As we look back over the year that has ended and towards to potential for 2008 I thought it a good opportunity to ponder where Thanet blogging has come from and where it can yet go.

Back in 2006 there was not even a scene worth talking about. Yet come 2007 we had blossomed to a point that the local news actually took note. This is quite significant given the level of ICT illiteracy in the Thanet and the limited number of users with Internet access.

And so they should. Blogging is widely held to be "the people's journalism" allowing the voice of all levels to be given a platform with a relatively even footing. Currently, of course, as a young blogging scene (blogging has existed in some form since at least 1983) we have a way to go before coverage or even readership is in any way significant. When I talk of significance I talk of readership I refer to the global readership of blogs by members of the Thanet population rather than the micro successes of some blogs.

But what territory have we yet to cover?

This is my breakdown of the most obvious challenges still before the community. Challenges that will be filled in one way or another leaving only the question of who will take the success first.

Hypermedia: The Linked World. The web is a hypermedia medium. It was invented to be such and this has never changed. The first hurdle that we face is to remember that a reference is not complete without a link. We already talk of joined up thinking and as we enter 2008 can we manage joined up blogging? Even the text we choose to make into links says volumes about the target of that link. How far can we take the technology we have embraced?

On The Ground News. Sure we have a little after the fact reporting but we are far from a healthy selection of blogs from which the news could perhaps be aggregated. The challenge here is in seeing some benefit to reporting, photographing and commenting so that the blogging community is looked to by the press for clues and leads as is the case in many larger industrial niches.

Again this is about embracing technology. Such things as Micro Blogging (tiny snippets updated very often), Live Blogging (blogging as things happen) and Mobile Blogging (using mobile phones to text-in and send video, sound and images to one's blog) all exist in our future. Not necessarily as dominating factors but as tools towards a better use of hypermedia.

Collective Metrics. As we embrace technology and the meta data we produce is freely exchanged we will discover the ability create collective metrics, peer driven debate and aggregated summary of Thanet's distributed conversation. This is something I hope to be working on in 2008. I have made mention of this in a number of posts. I hope to be using the fantastic work of The Thanet Blog List and will be listening to your opinions on Thanet Forums and other places.

Aggregative Opinion. This follows on from on the ground reporting and has little to do with simply spouting whatever ideas comes to one's head and more to do with the careful taxonomy (for example tagging) and integration of blogs with technology. On most GNU GPL released blog software (and under many other OSI approved Open Source licenses too) this sort of activity is automated.

I have already spoken at length on the limitations of some free hosts and feel it would be a little pointless to cover all that ground again. The short story being that the world of blogging has embraced peer led communication and this is something as Thanet blogger we must consider or face being left behind as stronger and better species of Thanet blogs and bloggers replace us. We have gotten Thanet blogging to the 1990's but can we take it the rest of the way into 2008 and engage with the wider community.

The Wider Voice. While Thanet is and should always remain a strong focus of Thanet blogging we must not fail to acknowledge that Thanet is in Kent. By this I mean that Thanet has a role to play in Kent and as the voice of the people (with Internet connections) this is a topic yet to be addressed. Kent is in the South East of England in United Kingdom of Great Britain and unlikely as it seems to us Thanet does have a contribution to make as a whole - as bloggers it is an issue we can work out publicly and actually lead the way.


In short - we have only just began and a whole world of exciting possibility lies ahead of us.