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Yesterday I was reading "Bloggers: an army of irregulars" by Paul Reynolds from the BBC. He talks about what big business and the mainstream media can learn from blogs :

For many in the "mainstream media", as bloggers call us, weblogs are at best a nuisance and at worst dangerous.

They are seen as the rantings and ravings either of the unbalanced or the tedious.

My experience over the past few months has led me to an opposite conclusion.

I regard the blogosphere as a source of criticism that must be listened to and as a source of information that can be used.
….
Only this week, they tracked down the origin of a fake cartoon which has been fuelling the furore over the characterisation of Muhammad in a Danish paper.

Another example …

I also benefited from the Daily Kos site when the issue of the use of white phosphorus by the US military in Iraq was under discussion.

The Pentagon initially denied its use as a weapon but the bloggers were able to link to an article from an embedded reporter who had watched marines using it as such and to a report in an army magazine about its use in Falluja.

The examples show the collective strength of blogs.

The article is worth reading, fetch it here.

Well, that in mind, you think you saw it all?

I got an email today which I like to share with you:

Here is the Danish cartoons row through eyewitnesses from Syria and Netherlands.

Dear Haitham,

We would very much appreciate it if you could mention this initiative in your Blog.

http://bridgethegap.volkskrantblog.nl/

It is the iniative of a blogger from Syria and one from the Netherlands who started communicating on a blog during the Danish Cartoon row.

They found out that what they saw on TV about each others countries was very different from what they learned from the eye-witness they were emailing with.

They figured that a lot of the current tension could be lessened if bloggers from both sides started communicating with each other, instead of just their familiar blog-friends.

This is a call for bloggers around the world to put your name down as 'happy to teach about my culture and curious to learn about yours'.

If there ever was a time that nations actually needed to know each other on a citizen-to-citizen basis it is now.
Never has there been a more effcicient communication tool as the internet.

Please visit the blog and mentionus in your blog!

Thanks in advance
Mohamad & Nico

This is the power of blogging. Bridging is one of the very important role of the blogs, and here they have shown their power in a way that ought to make big media organisations also take notice sooner or later.

Well done Mohammed and Nico!