SVT, Swedish public service television, today launched a blog initiative called Bloggat (“Blogged”), where bloggers are invited to debate about political topics. The articles are published at svt.se/opinion in a “chain letter” format. Dick Erixon will today start with an article about national identity and on Friday, Maryam Yazdanfar, president of SSU (youth organisation of the Social Democratic Party) will reply.
The purpose of the initiative is that Bloggat shall be a guide to the blogosphere and not a traditional blog, according to an article in Resumé.
– Blogs are a part of the public debate and it is only natural for us at SVT Opinion to cover this area. And we believe that it will drive traffic to the SVT website, Jessica Lindroth, editor of svt.se/opinion tells Resumé.
Visitors to the website are able to discuss and comment in an online forum. Another feature that would have been nice to see is some sort of trackback feature so that visitors could see what other bloggers say about the articles, pretty much like the way Washington Post collaborates with Technorati. That way SVT would be able to show a deeper version of the blogosphere than just the A-listers who get invited. It is the long tail of the blogosphere that makes it really interesting.