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Blogging.la - Today, the World. Tomorrow ...
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2163 Reads
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 The L.A.-based Metroblogging network of urban group blogs has now officially and dramatically extended its reach beyond all reasonable expectations - to the banks of the Bosphorus.
Istanbul.metblogs.com, the latest in a global string of 17 (and counting) group blogs launched by Angelenos Sean Bonner and Jason deFillippo, offers a sort of travelogue today by way of comments on the site's dreamy sunset-over-the-Blue-Mosque header graphic:
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The boat on the left is called Vapur and it's probably the best public transportation option available in ?stanbul. The view is great, the wind blows and if you are infected by romantic literature there are places where you can hold hands and exchange cliches.
Speaking of public transportation, if there are people out there who wants to come to ?stanbul, they should know that our public transportation has one main principle: Total chaos. Most of the time it's like a quantum universe with infinite alternatives. Reading Cosmic Banditos may help but if you are loaded i’d suggest travelling by taxi (please don’t rent a car, the traffic is bad as it is).
Now look 3 cm's right and you'll see a big dome with 6 minarets. What you see is the Blue Mosque, one of the land marks of Ottoman Architechture. They say that the minarets form a perfect line which means that when you face one of them head on, you can’t see the others behind it. That’s the kind of precision you get when you face the danger of being beheaded if you screw up. And no, i never tested it as i am not a tourist. A smattering of art listings, a little street color and a note on the Istanbul message boards round out the rest of the first week's posts.
What's impressive is not necessarily the global sweep (Vienna, Chicago and London are among the Metblogs sites now up and running).
Nor is it the depth and weight of content Several sites, London and flagship blogging.la included, rarely keep up a consistent, daily barrage of posts, a la boingboing, despite claiming rosters of 10 or more bloggers each.
What's really impressive is that the way they're laying pipe. They're building an unprecedented pan-global network of like-minded bloggers - a cultural model that seems to migrate comfortably to other cities where English is spoken as a second language - and they're experimenting with a global, ad-driven business model.
What will be most intriguing to watch is how that model unfolds: The sites right now all seem to share a common ad strip, taken up by run-of-network ads for sites such as Angeleno kustom artist Coop's devil-girl e-commerce portal and Bonner's own L.A. art gallery, augmented with more-localized Google ads.
I'd be curious to learn whether the ad sales are covering hosting costs yet - and whether Coke, Phillips, Ford or some other mega-multinational is waiting in the wings for some sort of sign of massive market traction, nervously fingering its checkbook.
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| Posted by: mack_reed on Monday, September 27, 2004 - 11:03 PM
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