Best: WhirledView
Found this blog by three women through a link on a thread at MyDD::Progressive blogosphere diversity. The three bloggers are an international affairs specialist, a chemist specializing in international environmental projects, and a communications specialist with great experience in the U.S. foreign service. All in all, I'd say that's a pretty remarkable group of women. Most of their posts focus on international relations and politics, but also explore issues of international security and diplomacy. Blogrolls are extensive to other national security, international affairs and political blogs as well as to books on subjects they discuss. This blog makes a nice addition to the list of more country specific blogs I'm developing. I like this blog for the broad look at international relations.
Not so great: luck with searching
I've resisted calling websites worst. I keep finding things that aren't related specifically to my topic. It's not that they're bad, it's just the results of many of my searches haven't turned up as many great results as I'd like. I've found lots of feminist blogs (slightly related, but not completely); blogs by women about American politics; blogs by women living in other countries; blogs about international politics and relations, but not necessarily about women. I've refined searches in Technorati, ask.com, del.ic.ious, clusty.com, dogpile.com, google.com. I've found lots of good things to add to the blogroll along with excluding sites simply because my searching hasn't been up to par. I want something to jump out as just horrible. Maybe I'm being too nice. There's plenty that's awful.
Or, maybe it's that I've found so many great blogrolls, but they don't give me a sense of what's on the roll. Give me details about where you're sending me!
So, for example of blogs I've found that are pretty good, just not related to my topic:
Showing posts with label assignment 7B. Show all posts
Showing posts with label assignment 7B. Show all posts
Friday, October 12, 2007
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Best/Worst Sites 4: Thursday
Best: Antigone Magazine.
Jackpot. I should have come to Technorati and done this search a long time ago: global women politics blogosphere (but noooo... I had to try other search techniques first).
I found this blog for Antigone Magazine, a biannual print publication about women and politics at the University of British Columbia. The blog keeps the dialogue going throughout the year. It's written by several women and primarily focuses on politics in Canada, but also includes a fair amount of commentary on their neighbors to the south.
Not so great: Iranian Bloggers in Jail/Democracy for Iran
There is some good content here written by women. My complaints here tend to skew to the design of the site. While a beautiful language to look at, Arabic characters do not hold up well when reversed out of this black background. Also, image placement and column widths of the site have been skewed in such a way that type runs together and runaround on photos is awkward to the point of having one word per line in the sidebar. The blogroll here looks promising with many links to blogs and sites about democracy movements in Iran. The design is simply something keeping me from learning from this site.
Jackpot. I should have come to Technorati and done this search a long time ago: global women politics blogosphere (but noooo... I had to try other search techniques first).
I found this blog for Antigone Magazine, a biannual print publication about women and politics at the University of British Columbia. The blog keeps the dialogue going throughout the year. It's written by several women and primarily focuses on politics in Canada, but also includes a fair amount of commentary on their neighbors to the south.
Not so great: Iranian Bloggers in Jail/Democracy for Iran
There is some good content here written by women. My complaints here tend to skew to the design of the site. While a beautiful language to look at, Arabic characters do not hold up well when reversed out of this black background. Also, image placement and column widths of the site have been skewed in such a way that type runs together and runaround on photos is awkward to the point of having one word per line in the sidebar. The blogroll here looks promising with many links to blogs and sites about democracy movements in Iran. The design is simply something keeping me from learning from this site.
Best/Worst Sites 3: Thursday
Best: Global Voices Online, Politics Blogs
I mentioned this site earlier this week on the classroom Blackboard and I've listed it in the blogroll over on the right. Time to make a note of it here as well. Global Voices is a project of Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society.
This particular section of the site helps narrow the group of bloggers down to those who focus on politics. While there are many male bloggers listed in this group, this is by far one of the best groupings of international political bloggers I've found thus far. The site is edited by members of the Center, and blog posts are of high quality. It's an interesting way of aggregating bloggers from around the world - translate and host their posts all in one searchable place. But, it makes finding many different voices a very quick and easy process.
One of the more frequent posters is Veronica Khokhlova, who covers topics around the Ukraine and Russia. She's a native of Kiev who has degrees in journalism from Rutgers and the University of Iowa.
And Neha Viswanathan is a blogger living in London who focuses on south Asia. Her blogroll looks like it will also be a promising place to find women bloggers.
Good stuff every time I take a click.
Worst: Sites found with the search combination: russian women blog
I should have known better when I did this search in Ask.com. I had decided to use ask.com to let the smart search give me a little help in finding some blogs to list under the not-so-great category. First filtered search gave me a ton of results for Russian mail-order bride type sites. Whoopsie... Hope the work censors get a chuckle out of some of these hits. No naked ladies, just lots of ads for all types of Russian women. Not exactly the types of "blogs" I was looking for.
I mentioned this site earlier this week on the classroom Blackboard and I've listed it in the blogroll over on the right. Time to make a note of it here as well. Global Voices is a project of Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society.
This particular section of the site helps narrow the group of bloggers down to those who focus on politics. While there are many male bloggers listed in this group, this is by far one of the best groupings of international political bloggers I've found thus far. The site is edited by members of the Center, and blog posts are of high quality. It's an interesting way of aggregating bloggers from around the world - translate and host their posts all in one searchable place. But, it makes finding many different voices a very quick and easy process.
One of the more frequent posters is Veronica Khokhlova, who covers topics around the Ukraine and Russia. She's a native of Kiev who has degrees in journalism from Rutgers and the University of Iowa.
And Neha Viswanathan is a blogger living in London who focuses on south Asia. Her blogroll looks like it will also be a promising place to find women bloggers.
Good stuff every time I take a click.
Worst: Sites found with the search combination: russian women blog
I should have known better when I did this search in Ask.com. I had decided to use ask.com to let the smart search give me a little help in finding some blogs to list under the not-so-great category. First filtered search gave me a ton of results for Russian mail-order bride type sites. Whoopsie... Hope the work censors get a chuckle out of some of these hits. No naked ladies, just lots of ads for all types of Russian women. Not exactly the types of "blogs" I was looking for.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Worst Sites 1b: Wednesday
somehow I skipped tuesday. or at least I think I did. no matter. I'll have 5 great and 5 not so great sites to share in a wrap up post by the end of the week. But for today's finds:
Worst: African Womens Blogs.
I really wanted this one to be a gem. Alas, not so much in the way of great blogs relating to women and the political blogosphere. This site purports to be an "aggregator of african women blogs," and asks readers to join the forum. What I found was several blogs written by women, but not necessarily women living in Africa. There were several African women who were blogging, just not about politics. The site also generated several errors when I clicked on links to see "Top Users" and "Listed Blogs." Thumbs down for a site that doesn't help this user easily find content on the site and for generating errors on links that should work.
Worst: African Womens Blogs.
I really wanted this one to be a gem. Alas, not so much in the way of great blogs relating to women and the political blogosphere. This site purports to be an "aggregator of african women blogs," and asks readers to join the forum. What I found was several blogs written by women, but not necessarily women living in Africa. There were several African women who were blogging, just not about politics. The site also generated several errors when I clicked on links to see "Top Users" and "Listed Blogs." Thumbs down for a site that doesn't help this user easily find content on the site and for generating errors on links that should work.
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Best/Worst Sites 2: Monday
Best: Women's eNews.
This site, funded by several leading U.S. think tanks and endowments including the Carnegie, Ford and Rockefeller Foundations, has a strong list of links to national and international women's issues. There are also a significant number of original articles and research on the site. Thus far, it's been one of the best spring boards to finding both domestic and international sites related to women and politics. I'm adding Women's eNews to the list of the best sites relating to my topic on the strong credibility of its sponsors, funding and endowment as well as its links to other quality websites.
Worst: Jagriti International
Adding this site to the list of worst is a little bittersweet as I'm adding it here mostly because the group has not been active since 2005 when
The group has some good links to women's groups that are active in many developing nations. But, given Jagriti's lack of it's own recently updated information relating to women's groups and political advocacy, I'm reluctant to assume any of the links and contact information for the linked groups are active and accurate.
It's terribly unfortunate that violence and the Patriot Act are among the chief reasons this group had to discontinue assisting women in developing nations.
This site, funded by several leading U.S. think tanks and endowments including the Carnegie, Ford and Rockefeller Foundations, has a strong list of links to national and international women's issues. There are also a significant number of original articles and research on the site. Thus far, it's been one of the best spring boards to finding both domestic and international sites related to women and politics. I'm adding Women's eNews to the list of the best sites relating to my topic on the strong credibility of its sponsors, funding and endowment as well as its links to other quality websites.
Worst: Jagriti International
Adding this site to the list of worst is a little bittersweet as I'm adding it here mostly because the group has not been active since 2005 when
"On-going civil and political strife in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nepal have made it impossible for us to safely send Bridging Worlds volunteers to these countries. The U.S. Patriot Act and visa restrictions have also forced us to suspend our Bridging Worlds Emerging Leaders program because it is nearly impossible for women from grassroots organizations to meet stringent U.S. visa requirements. Therefore the board has sadly decided to indefinitely suspend our active programs."
The group has some good links to women's groups that are active in many developing nations. But, given Jagriti's lack of it's own recently updated information relating to women's groups and political advocacy, I'm reluctant to assume any of the links and contact information for the linked groups are active and accurate.
It's terribly unfortunate that violence and the Patriot Act are among the chief reasons this group had to discontinue assisting women in developing nations.
Monday, October 8, 2007
Best Sites 1a: 100 Women Political Bloggers
Lisa Bistreich posted about my blog, and a commenter there pointed me to this blog and a post of 100 links to women political bloggers. Talk about a gold mine! Thanks to Lisa and her commenter for the tip. I'll have to spend some serious time scouring this list. I think the bulk of the ones listed here may be domestic. But, I'm hopeful these 100 ladies will direct me to even more useful sites.
Updated 10.10.07: I'm updating this post to include this site as one of my 5 best for the assignment requirements. It makes the cut because of the volume of links related to the topic. While the list contains numerous U.S. bloggers, it's a tremendous link list to use to find others. It's relevant, timely and accurate. Better still, readers have been submitting their own links giving the site points for dynamics and reader interactivity.
Updated 10.10.07: I'm updating this post to include this site as one of my 5 best for the assignment requirements. It makes the cut because of the volume of links related to the topic. While the list contains numerous U.S. bloggers, it's a tremendous link list to use to find others. It's relevant, timely and accurate. Better still, readers have been submitting their own links giving the site points for dynamics and reader interactivity.
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