A BAD moment

On 15 October, we are told "bloggers around the web will unite to put a single important issue on everyone's mind - the environment."

So far, the organisers claim to have registered 11,320 blogs with a combined audience of 8,674,575 readers. And on appointed day, which has been dubbed "Blog Action Day" (BAD), the organisers tell us:

Every blogger will post about the environment in their own way and relating to their own topic. Our aim is to get everyone talking towards a better future. Blog Action Day is about MASS participation. That means we need you!

Ostensibly "organised by a core team of bloggers" (who seem to share the EU's motto), and supported by Eden Creative Communities, the initiative is being actively promoted by the EU commission, which has lined up environment commissioner Stavros Dimas to hold internet chat on the 15th.

Says commissioner Dimas, "International Blog Action Day is an excellent initiative that will help to raise public awareness of the serious environmental challenges we face and to involve citizens in Europe and the rest of the world in contributing to solutions. This is also the aim of my blog. I look forward to a lively internet chat with a large number of participants."

Looking at random through the list of participants, however, a huge proportion seem to be corporate or advertising sites. One wonders quite how real this initiaitve is and how much genuine participation there really is.

Nevertheless, together with the Euractiv initiative, this represents yet another attempt to corral and thus control the agenda on the blogosphere. They may not know quite how to do it but it is a growing indication of quite how seriously the blogosphere is being taken, and how much of a threat this forum of free expression is regarded.

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