Wednesday, December 9, 2009

The blogger gene in the German version ;-)

I know certain English speaking people share the opinion that (said otherwise) German (econo- or not) bloggers lacks the blogger gene. ;-)

To prove Mr. Salmon could be wrong in some aspects, I will comment each point of his arguments here from my view as a German blogger.

1. In my long-term experience with the German blogging community (I blog since 2005) I never felt any hierarchy in that national blogging community. On the contrary, I always felt respected with my opinions I shared in my blog regardless of my social or professional state.

2. See what I said in point 1.

3. In that point, I sadly must agree: Blogs (and the voice of normal people) seem to not being noticed to such an extend from the German government and other important institutions. For this reason, political posts in Germany (posts which shows the opinion of the blogger regarding political items) don't have the same importance. In Germany - at least that's my impression as an insider - blogging seems to be more private. The readers in German private blogs mainly are a regular little circle of friends from the actual state of developement. So it is difficult to receive a larger attention. And it also seems the German state institutions actually aren't really interested in the opinion of the "little people".

4. No. From my view, I must reject this! When I take me for example, I am NOT career-minded at all! And - by the way: I blog for free, because I LIKE it, I receive nothing for it. Concerning the blogging skills: I think, I spend enough time to cultivate them. ;-)

5. I must admit that in the beginning of my blogging, I was a little bit afraid to make mistakes. (Personally, I think this is normal for all beginnings - at least if someone tend to be perfectionistic. But even if not, it isn't always easy to overcome his or her fears when beginning something totally new.) Until today, I tend to verify my posts regarding grammar faults and so. And if I say something wrong from the content, I correct this later. So I'm happy if someone reminds me of a big mistake, because that's the only way to learn from it. Without it, I wouldn't have noticed that I was wrong in the respective point.

6. Maybe the German way of blogging (or also of life) is a little bit different from the American one (or that in other countries too). But I don't think this is something critical. On the contrary, I find that's the interesting on blogging: The individual and cultural differences, from which the international blogging community can grow! There is no "one and only right way" of blogging. There are many ways, and that's what make it dynamic.

7. I am an outsider! ;-)

8. I cannot say much about this aspect from my perspective. But I know at least one German blogger who has an academical state and sometimes shares his ideas in his blog (well, only in German, but he does). ;-)

9. As I already said in point 4., I blog for free. For me, it is a hobby and a possibility to communicate and debate about ideas and thoughts.

10. Myself, I don't have any problems in taking vacations from blogging. I don't know if this is "typical German". But I probably know some German bloggers who cultivate their blogs even in their holidays, or take some preparations to hold their blogs "living" in their absence.

PS: In my German blog, I recently posted a related list of "symptoms" which probably could show if someone has a blogger gene. In addition, I started a little survey especially for German bloggers to find out how much of them may have the blogger gene and be proud of it (or not).

PPS: To return to the econoblogs: There are some German econoblogs I consider to be more reputated:
- Blick Log (partially in English; and there you can find lots of further links to German econoblogs)
- Boersennotizbuch
- Boersenblogger

By chance, I have found a more niched econoblog too: Aachener Wirtschaftsblog.

Monday, December 7, 2009

Welcome to my world!

This blog is an extension of my German blog Utopia. I will write about a wide range of items which I suppose could be interesting to the international public or whatever interesting thoughts will come into my mind. Maybe I will post creative things of mine too - I'll see.

I hope you, the reader, will like my output. If you like, you could write a comment to discuss about the items in question. Anyway, I would like to hear about your opinions or whatever.

Well - I hope you'll enjoy it all.