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The Pakistani Blogosphere comprises of various Bloggers , writing out their blogs individually as well as collectively through Group Blogs . Blogs themselves are not a popular Medium of Mass Communication as they are only used by the few people who are both tech-savvy as well as regular Internet users. However, they are slowly catching the attention of people who love to have their own space on the Internet to talk and interact. Pakistani political blogs are covered at Political Blogs In Pakistan . HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT OF BLOGS IN PAKISTAN Blogging caught the attention of the Pakistani Internet surfers mainly after Google launched it's Blog Hosting Service , Blogger in 2000. The " Push Button publishing" phenomenon, as it was termed by Blogger, was an easy and convenient means to put up just about anything one wanted on the Internet. Plus, no technical know-how of HTML or Java was needed. One could log on, write a post, hit the submit button and that was just about it. Tariq Mustafa’s Window to Pakistan was the first Pakistani blog which came on the scene in 2001. The first entry on the blog is dated 6th June 2001. This blog is completely focused on the state of Internet, Computers and Technology in Pakistan with commentary and analysis of News items. Khalid Omar and Zack Ajmal were the first among general Blogs in Pakistan which focused on just about anything - personal rants, views on different issues and discussion of different articles around the Internet, to name a few. The number of Bloggers started increasing only during 2002, when Blogging became more known through Word-of-mouth . Now, there are many Pakistani bloggers who collectively on the Internet constitute the Pakistani blogosphere. But this number is still very small as compared to the total population which surfs the Internet. Hence, blogging is restricted to only a few young Pakistanis. It is the Youth among whom Blogging has become immensely popular. This is mainly because blogging has its charms - it promises one exclusive space on the Internet where the Pakistani Youth can transcend just about any restriction and speak their mind. They can share with others not only their views but also their Hobbies and interests. Blogging has also become popular because it involves very little technical know-how. A whole Webpage is created simply by filling an online form and selecting a Template . The ease of Publishing has aided the spread of Blogging as well. BLOG AWARDS Although no Blog Awards have been given out by a Pakistani website to date, Pakistani blogs have nonetheless been nominated and have won in different categories in Awards given by other websites. The prospect of being Nominated in any category for any award has increased the Motivation to blog with a cause. Pakistani blogs which have won an award or have been nominated include:- Zack Ajmal’s Procrastination won in the category of Best Asian Weblog in Asia Weblog Awards 2004. He was nominated in five categories and ended up as the runner-up in three categories in the Brass Crescent Awards 2004: Best Writing, Best Series (of Posts on a single subject), and Best Non-English Blog In the Brass Crescent Awards 2004, Pakistani bloggers dominated overall. Haroon Moghul, who was an Islamabad-based blogger won in the category of Best Writing for his blog Avari.Nameh , as well as Best Post and Best Overall Blog. Asif Iqbal, an Urdu blogger, won in the category of Best Non-English Blog. Considering that Zack’s blog was also nominated for this same category and he too blogs in Urdu, this was a hallmark in the brief history of Urdu blogging. In the second Brass Crescent Awards 2005 , Zack Ajmal was nominated for Best Blog. Haroon Moghul emerged as a winner in the category of "Best Thinker" - the blog whose posts really make one think. The Best Post Award went to Chapati Mystery’s "That Terror Thing" . It is disappointing to note that Pakistani bloggers have yet to make a mark in the more high profile awards like the Fairvue Central Annual Weblog Awards which actually give out awards. But one reason for the absence of Pakistani bloggers may be that they don’t visit this website when the time comes to nominate blogs for the awards. Getting a blog award is an Ego booster even if the award is only a sticker to put on one’s blog. It is after all, the Competition spurred by the awards, which will go a long way in improving the quality of blogs in general. And the average Internet user and blog reader will ultimately benefit from more thought-provoking content laid out in a creative manner. ISSUES RELATED TO PAKISTANI BLOGS Copyright issues The main issue which arises in relation to blogs is the lifting of Copyrighted Images and posts from other Websites . Sometimes, bloggers pay little attention to the Copyright notices on several websites and proceed to blatantly copy images and articles. Of course there are some who give credit to the original website but others don’t bother. Some bloggers go as far as to copy the blog Template of other blogs without crediting the original Designer . Trolling Most of the Pakistani bloggers try to remain Neutral on many issues while writing their post. But a blogger cannot control the way people perceive that post when they read it. Sometimes there is a rather unexpected reaction to posts, which also erupts into a full fledge all-out war with comment count running well over 50. The comments become more Aggressive , with everyone trying to make their Point Of View heard. On the other hand, there are bloggers who deliberately post up provocative stuff in order to make people comment. These people are known as “ Internet Trolls .” And many readers of the blog fall prey to this trap and end up arguing pointlessly until the next post is put up. So what’s the downside of all this? One can say that people have the right to argue all they want. But what actually happens in this case is that blogs in general face the fire for being the means of sensationalizing issues. The blogger him/herself gets a reputation for putting up stuff which sparks off long-winded Debates . And the people in general are deprived of reading some constructive comment. Privacy Privacy or keeping personal Information out of blog entries is something that is totally relative. The level of privacy varies from one Pakistani blog to another. For some bloggers, privacy is of such paramount importance that they refrain strictly from even giving out their real name on their blogs and stick to their Pseudonym at all times. Others actually put their real name as their blog URL and go on to put up their photographs on their blogs as well. Privacy concerns come into play mainly because people generally don’t want to make themselves traceable through their blogs. And even a slight reference to, for instance, the places the blogger visits or the educational institutes he has been to, can give away a lot. But some bloggers don’t have a problem with this at all so they blog freely. Anonymous blogging Those who are extra concerned about their privacy turn to Anonymous blogging. This essentially means that even their regular visitors never get to know their real name. They stick to their self-made Pseudonym at all times. Some of them though blogging anonymously do make References to quite a lot of things but since no one knows their real name or how they look like, they can afford to blog unrestrained. However, Pakistani Anonymous blogging for vanity's sake is raising in the recent months. One persistent source for justification is Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan (aka The Compulsive Confessor) hailing from Mumbai, India; who is emerging as a role model for Pakistani bloggers. Dormant blogs It is rather annoying to note that an increasing number of blogs are abandoned after the initial novelty wears off. An excellent news-based blog, Dareecha has not been updated since August 2005. Nothing puts off readers more than a blog which is interesting to read, but never updated. The Pakistani blogosphere has more than its fair share of dormant blogs which are rarely or never updated. One cause of this dormancy is that one blogger creates a whole set of blogs each focusing on a different issue. Later, because of a lack of time or Motivation or Resources , all the blogs become dormant except perhaps for the one personal blog which continues to be updated. Dormancy can also be attributed to the lack of awareness amongst the bloggers themselves of the importance of blogging and especially of a frequently-updated blog. But no matter what the reason, there are many Pakistani blogs with posts that are worth reading that are lying dormant with no immediate update in sight. BLOGGING IN URDU In the initial days of Pakistani blogging, there was a serious dearth of . Urdu blogs have an edge over Urdu mainstream Websites . This is mainly because the content of most of the Urdu websites is neither interesting nor updated. Urdu blogs on the other hand cover a vast range of topics from Technology and Society to Politics and Religion . These blogs are not only interesting to read, but they also promote Urdu Language over the Internet. Although popular blog hosting websites like Blogger have an inbuilt facility for users to post in Urdu with adequate support for Fonts and templates, a few Pakistani bloggers have tried to do something on their own in this regard as well. Qadeer Ahmad Rana , an avid Urdu blogger has been personally responsible not only for inspiring people to blog in Urdu and setting up their blogs but also for helping them with the necessary installation of Urdu fonts and designing templates for them. It is encouraging to note that the current trend in blogging namely group blogging has been taken up by Urdu bloggers. Urdu Tech News is a group blog featuring technology news in Urdu. It currently has seven members. This is the first blog/newspaper which is providing technology related stuff in Urdu language. However, the Urdu blogosphere has its own share of problems. Pakistani bloggers very rarely blog totally in Urdu. They usually have an ‘English’ blog with a couple of posts in Urdu. Then there is the problem of dormant blogs whereby people enter the Urdu blogging arena very enthusiastically only to abandon their blog completely once the novelty fades away. But in spite of all the problems, the number of Urdu bloggers is growing albeit slowly. The support from the blogosphere and the increasing technical support are the two main factors which are motivating current Pakistani bloggers to open another blog and dedicate it solely to Urdu posts. An Urdu Planet has also been created to promote Urdu and Urdu posts. CRITICISM AGAINST BLOGS Blogs have come under fire for more than one reason. Many people argue that Bloggers are self-absorbent. They are totally immersed into themselves because they have a personal blog on which they Rant and rave about their lives. These Critics wonder who in the world could possibly be interested in knowing each and everything about a blogger, like what he/she for breakfast for instance and how late he/she was to work. Also, the very concept of blog hits out at the notion of Privacy that a Traditional diary follows. This is exactly why people can’t come to terms with the fact that a diary is being written Online and is being read and commented on with the rest of the world. Such Skeptics argue that blogs end up undermining the entire concept of privacy and keeping the details of one’s private life to oneself and not put it up for everyone to read. There are others who cannot believe the extent to which the blogging phenomenon has gone. They are the ones who feel that words like blog, weblog and blogosphere along with the entire terminology which comes with, like blog rolling, should be done away with immediately as it is nothing more than polluting the Internet terminology along with English Language. CONCLUSION Although it does seem that Blogs are becoming popular, the fact remains that they are still an emerging media. Presently, there is no possible way that they can compete with the mainstream Mass Media in Pakistan namely Newspapers , Television and Radio , because blogs are understood, used and accessed by only a very few selected tech-savvy people. Ask a common Pakistani person and it is highly likely he/she won’t even know what a blog is. Unless all Pakistani websites dedicate one section of their website to blogs, it is unlikely that an average person will ever really understand what a blog is or what its importance is. Whether or not the current coverage in the print media given to blog Censorship will actually increase blog literacy remains to be seen. REFERENCES
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