The French Exception

The vibrant growth of the French blogosphere is something to behold.  French is the second largest language and half of students in France blog.  This is due, in no small part, to Skyradio telling their listeners to Skyblog what they think at most commercial breaks -- a multi-million dollar advertising investment from an MSM to make blogging cool.  Effective, considering they have 1.5 million bloggers according to Pierre Bellanger's presentation.  Wonder what will happen when they begin podcasting.

I really enjoyed the contrast Jochen Wegner provided in his presentation on how Germany needs a second pope.  Basically, nobody blogs in Germany despite their population and broadband penetration.  He implied that there hadn't been an event, or celebrity, or major marketing push to help it along.  Could also be similar to when i asked Orkut why Estonia was the six most populous nationality on Orkut the a population the size of Skybloggers -- he said one of his good friends was Estonian.  Adoption happens from social networks of founders plus mass event exceptions. 

The Germans I spoke to said wikis were far more popular than blogs and the credited Wikipedia (the German version is the second largest), which are both network and mass drivers.

One of the recurring conversations at Les Blogs, beyond metaphysical notions of what is a blog, is why doesn't everybody have a blog? While lots of blog pundits are quick to agree that the real action isn't blogs as publishing (aside: Doc's presentation put the nail in content instead of conversation) -- but chatter with friends that happens to be in the open.  We have explored this as part of the network structure, demographics, interests, everything.  Barak from 6A noted that focus groups show people consistently think of bloggers are people who are self-important and have too much time on their hands.  My wife, who was outed as part of the community this week, and is my favorite focus group, agrees violently.  And nobody gives a damn who has more traffic than who.

However, the reason I cringe when toolmakers says all the action is in the skinny part of the power law (uh, long tail) is that the toolmakers haven't followed through.  Two notable exceptions are LiveJournal and Flickr.  We all know that social networking (especially as a filter) is due to merge with blogging.  However, one consensus from insiders over the past week was that tool innovation significantly lags social practice.  I'd suggest this is the focus of where toolmakers will catch up over the next year or so.

Caterina made some claims that not everyone has something to write, but all can take snapshots.  All true, and the tech makes it dreadfully easy.  Time-spread media like audio and video has a tougher time until editing is emergent.  But people who use computers are generally literate enough to write letter to friends. 

Back to the rest of the world.  Not every country has a salon culture. Some are waiting for inflections of networks and mass. Many are oppressed and don't have events to move their voices like Iran.  Some still look for a third way like what I can't wait to have emerge from countries like Korea.

The story at Les Blogs wasn't some hot heads from the network core coming over to barf up panel sessions that have been heard before.  It was the mix of cultures at a moment in time that expect a day when we all write what we really think through the web.

Comments

[Julian Bond]

Another possible reason why Blogging is so successful in France is that they understand the nature of discourse as a culture. I've sat with a group of French businessmen in La Coupole and been amazed that they could indulge in what were effectively a series of long monologues. Western Anglo saxon culture really doesn't have the patience to sit and listen to one side of an argument for 15 minutes without butting in and interrupting every 15 seconds.

This seems to me to be a very natural fit with Blogging as Blogs often look to me like monologues. As you say, the tools in blogging are still very primitive for dialogue and group conversation.

Reminds me of an author (tropic of capricorn? Henry Miller?) who said "My favoruite form of dialogue is the monologue"

[Matthew Langham]

Although I'm English I have lived in Germany for nearly 30 years. I've often spoken at conferences about Social Software and one of my favourite discussions is always: Why don't more Germans blog.

It's a complex question to answer really. And of course many Germans do blog - both in English and in their own language.

But the German culture is guarded towards being too "open" about your feelings, wishes and thoughts in general. I always find it interesting to visit a conference in the US and see how easy it is to actually go up to someone (you don't know) and strike up a conversation. Try that at a German conference.

In particular there is hardly a corporate blogging culture in Germnay. Actually I can't - offhand and apart from some news-sites - come up with a German company that actually has an employee blog of any sort.

I think the reason for that is actually easy to define. German companies are very wary about their employees gaining too much visibility - as people. The company (brand) comes first and the individual person has little place in the official "message".

Ask how much of corporate Germany have read the Cluetrain Manifesto.

I think you are more likely to see a growth of weblogs and wikis inside the corporations (bottom up) first before they actually become visible on the outside. But it will happen. Eventually.

[Michael]

Blogging in French isn't of course just relevant in France, and in fact I think that the fact that French is a North American language as well has something to do with the rise of blogging in France.

Blogging has been well entrenched in Quebec for several years now, and the monthly Montreal bloggers dinner is the longest-running such group in the world. Although YULBlog started with bloggers in English, it really grew once French-language bloggers joined in the fun. I remember all of the early articles in the French media about blogs quoted at least one Montreal blogger. There is no analogue to this in the German language, as it has no similar outpost in North America.

[David McClure]

huh? 'French is the 2nd-largest language' ?!?

au contraire, mon frere.

measured either by people or GDP, it's not even in the top 5, or top 10.

references here:
http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats7.htm
http://www.harpercollege.edu/mhealy/g101ilec/intro/clt/cltclt/top100.html

Mandarin, English, Bengali, Hindi, and Spanish are next most populous by # of speakers. If you tweaked the calcs to include measures of GDP and/or online participants, you might slide German or Japanese in there somewhere in the top 5.

however, French isn't 2nd by a longshot.

[oopitupe]

I think Ross meant that French is the second biggest language used by bloggers...