Sound and Fury, Part 1

Well, there's been a lot of heat and light generated in the local blogosphere in the past couple of days.

Seems like Joey over at INQ7.net developed a blog, Talking Points, for its readers and this is not going over well with a local blogging community, PinoyBlog.com: The Philippines According to Blogs.

The main point being raised by this group of bloggers is that the INQ7 blog isn't-- for all intents and purposes-- a blog.

I first found it here (via PinoyBlog) and its related blogs that have commented on it. A blogger, Sassy Lawyer, fired one of the first rounds, saying:

The Philippine Daily Inquirer just opened Talking Points--a column “much like a weblog”, something which, according to the Inquirer itself, was inspired by the American blogging community and, specifically, journalist-blogger Andrew Sullivan...

Too bad, boys, whether you publicly admit it or not, we Filipino bloggers were way ahead of you. You should have been “big” enough to give credit where credit is due.

Likewise, another blogger, Tin tin, pointed out that:

Talking Points is nothing of the sort. It's a venue where respondents answer predefined questions, and where their answers are published after some kind of selection process -- rather like an online "Letters to the Editor" section, the contents of which are just as bound by editorial constraints as the printed kind.

'Scuse me, oh great ones, but you've missed the whole point of a weblog. It's a publishing medium that even individuals can use, without fear of manipulation, selectivity or censorship. A blogger can say what he wants, when he wants, with only his own conscience, self-imposed restrictions and/or readership to guide him.

Woo-hoo! Them's fighting words!

Joey responds, saying:

What I find hilarious is that here I was, excited over blogging and deciding to feature bloggers in YOU and Infotech after friends got me hooked on it, and now it's being made to appear that all along I was stealing ideas from people. That INQ7.net, evil, mainstream, I'm-the-establishment INQ7.net, was plotting to benefit from all the hard work of the Philippine blogging community without giving proper credit.

Presently, the furor's died down a bit but it was fascinating to watch-- like seeing a road accident happen right before your eyes.

La-di-da...