I got a good tip from Lina on an all-day (8 hour) Jordanian blogging workshop, Sha3shaboneh, taking place on June 28th, and I sat in for a number of really great multimedia presentations (in Arabic) at the Makan art space just down the hill from my place in Weibdeh.
Sha3shaboneh, which I think means 'Daddy Long Legs' or something (and probably a play on the world wide 'web' as well as the new Jordanian-crafted pan-Arab job listings site Akhtaboot--'octopus'), was the brain-child of local blogger (Khobbeizeh), journalist, and visual designer Mohammed al Qaq. He gathered eight local bloggers and blogging experts--including Lina (Into the Wind, 7iber) and Ahmed Humeid (360East)--to give talks on the history of blogging in Jordan, blogging basics, citizen journalism, and issues of censorship/self-censorship. All related nicely to my research, and were quite informative in their own right.
It's pretty cool to see impassioned Jordanian bloggers and interested audience members all gathered in one place to really tease out all the layers in this still new and misunderstood phenomenon of blogging in Jordan. Since the death of blogger meet-ups under the now defunct aggregator Jordan Planet, forums like these continue to play a valuable role in educating and inspiring Jordanians about this new platform for free thought, social space, and occasionally, citizen journalism.
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