What's Hot in Blogging: January 2011

The first Wednesday of every month, contributor Amy Phillips will recap what made waves in blogging for the previous month.

Social Media has taken center stage in two government uprisings this month, Egypt and Tunisia. We’ll cover Egypt next month, but this month Tunisia had a sudden revolution.

Tunisia may seem like a small African country no ones heard of, but it is actually a popular tourist destination for the citizens of Europe. When the country underwent dramatic government and social change, blogs exploded with news. Journalism had been state-run under the old regime. The new found press freedoms kept the rest of the world informed on what was going on. On the blog Tunisian girl, personal stories and pictures brought the story down to a very real, very human level. Of course, words written in French and Arabic don’t have the same impact as pictures. Pictures of the Jasmine Revolution are posted on the photoblog World of TN. A great twitter account Tunisie Blogs, lists great posts from Tunisian Bloggers.

In America, the tragedy in Tuscon captured bloggers attention. There are bloggers on the left and the right with plenty to say about why it happened. But perhaps the best post wasn’t political at all.

The Palestine Papers have been generating a lot of news, but this blog post is well written and shows the Palestine view.

In tech, blogs were abuzz with the departure of Steve Jobs from Apple, Verizon getting the iPhone, and twitter’s response to a subpoena.

Mommy bloggers exploded over the Amy Chua piece on the superiority of Chinese mothers. Again, the best rebuttal offers us a little perspective on what’s important.

In social media, the conversation is all about Quora, but sometimes is can be too self-aggrandizing. A little humor is necessary. For those who have been yahoo answers for years, the site may seem a little redundant. Although, there may be some interesting uses for IT pros.

On a lighter note, Ted Williams was a viral sensation on YouTube and then appeared on the Today Show. Job offerings have been pouring in for the former homeless radio announcer.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rPFvLUWkzs]

This video was my favorite this month.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnBau6fL8S8]
Guy Makes Race Car Sounds While Sedated – Watch more Funny Videos

 Followed by this one (remind me not to let my friends in the room when I’m sedated). 


Guy Makes Race Car Sounds While Sedated – Watch more Funny Videos