at the BlogHer launch party

January 2006 068
Originally uploaded by Jo Spanglemonkey.

I'm blogging on Latin America as a contributing editor for Blogher. Karen Walrond of Chookooloonks is also covering the region - she's taking anything Caribbean and I'm, in theory, linking up with blogging women from the rest of Latin America. The idea is not to cover news, as Global Voices does, but instead, to look at what women are writing.

My hope is that English-speaking and Spanish-speaking women bloggers will become more aware of each other, and will jump into conversation with each other, unmediated by me, on each other's blogs. Even if they're monolingual, they can use automated translators like Google Language Tools or Babelfish to read each others' posts and comments.

I'm hoping to be a good party host, introducing people to each other and facilitating the start of their conversation. Look, there I am in the photo at the BlogHer Launch Party, raising my glass... It's a GREAT party.

If even a few people become aware of each other, I'll be so happy! And at the very least, English speaking bloggers will become more aware they aren't the only ones talking. I hope that I can serve as a translator, though I'll be an imperfect one, to help make this happen.

My other very strong hope is that someone will step up and "cover" blogging-women's Brazil, because I'm already overwhelmed and I don't know Portuguese! There are so many fantastic Brazilian bloggers, I'd go crazy trying to read everything.