Service Interrupted

So the 2008 Environment group blog experiment is over. As some of you may have heard, Madagascar has had some political turmoil lately. The Peace Corps program there, along with all other "non-essential" US Mission staff, have been evacuated. The service of the 2008 Environment stage is over, interrupted just before the half-way mark. So as we split up and go our separate ways, --traveling around the world, going home to eager families, transferring to other Peace Corps countries-- I'd like to look at where the blog succeeded and where it fell short. If your the kind of person who hates "meta" (blogging about blogging), don't bother with the rest of this post.

First off, I just recently discovered the peacecorpsjournals.com website, which is a great compilation by country of volunteer blogs from around the world. It's exactly the kind of ultimate outcome I envisioned (but did not know existed) when Brendan H. first came up with the idea of a group blog. That said, I still think group blogs by training class or country have a lot of potential, mainly because of more frequent updates.

Our own little blog generated 4 updates in November, 2 in December, and 2 in January. This may seem low, but compared to the update frequency on most individual volunteer blogs, it's actually pretty good. In addition, if more people started CROSS-POSTING stuff that they put up on personal sites, the update frequency would increase significantly. If you click around a little on Peace Corps Journals, you'll notice literally dozens of blogs for each country. Seriously, even with a fast connection, who has the time to add that many sites to their frequent reading role? A more centralized way of organizing PC blogs, either by training group or country, would make the site more accessible and interesting. It also might stimulate more discussion, because as much as I love you all, at 50AR-100AR/minute, I don't have time to visit each of your sites individually.

I also think that it is not a coincidence that updates pretty much ended the week before the political situation deteriorated. I think everyone (myself included) was hesitant to post given the sensitive nature of the topic, the potential security implications, and the chance that posts would lead to uncontrolled rumor and panic both back home and with other volunteers. I can't emphasize enough how legitimate I think those concerns are.

At the same time, I think that a situation like the one we just faced is where a centralized blog could prove most valuable. With good guidelines and maybe a PC group blog moderator (either similar to PCVL or even a staff-line), I think Peace Corps Journals could be the go-to spot for on-the-ground news for things like political events, natural disasters, or other newsworthy happenings. I definitely acknowledge that this is tricky terrain, but I think the upside is huge if PC invested some time and energy.

So those are my thoughts on this mini-project, the Dagu Diaries. I think I speak for many of us when I say how truly sad we are not to be able to finish our service in Madagascar, a place we were incredibly lucky to experience over the last year. I wish everyone the best of luck in their next endeavors, and hope to see you all again at the Stage of Love 5 year reunion. Maybe we can post here to set it up!