Bloggers Gain Respectability at Cebit 2007

By Greg McNevin

April 27, 2007: The mavericks of internet publishing have been given a prestige boost at this year’s CeBIT Australia after being put on equal footing with mainstream journalists.

The 250 local and international bloggers attending this year’s conference have been extended access to the same access and services as registered journalists, plus they have also been given a dedicated digital platform to increase their visibility.

Called BloggerZone, the platform is a content aggregation site that will list CeBIT related blog posts via the internet and on big screen TVs on the show floor.

“The BloggerZone initiative is exciting for CeBIT Australia, and we hope is also exciting to bloggers," said Jackie Taranto, Managing Director of Hannover Fairs Australia, the organisers of CeBIT Australia 2007.

“We want the blog community to have access to the BloggerZone physical space to meet with each other, and to network. While a lot of the Australia-based bloggers are very familiar each others views in the online world, they haven't had a chance to meet.” 

The system is based on the open source content management system Drupal, and as it links back directly to the contributing writer's blog, Taranto says that it should help lift blogger profiles.

The move is a first for Australia and a definite sign of the growing influence of the blogging community as an independent information source.

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