A little fish in a big aquarium

That's how I like to think of this blog.

Yes, it's partly because I have a thing for lame metaphors. But it's also because this blog is part of a broader strategy, I've been trialling for the past few weeks.

It all started a few weeks ago over lunch with a friend who works in the Indigenous affairs sector. Having just relocated to Canberra in readiness for my new job, I remarked that it was an exciting time to be in town with the news about the forthcoming apology to the stolen generations.

We got around to talking about our perceptions of public reactions to the announcement. This was just based on our own informal observations of various media coverage and other public forums. Interestingly, we had both encountered the same thing. It appeared that many people opposed, or were disinterested in, the apology due to what we saw as a misunderstanding of its meaning and effect. People tended to think an apology was about things like fostering individual guilt, living in the past, creating national division, exposing taxpayers to indeterminate legal liability and perhaps most importantly, an opportunistic grab for compensation at the expense of real solutions to contemporary problems. All the stuff I've been talking about in previous posts.

Our perception was that anti-apology sentiment tended to be most concentrated in informal, online discussion forums – such as Facebook interest groups, comments on news stories, editorials or certain journalists’ blogs. Not very surprising given the participative nature of these forums.

We figured that maybe, just maybe, it wouldn't hurt to add another voice to the foray -- a sustained presence aimed at putting out a few more facts about what the apology means, and what it doesn't. As I've said, not about pressuring people to conform to a particular viewpoint, simply about encouraging people to reach an informed conclusion on the issue.

Word got around and one thing led to another. Before I knew it I was working out of Reconciliation Australia's offices, putting that idea into action.

So where in cyberspace have I been hanging out over the past three weeks?

Well, lots of places, including:

Facebook interest groups (engaging in discussions, as well as linking to information and encouraging people to have their say in online votes such as news polls). Look out for me in some of the apology/Indigenous affairs-related groups. I post as Christina Sarah.

Commenting on journalists' blogs with wide readerships ... one in particular, no cigar for guessing whose.

Subscribing to a billion blog alerts services and commenting on those relating to stolen generations issues, as well as starting this one.

Subscribing to news alerts and media clips services (both mainstream and "alternative"/niche), frantically writing letters to the editor in response to news articles and editorials as well as posting online comments to news stories and readers'comments.

Posting to email groups (including ones like aus.politics and aus.legal on usenet)

Letter (alright, email) writing to a long list of ministers, shadow ministers and government and opposition MPs about the apology.

Pursuing the suggestion of one of RA's marvellous interns (thanks Nat) about a Facebook "user status" strategy on the day of the apology ... more on this soon.

... more on the results/findings and challenges in the next post ...