Scattering seeds of change on the Web

What would happen if bloggers around the world joined together to write about one topic at the same time?

We'll find out today when more than 15,000 bloggers take part in the first Blog Action Day to raise awareness about environmental issues -- global warming, pollution, anything they want.

"We want to display the potential and the power of the blogging community, which is a disparate community but one with an amazing size, breadth and diversity," co-organizer Collis Ta'eed, an Australian blogger, said on the event's website (www. blogactionday.org). "By bringing everyone together for one day, we can see just how much can be achieved and how much we can be heard."

Major participants include the money-saving blog Get Rich Slowly (www.getrichslowly. org), the life-tips site Lifehacker (www.lifehacker.com) and the writers' resource Freelance Switch (www.freelance switch.com), with which Ta'eed is affiliated.

But most of the contributors are individual bloggers with smaller followings, reflecting the grass-roots nature of the international campaign. They include several people from Minnesota, although the number is difficult to peg because the organizers don't track participants by location.

Matthew Murphy, 28, a business analyst in Eagan, regularly covers environmental issues in his blog, Matt's Cuppa (matts cuppa.wordpress.com).

"That doesn't mean that Blog Action Day hasn't encouraged me to define my own way of writing about, and addressing, climate change," he said. "It's an empowering thing to imagine thousands of people all writing about the same issue together, but there's a danger in your voice being drowned out by the crowd if you don't stretch yourself."

He added that he'll also be writing separate environmental articles today for two other blogs based elsewhere in the country.

Charles Grothaus, 42, a Maple Grove resident who works in the communications office of a Fortune 500 company, usually offers humorous personal observations on life in his blog, Views From Minnesota (daily tri.wordpress.com). That hasn't included writing about the environment, he said, which is one reason why he signed up.

"Blog Action Day did prompt me to think that I could comment on my personal environment, including some of the things I do well environmentally (giving up the SUV for a smaller car, for example) and some things that need improvement," he said.

Breaking from the regular blog routine is one reason why Kevin Stirtz said he's joining in on Blog Action Day. The Burnsville resident, 44, typically covers business strategies in his Smart Marketing blog (www.stirtzgroup.com).

"It's providing the impetus for people who don't write about the environment to provide a variety of views and bring new ideas to the surface," he said. "I mean, we're all environmentalists at heart."

That is where Blog Action Day can have the most power: by giving everyday bloggers a chance to write about a topic they might not normally cover from their areas of expertise, said Nora Paul, director of the Institute for New Media Studies at the University of Minnesota. She noted that while 15,000-plus may seem impressive, it's just a drop in a cyber pool that contains more than 70 million blogs, according to recent estimates by Technorati.

Still, Paul said, "It's neat to see that this is the first year and what kind of impact it has."

Campaigns such as Blog Action Day have to start somewhere, Murphy said.

"It's about solidarity," he said. "If I didn't sign up, who would take my place? An effort like this can't be successful if I don't do my part to make it successful. And if one person out there reads an article today that makes them think twice before they throw their cigarette butt on the ground, then my part mattered."

Randy A. Salas • 612-673-4542

Randy A. Salas • rasalas@startribune.com