Manila

A year ago today, I arrived in Geneva to attend the 7th annual Global Leadership Forum organized by W.I.N., or the Women's International Networking.

W.I.N. is an independent organization founded in 1998 by Norwegian social entrepreneur Kristin Engvig. Based in Lausanne, it is run by an enthusiastic international team of professionals and volunteers. Often referred to as the "Davos for women", W.I.N. promotes the advancement of women working internationally and encourages them to find their individual voices, career and leadership paths.

Dateline Salzburg. Today's headlines: Masked vandals create havoc at downtown pub. Vandals uproot Mirabell Gardens. Man pours gasoline, then sets wife on fire. In Sölden, a chopper loses its load and hits a cable car: 9 passengers dead. Overseas, a plane crashes in Sumatra, 117 people die. Chaos in New Orleans continues as rescuers race against time ...

We've only got bad news today, so it seems. That being the case, then I hate Mondays.

I first heard about blogs in the print media, then did research on the web about it, and started blogging myself.

My motivation was a purely selfish one: I had heard about writers making money by writing blogs. Hey, who doesn't want to get rich?

It's been almost a year since then, but I still haven't earned a cent from my writings.

Oh, well. I live in hope ...

Here's the link to my very first blog:
http://salzburgviews.blogspot.com/

Hier ein Beispiel von ein Photoblog über Wien:
http://www.zoomvienna.com/

Day 2 of the Weblog course at the ditact summer studies in Salzburg. Our task this morning is to do research on a blog-type that interests us. I opted for the journalism blogs.

Survival stories in the wake of Hurricane Katrina are filtering in through the Internet through hundreds of blogs. Read about the BBC's report on this phenomenon here.

Blogging Katrina is one sample of a personal blog on the hurricane aftermath.

During the Tsunami disaster, blogs came to the rescue. Please note that this list from Wikinews is no longer being updated.

Hurricane Katrina has come and gone in New Orleans. The dam has broken, the city is drowning.

This summer, it rained most of the time over here in Central Europe. Flooding, mudslides and destruction were the outcome.

Over in the Philippines, July and August usually mark the start of the rainy season. I used to miss this time of the year, while we had summer over here. But this year I did not miss it at all.

This is Maria-Fe Ortner reporting from the ditact summer studies in Salzburg.