SA Blog Round Up Part 3

In Part 1 I wrote a brief introduction and mentioned SA blogs listed in this directory. I also mentioned posts contributed by participating BBD listed blogs. In Part 2 of the roundup I looked at the South African Blog Scene. This post will mention contributions from other participants and offer some concluding remarks.

Some More Participating Blogs

Blog round up from Adventures in London Above.

South African Blog Roundup from Peak People: An inside look.

I hate Afro-optimism from Red Star Coven. Walton later wrote Why SA Rocks.

Is SA Rocks bullshit? from Neverness. This was written as a response to the Red Star Coven post and was reprinted at SA Rocks. Since it fits the theme of the roundup I have included it here.

(The contributions from SA Rocks and Protocolinpractice can be found in part 1).

Concluding Remarks

This concludes the first South African Blog Roundup. This project has been fun but also difficult. Things didn't go as planned but several bloggers got together and blogged about common themes. I consider this an important success because two of the mandates of BBD are to encourage blogging and encourage cybersocial interaction.

I hope readers of these posts learned something about blogging in South Africa and found some new blogs to read.

I would like to thank the bloggers who participated in the roundup. I would especially like to thank Nic Haralambous for his ideas and encouragement.

SA Blog Roundup Part 2

Part 1 of the roundup presented a brief introduction and introduced South African blogs listed at Big Blog Directory. This post will look at the SA blog scene from an outsider's viewpoint.

The South African Blog Scene

When I started BBD in October of last year I knew very little about South African blog resources. When I did search for resources I found very few of them.

The first site I came across was the South African Blog Directory. This was a Blogspot based directory that listed blogs in it's sidebar and occasionally featured some in posts. The blogs were organized into categories but labels were not used. The directory eventually disappeared.

When South Africans began submitting blogs to BBD I saw links to SA Topsites, SA Blog Topsites and Muti. I browsed these sites but they didn't really catch my attention. Muti would get mentioned in blog posts from time to time.

In January things started to happen with the 2007 edition of the SA Blog Awards. I saw a number of posts about the awards. Most of them discussed the nominated blogs while some talked about the controversy surrounding the awards.

In February SA Rocks was launched and began to gather momentum. For many the positive outlook of the site was appealing. They linked to the site and some of them became contributors.

In March and April two Technorati-like sites were launched. Amatomu, which came first, looks at the South African blog scene from different angles and bloggers use it to keep up with other blogs, follow trends, and even as a source of blogging humour.

Afrigator was launched in April and took a broader mandate than Amatomu. It covers all of Africa and includes feeds from news sites as well as blogs.

I haven't discovered any new blog sites lately but more may be coming. The blog scene is quite dynamic and the bloggers are creative. People looked at South Africa and SA blogs and sought ways to make things better. This has had a positive effect on blogging and bloggers have been getting more exposure. The future of blogging in South Africa looks bright indeed.

Blog Search Engines

Gargoyle

Grabble

A Short Reading List

Amatomu - South Africa’s Technorati

Does the SA Blogging “elite” dominate Muti?

Introducing the public Amatomu alpha: notes from the developer

New local blog directories and a new blog service

SA blogging industry growth pains...

sarocks.co.za launches today

State of the Nation - 2007 trends for SA blogging

The controversial 2007 SA Blog Awards

What’s With Afrigator?

Part 3 will list the participating blogs and wrap up the roundup.

SA Blog Round Up Part 1

Welcome to the South African Blog Roundup co-hosted with SA Rocks. I wanted to have a special SA roundup because many South Africans took the time to list their blogs with BBD. Another reason is that I have been following the SA blog scene since last fall and find it interesting.

This post will list some of the South African blogs found in Big Blog Directory. Blogs that participate in the roundup will have additional information added to their link. I will update this post over the next few days.

Part 2 will look at "The South African Blog Scene".

Part 3 will look at other participating blogs and offer some concluding remarks.

Have a look at the listings and check out the blogs. You might find something you like.

Leon

South African Blogs

A Designer's Ramblings

A Weird But Passionate World In South Africa

Musings from a jam jar

Nicharalambous.com

Protocolinpractice has contributed: South African Blog Roundup.

Romsky's

SA Rocks posted the roundup introduction. Nic also posted a mini roundup of his own: SA Roundup Featuring Some Stuff.

Soekershof; the 'scientific' backup

South African Cricket Scene

Contacting Bloggers

I visited all of the South African blogs listed in BBD and invited them to participate in the SA Blog Roundup. One part of me felt good about leaving the comments in the blogs but another part felt intrusive.

I'll see how this goes and decide whether to change tactics for the next roundups. I am planning a Creative Arts Blog Roundup for mid June and a Sports Blog Roundup for sometime in July. Contact me if you want more information.

One side effect of this is that I can update some blog listings. South African Cricket Scene has changed URLs and is being updated regularly. South African Rugby hasn't been updated since March.

One thing I noticed is that BBD gets called many different things in blogrolls. I have seen "Big Blog Directory", "The Big Blog Directory", and "Big Blog Dir". Only the first name is correct but I am more interested in the link being correct.

South African Blog Roundup

Big Blog Directory and SA Rocks are co-hosting a South African Blog Roundup. Any South African blogger can participate.

Between May 25th and 30th write a post with something like the following (please link to both blogs):

Big Blog Directory and SA Rocks are co-hosting a South African Blog Roundup and I am participating...

Next answer the following three questions:

1. Why does South Africa "rock"?
2. Why do you blog?
3. What are two of your favourite posts?

Once you have written your posts leave a comment here with a link. Blogs not listed with BBD can leave their links with SA Rocks.

Easter Blogging

I browsed BBD blogs to see what people were posting about Easter. Here are some of the interesting posts I found.

Things started out strange when I visited Popped Culture on Good Friday. Suddenly Last Supper looks at the various ways that famous meal has been portrayed in art. The artwork is interesting and makes one wonder about our modern heroes.

Good Friday was also on Andy's mind recently. Rebirth and rejuvenation are part of our internal processes and sometimes they need a little help. We can never tell when or how our spirits will be lifted but it is nice when it happens.

Some of us live in mild climates but Winter still seems too long. When April comes we often sigh with relief. Archie Whitehall had this to say:

Easter celebrates resurrection, re-birth and new beginnings. It is the epitome of Spring. It is a celebration of nature’s decision to return the life that had died in the fall. Spring is the resurrection of flowers, leaves, crops and so forth. (source)

Residents of Moncton were sighing but it wasn't due to relief. It seems winter was trying to resurrect itself on Easter morning. I wonder if anyone tried making snowbunnies.

Bunnies made of snow aren't as good as real ones. Spring is progressing normally here in Victoria. The weather is mild and we have had some sunshine.

Bunnies are important because they bring Easter eggs. Eating the eggs is fun but first you have to find them. The important thing is to find all of them so you don't discover something 'interesting' in May or June.

My favourite Easter Eggs are the chocolate ones. I have tasted many types but I haven't found any like these ones. I don't think they are edible but they look nice.

Well, that's a little roundup of Easter posts from some of BBD listed blogs. Thanks to everyone for the interesting writing.

Update: Roundup

The South African Roundup will be postponed until some time in April. I have been too busy to work on it.

Canadian Blog Roundup #1

Canada has a dynamic and varied blogging community. As I prepared for this roundup I soon realized I couldn't cover even the major issues in one post. I hope this selection of blogs and directories will give you a glimpse of blogging in Canada, and that you find something interesting to read.

Leon

Canada

Blogging Change - is a group of political blogs. The site is a blog aggregator of member blogs.

Blogs.ca - is a new network of Canadian information blogs.

BlogsCanada - was the major Canadian blog directory up until 2005 or so. Jim Elve maintained Officially Unofficial (the house blog) and participated in the political E-Group Blog. I commented on the house blog a few times and was going to submit some of my blogs to the directory. I kept waiting, however, for it to be cleaned up. BlogsCanada seemed to come to standstill and then the house blog fell silent. The E-Group Blog was still active. Lately the house blog is showing some life and one can only hope that the directory will be renewed.

CanadianBlogosphere.ca - is a 'toplist' or blog ranking/popularity site for blogs from Canada.

Canadian Blogs is a blog aggregator.

Canadian Political Aggregators/Blogrolls - there are a number of them. Here is one example: Peter's Politics. There a quite a few listed in the sidebar at BC Blogs.

The Canadian Blog Exchange - is a linking/blogroll type site where bloggers participate by filing posts in relevant categories.

Canadian MetroBlogs

Montreal
Toronto
Vancouver

British Columbia

BC Bloggers is a blog aggregator and directory for British Columbians.

BC Blogs - is an aggregator and blogroll of (mostly) political blogs. The sidebar has a comprehensive collection of regional and political blog aggregators and blogrolls.

Blogs in Victoria BC - a small collection of blogs on the VicStart site,

Ontario

Blog Guelph

W.E. Speak- gives the citizens of Windsor and Essex County an alternative voice - their own.

Canadian blogs listed in Big Blog Directory


Big Blog Directory

Big Blue Wave

Blind Sight is 20/20

Braindance

Brian Cormier's Blogtastic World

EclecticBlogs

Excribidinglish

Firemind

Flotsam and Jetsam

Popped Culture

The Media Nook

Coming March 1: Canadian Blogs Roundup

BBD's first roundup of Canadian blogs is coming March 1st, 2007.

It will feature Canadian blog resources and Canadian blogs listed in Big Blog Directory.

The South African Blog Roundup is scheduled for March 15 and is being co-ordinated with another blog.