First meeting for Greek bloggers on Ios
The Greek blogosphere is small but enthusiastic, and it’s growing. That was the conclusion drawn by bloggers, technicians, Internet company representatives, web designers, advertisers and analysts who attended the first Greek Bloggers Camp held June 2-3 on the island of Ios. The meeting addressed new international trends related to Web 2.0 and social networks. Though there were not large numbers of participants, the camp was an opportunity for Greek bloggers to meet, as well as companies such as Ogilvy which promotes Web advertising, Phaistos networks and Pathfinder. Two prominent guests at the event were Matt Mullenweg, creator of WordPress blogging software, and independent web designer Steve Smith, both from the USA. The people who produce wiggler.gr expressed their satisfaction that the community had been set up at last. They got acquainted and enjoyed talking about technology on the beach with people who share their passion, and with the two people from abroad who are leading development in their field. As the blogosphere enters a more commercial phase, and Google is promoting advertising on blogs, Greek blogs are soon expected to exceed 10,000 Web pages. Of the 1 million blogs on WordPress, about 2,900 are Greek. «That’s a small number, but there’s something interesting,» said Mullenweg. «They get more than 2 million visits, which means Greek users are participating more actively in those blogs than speakers of other languages.» Panos Sambrakos of Ogilvy made a presentation on using the network effect in advertising, which attracted a lot of interest. The network effect refers to rapid dissemination to a network of people. «From the classic tactic of addressing as large an audience as possible through television, we are shifting to more creative thinking, where we let users pass the message on themselves as and how they wish,» said Sambrakos.
