It's OK To Be A Big Fish (0r Even A Medium Sized One) In A Small Pond

So many of the weblogs that get massive exposure are those that cater to a mass audience. Makes sense, doesn't it? From Dave Winer's mix of technology, news and politics on Scripting News to those which specialize in one of these or any number of other fields. Some may have tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of readers. I've never seen actual figures, but at this point in the history of web very little would surprise me. We can call these blogs "the big ponds." Big fish like Dave, Adam Curry, and Glenn Reynolds run them.

It might be easy for someone to overlook the significance of the blogs covering topics of a local nature, or with a limited number of individuals interested in that particular topic. In my case, the topic is Hawaiian music (http://www.nahenahe.net/). Over the years my enthusiasm was grown and diminished for keeping NahenaheNet going. It first started in weblog form the day Userland first put up the editthispage.com service. I believe I got one of the first accounts on the system, and while I don't have the time or material to update it daily, rarely does a week go by that I don't find something of interest that I feel the need to share with Hawaiian music fans and industry members.

The issue of Internet piracy and P2P has taken ahold of the consciousness of our industry, as it has across the world, but even more so as we have such a small market, and most Hawaiian music releases barely recoup the cost of their production, if they even do that well. I've had enough email and face-to-face conversations with other members of our industry to know that my coverage of the issue helped awaken them to this issue and the challenge it presented. Last fall, I ran for a seat on the Board of Governors for the Hawai'i Academy of Recording Arts. I voted for myself only because I didn't want to go down in history of the organization as the only person never to have received a vote during a board election. After the election results were announced, I was informed that I just barely missed being elected, and I attribute that fact to my weblog.

It was quite fortuitous to me that I was introduced to blogging about the same time that I got fed up with that cesspool otherwise known as Usenet. There were a few Hawaiian culture and music discussion groups out there that were dominated by a few strong-minded and frequently obnoxious individuals who preferred to piss in the pond than let someone else express an opinion contrary to their own. Blogging allowed me to create my own pond. Others are welcome to listen, discuss, and dissent if they like. But it's still my pond, albeit a little one, and I'm the big fish.

There have been times when I've gotten down on doing my weblog over the years, and considered shutting it down. It happened once again this past summer. Then one day, I took a peek at the members area of my Manila site and read the numbers - over 1,000 registered users. It took my breath away, and put me right back in the pond, doing my job with renewed vigor.

There is still room for a million little ponds on the Internet. They may not draw the attention that people like Dave, Adam and Glenn get, but in the eyes of your readers, they are just as important, if not more so. Don't be afraid to create a pond of your own if you don't like the one you're in. The fresh water will do you good.

Keola Donaghy