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Have you blogged today?
By : Renata Almeida | Sotaque Brasileiro, Number 4, Spring 20004
Success around the world, blogging conquers more and more Brazilians who are outside the country.
You no longer need to be an expert to venture into the endless possibilities that the Internet has to offer. Blogs are a good example of this. The blog is nothing more than short for weblog, which means any last minute record, an on-line journal or a space for you to publish whatever you want. Although it can be used for various purposes, in general, users make their blogs for their personal diaries. The main advantage is that you do not need a strong background on technological knowledge. Anyone can have a blog and publish text, as well as photos, without knowing how web pages are built, HTML and other web tools.
The blog craze began in 1998 in the United States. The first (and best known) blog hosting site is Blogger (www.blogger.com). With only one year of existence, there were more than 75,000 pages in the network. Currently, this number is so large that they do not have an exact number on how many blogs exist in the world.
The fever took hold of Brazilians who live out of the country. "It was the best way we found to give news to friends and family," says Elaine and Camilo Leite, from Fortaleza. Living in Toronto for over two and a half years, they decided to do a blog because they had no time to carefully answer all their messages. "We received several e-mails from friends asking how everything was and we replied the same thing over and over again," says Elaine. "With a blog it is easier. I write everything and everyone can read it. My friends already know how I am, if Iam happy, sad, or if i got a new job and so on," she adds.
But the paulista Wellignton Figueroa, who has lived in Canada for almost two years, signs the blog Diary of Vancouver. "I try to write on various topics, which are sometimes summarized translations of local news from Canada and Vancouver. At other times, I write about my life and I also publish information of interest to the Brazilian community", he says. The blog is a success and Wellignton usually receives more than 20 emails per week, usually from Brazilians who want to come to Canada. "A few months ago a radio host of São Paulo wrote to me asking about places to visit in Vancouver. One of his listeners had participated in an event and had won a trip to Vancouver and the radio host would go with him. It's very interesting to be able to help the Brazilians who have an interest in Canada," he adds.
There are many Brazilians away from Brazil who decided to launch their blogs. The carioca Luciana Misura, who lives in Michigan, United States is one of them. In 2002 she was looking for blogs of Brazilians who, like her, reported their lives in a foreign country, when she had the idea to ask in one of her posts for indication of such blogs . "It was a flurry of e-mails and in three days there were more than 80 blogs," she says. Thus was born the Small World site (http://www.mundopequeno.com) that lists the blogs of Brazilians living abroad. "These kinds of blogs show different cultures through the vision of man created in the same culture as ours. They bring details of everyday life that for those who always lived in that place are absolutely common. Only if you were born and lived in Brazil, things like temperature, relationships, food and even housing, are very different," she explains. Because of this, the site eventually became known not only by expatriates, but for many people who like to travel and are curious about life in other countries, including those who want to do exchange or immigrate. "I believe that Small World approached many people who live in other countries and did not know there were other compatriots who were in the same situation. This was not the first goal but I think it became one of the most important," says Luciana.
Although Canada and the United States have a good concentration of Brazilians and, thus, a large number of bloggers, it is not difficult to find other Brazilians lost in distant lands. The carioca Maria Fabriani, for example, lives in Boden, a small Swedish town, and has decided to launch her blog during her first winter outside Brazil: "I was very depressed and could not understand the language. My world was limited to e-mails I received and the newspapers I read on the web. When I found out that I could create a sort of diary on the Internet I did not understand how my blog would help me feel more at home here in Sweden," says the journalist." Through my posts I could better understand the country, the Swedish society, and everything became easier to accept. In order to write the way I wanted, first I had to research, and this has allowed me to get to know Sweden in a more profound way," she adds.
How to create my blog?
Having an on-line journal is not complicated. Several servers offer this type of service completely free and explain the step-by-step how the new user can build a page.
You must first choose a server, sign up, give a title to your virtual diary, choose a template (layout – style of your blog) and finally, write and publish a post (your first message).
GLOSSARY
Before long, there is a new verb on the web: blogging. Do not be surprised to hear phrases such as "blogged yesterday about my day" or "Have you blogged today?" For your convenience, here's a small glossary of important words and their meanings:
blog: short for weblog
Weblog: Is a logbook on-line
blogger: Who has a blog
post: enter the message in a blog
template: the face of the site, the layout
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