. Age of European blogs
    

    < 1 year  6%

    > 1 year 6%

    > 4 years 34%

    > 2 years 27%

    > 3 years 26%

16. Professional Bloggers: Are there bloggers in your country that make a living blogging?

    I’m Not sure 18%

    NO 13%

    YES 69%

17. Are there blog networks in your country?

    I don’t know  32%

    YES 55% 

    NO 13% 

18. Are blogs anonymous or signed by authors with their real name?
    

    anonymous (alias)  32%

    real name 68%

    lunes 17 de mayo de 2010

19. Gender division: Women in the blogosphere? 

    women  30%

    men 70%

20. Evolution of blogs in Europe: Blogging is…

    Booming 40% 

    Stable 52%

    Deteriorating 8%

21. Blog domains: Do European blogs have their own domain? 

    NO 53%

    YES 47%

22. Platform: Which blog’s CMS is most used in Europe?
    

    Blogger 16%

    Others 6% 

    WordPress 79%

23. Traditional Media: Do Newspapers, TV, radio, etc. in your country have blogs?
    

    Very few do 15%

    None do 2%

    Most do 37%

    Some do 46%

24. Blogger Meetings? Are there blogger meetings or blogger events often in your country?

    NO 25% 

    YES 75%

25. Bloggers in social media > bloggers also use:
    

    Twitter 

    Facebook

    YouTube

    Flickr

    others

26. Evolution of blogs in Europe

    • Downward trend 2009
    • Upward trend early 2010

    • Social Networks 

27. Evolution of blogs in Europe

    • Page views no longer relevant: impact of social networks.

    • Networked influence

28. Thank You! ¡Muchas gracias!
    Survey & Work made by

    Jonan Basterra @Pixel_Jonan

    Ramón Suárez @ramonsuarez

According to the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project, blogging activity has dropped drastically among young adults in the United States, a demographic that traditionally helps define the tenor of the online conversation. In December 2007, for instance, 28 percent of all 18-to-29-year-olds with an Internet connection kept some sort of blog. By the same time last year, that number hovered around 15 percent. Meanwhile, the number of teens who say they blog regularly continues to shrink, as the Web's youngest users ditch the blogosphere for the frantic pace of the social-media world.

The study from Pew Research does nothing but confirm what we all have been noticing around us: amateur blogging is disappearing. While I don't think it will completely die, it is clear that the big amounts of effort it requires and the little rewards it entitles are not the best ways to incentive blog writing. Only professional bloggers have enough incentives to keep on writing regularly.

Of all the blogs I follow, only the professional ones keep up the pace. A lot of personal bloggers have stopped writing or greatly reduced their contributions. Why wouldn't they with Facebook and Twitter's instant gratification and reduced effort? Why on earth would we have to consider that it is a problem?

Lets face it, most of the personal blogposts are exactly that, personal, and directed to a group of friends: they will be much better served in a less publicly scrutinized platform like Facebook, or Netlog, or Tuenti, or you-name-the-closed-garden-social-network.

The same goes for Twitter. If we translate it to our day to day communications in fisical-out-of-the-web-world with other humans, most of what we do is chit-chat, send and receive small bits of information. We discuss things we have seen and find worthy of an exchange and direct friends and colleagues towards them if they do not know them. We make a lot of small talk so that we get to know each other better and feel more comfortable for the day when we will have more profound / serious / long conversations. Doesn't it sound a lot like what we do on Twitter and blogging?

Smaller effort and instant or almost satisfaction: sounds like a winning combination.

Social networking, just like Google, does not makes us stupid, it makes us more communicative and efficient in our communications. It is all about human relations. Technology just enables us to multiply our contacts with other human beings. Why would this be a problem?

What we are witnessing is just the adaptation of Internet communication to the inner needs of social humans.