Blogging in Morocco
Few websites are on the internet today without the option. Myspace makes headlines every day because of it. Virtually every young adult has one or knows someone who has one. What is it? It’s Blogging and it is the latest thing to hit the world wide web. It works much like the old days of keeping a daily journal. The only difference is this journal is online waiting to be read by the world. This internet phenomenon is sweeping the globe and now Morocco is getting in on the action.
Actually, Morocco has been a part of the blogging world since 2004. Larbi El Hilai established his own blog in Morocco. It was entitled Blogoma and there are approximately 30,000 individual sites as part of this blog network today. Modern Moroccan people view these blog sites as a way to voice a personal viewpoint on everything from the latest headline news to what happened in the hallway at school.
Larbi’s blogging website is simply titled Larbi.org and receives over 3,500 visitors each day. He started the site back in 2004 by posting a few personal blogs of his own. At one time, the site held 450 posts showcasing his personal thoughts on a variety of issues. From the start, users tuned in. His daily writings prompted 18,000 responses from readers. Some had questions about what he wrote. Some left comments. Others added their own thoughts to his writings. His site and this online interaction gave birth to the world of blogging in Morocco.
User Mehdi7 feels that sites such as Larbi’s present a virtual coffee cafe where users can meet, share thoughts and engage in some friendly conversation. There is no fear of being silenced by government officials. SNPM, Morocco’s national press union, is the first to admit press regulations are more relaxed now than ever before. This gives way to users feeling free to become involved in sites such as Larbi’s.
There are no intentions to bring harm on anyone by blogging in the Blogoma network. At times, there are discussions that turn towards serious headline news like government regulations in the drug world. For the most part there is only the interest of sharing events from being a bystander to the latest royal visit, for example.
Presently, Morocco accounts for more than 30,000 blog entries on the internet. This is spread out across 4 million internet subscribers in the region. Many believe this has everything to do Morocco being an up and coming place to blog.
…more on Morocco and Technology
by Sam Mitchell
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.