Venezuela: Second Annual Blogstock · Global Voices
Luis Carlos Diaz

Over the course of two days, the Venezuelan blogosphere [ES]  gathered for the second year at a site far from the capital to celebrate with musical bands and alcohol. Blogstock is “the” party.  There are no lectures or symposiums to define the digital world, nor some conclusion reached for the use by internet users.  It was all about a celebration of a gathering of digital camaraderie and it was a party on full-blast [ES].
In its second consecutive year, Blogstock gathered dozens of bloggers, Twitter-users, Flickr-users and other forms of information citizens (infocitizens) for a night of concerts, drinks and food, Venezuelan-style.
The event was streamed online for those that stayed at home.  There was also a Flickr tag to tell the whole story.  “You are not ready for this,” was the slogan that gathered people by the initiative of “Los Guaraos” (aka the “disorganizers), who summarized the event with videos [ES].  The event also counted on a meme to list of things to bring to the event, to avoid contigencies, such as the items shown by Impulsos y Sentidos [ES].
David Luna, the photographer, said that the gathering was [ES]:
Una noche bastante divertida, entretenida, llena de muchas anécdotas, de compartir con personas que solo leemos de vez en cuando y ponerle rostro a la mayoría de los nicks que abundan en la blogosfera.
It was a fun and entertaining night.  It was full of stories shared by people that we read from time to time, we were able to put faces to the nicknames that are abundant in the blogosphere.
This takes place in Venezuela?  This could be asked of those who follow the political happenings in the country.  Inti of Equizopedia [ES] provides the answer:
Mientras el mundo exterior piensa que Venezuela va hacia el socialismo más “extraño” y “extremo” jamas visto, mucha gente aquí no se toma las cosas muy en serio. La mejor virtud del venezolano (a su vez el peor defecto) es que aquí la gente es feliz. Pocos habitantes del planeta tierra viven tan contentos, como los nacidos en la patria de Simón Bolívar. Quizás el petróleo, la (fuera de toda regla y estadística) cantidad alucinante de mujeres bellas, la cerveza o el ron, ayudan en definitiva a que la vida acá sea increíblemente más “relajada” que en el resto de los países. Y hasta en la pasión vertiginosa política que nos tiene atrapados actualmente, buscamos la manera de seguir viviendo, riendo, disfrutando y rumbeando. Y como en todos lados, hay gente más y menos responsable con sus actos. Algo tiene este desenfadado país, que es difícil de copiar, y más explicar.
While the outside World thinks that Venezuela is heading for a “stranger” and “extreme” form of socialism never seen befote, many people here don’t take things so seriously.  The best virtue of a Venezuelan (also his worst defect) is that here the people are happy. Fewer people on the earth live as content than those who were born in Simón Bolívar’s homeland.  Maybe it’s the petroleum, the incredibly beautiful women (more than statistics), beer or rum, helps make life incredibly more “relaxed” than in other countries.  Even with the dizzying politics that currently has us trapped, we look for ways to continue to live, laugh, enjoy and party.  And here as in other places, there are people who are more or less responsible for their actions.  This uninhibited country has something that is difficult to copy and even less, explain.
The Venezuelan blogosphere continues its way with necessary joyful rituals and distractions, for the good of personal tranquility.  Hopefully it will take place again in 2008 or next Christmas.