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First Virtual Blog Festival in Nicaragua

Cinthia Membreño | Aug 18, 2011

Migration will be the central topic of this festival, which will feature a variety of multimedia tools.

Promoting the use of blogs as means of expression and creation of public opinion will be the goal of the First Virtual Blog Festival, an initiative that will release - from September 1 to 10 - a public directory with links to national bloggers who will write about migration using multimedia tools.

Carlos Fonseca, Nicaraguan blogger and organizer of the festival, stated during a press conference given to the local media on Wednesday, August 17, that the event is convoking not only Managuans, but also bloggers from all over the country. "The idea is to share the articles and posts also on traditional media, so that the content reaches a larger audience," explained Fonseca.

According to a press release provided by the PR Agency Crea Communications, this kind of festivals have emerged as an initiative of Global Voices, an international blogger network that develops citizen journalism. Countries like Peru, Colombia, Venezuela and Mexico have already joined this initiative.

So far, the directory has more than 20 national bloggers. Organizers and participants hope that the number increases once the festival is promoted on national media. Furthermore, the event also pretends that bloggers have a meeting point where they can share their articles and become known nationally and internationally.

The dynamic consists of publishing articles, videos, photos, audio and other data related to migration on a blog. After sending a message to festivalblogsnica@gmail.com with one's name and blog, the link will be included on the official blog.

The Nicaraguan blogger community, which is promoting the event, is a nonprofit organization constituted by citizens that use alternative tools to spread ideas, content and opinions. This is why the information that will be published on the directory will also be spread on social networks like Facebook and Twitter.