I have never really been concerned with what’s going on in the “blogosphere” besides what bloggers are talking about with regards to socio-political issues in Singapore. However, one recent development set me thinking.

Apparently, a group of Singaporean bloggers set up an “Association of Bloggers”, purportedly to provide support and guidelines for bloggers in Singapore, especially professional bloggers.

Sounds like a union of sorts to me, which should be encouraged if it’s role is to advocate the rights of bloggers… but wait a minute… the inaugural President of the association was quoted in a press interview:

Describing bloggers as “loose sand scattered all over,” Ms Goh wants the blogging community to have “grown-up conversations, blogging responsibility and creative growth”.

“I find the state of our blogosphere in Singapore appalling,” said Ms Goh, “When discussions get heated, crude language, insults and other off-colour comments may be encountered … I want to change that,” she said.

So it’s existence seems to be more as a overseeing agency for bloggers – to provide guidelines and best practices for bloggers?

I am unconvinced that it would have any impact in changing how things are in the blogosphere. As a matter of fact, the Internet as it is today, provides people with an outlet to voice their views, thoughts and opinions – whether or not those views are polite, politically correct, professional, responsible or not. Hence, what is the purpose of having an association overseeing and providing guidelines for bloggers? This is tantamount to stifling creativity and the whole idea of the Internet being the media of choice for freedom of expression.

By the way, “flaming” and crude language is not a phenomenon seen only in the Singapore blogosphere – in reality, this occurs everywhere in the world, and is more likely to happen in Western societies where people are more used to the idea of freedom of expression and have no problems with flaming each other online. In fact, flaming is not even an online thing. How often do we hear people criticizing and flaming others offline?

The only difference, I would argue, is in perspective – I see online flaming as a good opportunity for people to exchange views and also in trying to understand why people become upset and motivated to flame one another. It is better than arguing offline, when the situation can get out of control and we have people ending up losing their cool and physically fighting when arguments don’t go their way. We cannot realistically expect that everyone can remain rational and cool-headed in their online activities, just as much as we cannot expect the same to happen offline.

Furthermore, Ms Goh has announced that not everybody can join the Association – they must be invited and/or be approved by their “Council”. This makes it seem even more like a joke – what, forming a group of “elite” bloggers? Very, Uniquely Singapore indeed! What we see in the socio-political scene today – the social divide between the elite civil servants and poor peasants, is now coming onto the blogosphere – very soon we shall witness a social divide between self-branded, “elite” bloggers versus “peasant” bloggers like mrbiao.

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