Blogger Movements (Updated)

I have been looking around for civil society movements - i.e. self-initiated movements from civilians, non-government and non-profit making, for certain causes.

(Please see the Updated section at the bottom of this article) From the information that I have collected, there seems to be only one big-scale activity which was held on August 6th, 2005. It is called "Bloggers are morons", which is a charity blogathon to raise funds for Hospice-at-Home Programme, Penang. Popular bloggers, such as Kenny Sia, Minishorts, Suanie, Peter Tan, Paul Tan and Shaolin Tiger blogged for a full 24 hours, passing the baton one after another. Apparently there was also 11 guest bloggers (buangmasa, Eyeris, Jaime Shun, Jean, JFE 8555, KY Speaks, Lucia Lai, Marita Paige, Sashi, Wingz, Wuan) too. No links for the guest bloggers because I got it a comment in ViewTru's blog and they were not hyperlinked.

The "Bloggers are morons" site was taken down after the event. According to Viewtru, only 1359.98 dollars (no indications to whether it is RM or USD) was collected at the time of his posting (9 August 2005). I will have to check with Suanie on the figures.

Other than the "Bloggers are morons" blogathon, I have not found any other movements of collective bloggers' effort, only the recent "Manuscripts don't burn" which is a group blog trying to raise awareness of banned books within Malaysia. A list of banned books were given. The blog was set up in early November 2006 and has not been updated for more than two weeks since.

Haze Haters in Malaysia was a unique use of Blogger to hold a picture petition against open burning in Indonesia, 2005. It even got a mention in The Star, if I remember correctly. But besides the fact that it is hosted by Blogger, it does not display any characteristics of a blog, but works more like a website instead. The attempt to resurrect it in the haze season, 2006 was not apparently successful.

Other efforts have been personal. Anti Lampe Berger is one, Anti Rempit is the other. Anti-Lampe Berger has had a much longer lifespan than "Manuscripts don't burn" and "Anti Rempit" (a campaign aimed at Mat Rempits). Individual bloggers also align themselves with activities that they feel strongly for, such as Suanie in TakeBackTheTech (for anti-violence against women) and Jeff Ooi and SKThew with Global Voices Online.

Will continue to scout around for more. The online survey will be launched sometime next week, after I get back from holidaying in Singapore. If you know of any other movements, please leave me a comment =) Thanks!

*Update on 29 Nov 2006*
I redid my research and found the perspective that I had missed (and would still have missed if it weren't for the heads-up by Cynical Idealist and Suanie at the comments section). Apparently, there is an annual world-wide blogathon movement initiated by Blogathon.org. And here's the most important rule:

Each participant must update every 30 minutes for the 24-hour period beginning on July 29, 2006, at 6:00 AM Pacific Time. Everyone blogs during the same 24-hour period. For example, if you are blogging from Paris, France, you would begin at 4:00 pm (1600). In Sydney, Australia, you would begin at 11:00 pm (2300). You need not update right on the half-hour, so don't panic about exactitude. Just be sure you're updating once about every 30 minutes.

Source: Rules of the Blogathon 2006

So, apparently, "Bloggers are Morons" was an initiative under the umbrella of Blogathon.org. As commented by Suanie and stated by this article - other "blogathoners" include Edrei, Yvonne Foong, Ee Yean and Serge, so it wasn't only "Bloggers Are Morons" after all. My bad! =P