So, as I sit in a room full of bloggers and journalists and practitioners from different backgrounds mostly from Poland, we are just coming to an end, of the first ever
Blog Forum held in Gdansk, Poland. The city represents many different things- ideas, colors, values- just like blogs but above all this city is the symbol of Freedom. A concept much valued and respected in this city if not in the whole of Poland.
But I will be writing more about the city I saw and impressed me deeply later. And so this has been an important event for Gdansk, for its resident bloggers, and bloggers coming from all around Poland with some foreign guest speakers and panelists joining this interesting and significant event. The event itself is taking place at the
Instytut Sztuki Wyspa (Wyspa Institute of Art), which used to be basic shipbuilding school in the grounds of the Gdansk Shipyard. The institute itself is part of the series of the initiatives to re- brand the city especially given the city's plans to become the European Capital of Culture for 2016. The motto is "Freedom of Culture, Culture of Freedom".
Back to the forum, the speaker-
Jarek Rybus- talking now is one of the brains behind a documentary movie on bloggers in Poland.
Here is the official website, though in Polish it might give you some idea of the upcoming film. As I watch the short clippings from the movie it makes me wonder whether we should or could do one of these in Azerbaijan, or something like this on the Caucasus. Could be an interesting initiative.
The event itself been interesting to me personally as it was possible to see what bloggers in a different part of the world consider important or interesting and what topics interest their readers. The panel I was speaking at was on Freedom of Bloggers and it happened that part of the discussion went around the question whether bloggers are free if they host advertisements on their blog. I have to say, it was an interesting panel, especially seeing how the discussion span off.
The even was discussed on
Twitter (#blogforumgdansk),
Facebook (and a
separate page on Facebook with the videos and live stream from the event),
Blip, and
YouTube.
Overall, I enjoyed the whole thing, there have been some very interesting presentations but my favorites were
Sami Ben Gardhia and
Brian Solis. The full list of speakers and panelists can be found
here.
And I would like to thank the organizers for a great event and extending the invitation to me. Special thanks to Jakub Gornicki :)
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The images in this post except from blogersi are my own.
