BLOGGER: Georgian blogosphere assessed

Global Voices Online , June 13
By Onnik Krikorian

Following last weekend's BarCamp in Tbilisi, one of the event's main organizers, Giga Paitchadze, briefly considers its success and provides a small glimpse into the Georgian blogosphere. Also known as DvOrsky [GE], the blogger claims to be the oldest in the country. Global Voices Online interviewed Paitchadze after the Caucasus BarCamp.

GV: How would you describe the blogging scene in Georgia?
GP: About 5 percent of all internet users in Georgia have blogs. With Internet penetration now at about 10 percent of the whole population, then that means about 10-15,000 bloggers. However, this figure would include both active and inactive bloggers, i.e. with one post only.

The main language is of course Georgian, and the second is Russian because many bloggers use LiveJournal and have a large audience there in terms of friends, people making comments, readers and visitors.

As there are no catalogues or any services where Georgian blogs are classified and where some statistics are available, I'll say that the most widely covered topics are politics, music, sport and other outdoor or lifestyle activities, tech news, IT and everything else.

Also there are many bloggers who just write about everyday life.

GV: How many people attended the BarCamp?
GP: About 150 people attended BarCamp Caucasus. Actually, we expected more than 200 since we had only 150 participants registered on our site and had also invited a lot of organizations, journalists and other bloggers. Unfortunately, however, the political and social situation on June 7th — the first session of the newly elected parliament and the oppositional rally against election results — was more in the focus of people.

Perhaps The PR campaign for our BarCamp needed more effort, but for next time we will learn from the lesson this time.

GV: How do you consider the BarCamp went? What were its successes?
GP: The success of every BarCamp is that people have the possibility to meet in real life, in an unofficial atmosphere, to share experiences, to make new contacts, and to create a network which can provide many other possibilities such as to start something like a new project etc.

In that sense, I think that BarCamp Caucasus achieved this goal. And I am positive about this since I have also read some reports and blog posts by those attending the BarCamp – for example, the meeting and some discussion held between Armenian and Azerbaijani participants. This is a small but important success.

On the other hand, not so many Georgians attended the event, but I think with some time and development of the Internet here, Georgian society will pay more attention to events like the BarCamp Caucasus.

GV: Although there was still very little interaction between Armenian, Azerbaijani and Georgian bloggers and new media professionals, do you think that BarCamps and blogs, and social networks could be useful tools in bringing the three countries closer together?
GP: I absolutely agree that events like BarCamps or similar can do a great job in cross-border cooperation and cultural dialogue. Finding similar and joint interests or working on joint projects can be more important than talking about our differences.

Indeed, Georgia is considered by many international organizations and bodies to be neutral ground in the South Caucasus and the only location where Armenian, Azerbaijani and Georgian participants can meet up in sufficient numbers for conferences and other events. This is especially the case given that its two South Caucasus neighbors remain locked in a protracted conflict over Nagorno Karabakh.