Terminou hoje em Viena a "BlogTalk - A European Conference On Weblogs", que contou com a presença e intervenção de alguns dos nomes mais destacados do fenómeno weblog. A título de curiosidade, um trecho da comunicação de Gilbert Cattoire, que mostra, além do mais, a diversidade de caminhos que conduziu ao fenómeno em debate na conferência: "Spring 1995, Sarajevo: a peculiar accident in journalism occurred. Backed by 26 international newspapers and the Unesco, a team of 3 journalists and a telecom engineer, equiped with laptops and portable satellite phones (45 Kgs back then!), was sent to the then besieged city to build a satellite IP link and start a forum involving representants of the city and "the rest of the world". The operation was called Sarajevo Alive - Sarajevo Online. It was meant as a gesture of solidarity with the local daily Oslobodjenje. The team’s official assignement was to interview a few selected personalities; political debates were to be avoided. Something unexpected happened: the team in Sarajevo, more often than not blocked in public places while waiting for artillery alerts to end, took the decision to let any inhabitant express themselves on whatever topic they wanted – what is more, all postings were published unedited and uncensored on the operation's website. The resulting content was a breakthrough in war journalism: a besieged city's online diary, the pulse of of collective madness induced by war, updated daily, to which people all over the world responded spontaneously, answering the numerous messages in a bottle ( contacting relatives abroad, engaging in dialogues, sending unsollicited gifts of all kinds..). The website was updated twice daily via email. The feed was also available via a mailing list. Emotional response was overwhelming. Internet as a medium was beyond doubt the “hottest” of all. The episode demonstrates something that many journalists still have to discover: enabled by emerging digital communications, the audience fits quite naturally as an integral part of the information process, influencing the course of events as they happen. Journalism is evolving away from its mandatory lecture mode to include conversations and actions. Call it the experience of “direct reality.”