Public Private Stories

     

     The modern era of social media is taking over our lives. Everyone has its favorite platform or means of communication. Some people are into posting picture, others enjoy writing a status. What would be an ultimate tool to create your own little corner on the Internet? You've probably already guessed that I am going to talk about blogs on a blog. No ads, just real raw feelings. 

     In my life I've made quite a few attempts to share my stories with the global community and all those blogs got lost on the dark side of the Web soon after. I lacked something. When the exam and internship season was over for me I started to look for new opportunities. That's when I found a Facebook post about Blogging Camp on the page of the American Resource Center in Chisinau. I applied and after a week full of new ideas I am ready to share my experience with you. 

     Let me start by saying that it's quite a unique event of its kind in Moldova. Generally speaking the social platforms and media tools are not widely discussed topics in my country, though for many young people "the online life" represents a subject of a major interest.  This event united young professionals and teens with one goal - to upgrade the Moldovan blogosphere. Though the positive consequences of the event are yet to come, at this point it's safe to say that the participants of this camp are ready to bring the change into the local blogging community.   

It was cool because of:

• The Trainers.   The success of any workshop depends on the speakers and their energy.  In just five we had opportunity to meet many amazing people who were ready to share their experience and ideas with us. Artur Gurau introduced us to Medium (a blogging platform) and shared hints on how to write quality content. With Viorel Pahomi we discussed the problems of modern Internet community and the issue of ethics. Svetlana Matvievici aka Orheianca talked about starting a blog and promoting through it Moldovan tourism on the international level. Thanks to Andrei Fornea we discovered local blogal community (BlogOGO , Blogosfera atc.). With the help of Radu Lisita all participants managed to choose themes and topics for the blogs. Nicolae Apostu shared his blogging tips and helped us write our first posts. Andrei Curăraru talked about his blogging experience and rules to follow when writing a blog. Alexandru Lebedev  pointed out the importance of the title, style of the page and content placement. Ion Mocan gave presentation about WeVideo and taught us how to edit videos with this tool. And last but not least, with Andrei Bolocan we discussed video blogging and his sketches on Lumina . 
• The Participants. My performance and drive usually depend on the people around me. Luckily, this time I had opportunity to get inspired by the people around me. It was nice to begin creating something new beside these friendly and bright teens: Xenia Balabuh, Francesca Starinschi, Veronica Deşcan, Ana-Maria Vechiu, Lulu Danilov, Braicov Daniela, Lumi Chihai, Diana Daicu and Andrei Popovici. 
  
• The Atmosphere. It's easy to be creative when you get the necessary support. The ARC staff took care of all the details and provided us with all the necessary things, the Granat team brought cool people in and made sure we didn't starve. :)  

Final thoughts:

    Events like this will generate a new wave of creative youth, who potentially can solve problems in our society on different levels. Also, as a result of such workshops teens learn how to articulate their thoughts in the modern digital world. Personally, I will apply things I learned because for some time I have been craving for a possibility to share/debate different ideas.  

 P.S. This post is sponsored exclusively by the good vibes.