First we had flash mobbing, now the latest phenomenon to sweep the internet is the act of flash blogging.

Flash blogging involves a large number of people visiting a particular weblog and posting comments in the site's feedback section.

The man behind the craze, author of the Clear Blue Skies web blog, said he was inspired by the recent spate of flash mobbing - where the internet is used to arrange a crowd to meet up to perform a surreal act.

"It was inspired by two things.The first, obviously enough, is the flashmob craze that has been happening recently. Also, many bloggers read a fairly static list of other blogs, and so I was also wondering how to introduce people to new ones," said Dave in a posting at his own blog.

The first two flash blogs took place at Nick Barlow's blog What You Can Get Away With - where comments included tales of the "weirdest, saddest, or most awe-inspiring things" that people had seen - and Dawn's blog Lemon Pillows - who had around thirty people posting poetry on her site.

According to Dave, the unsuspecting bloggers were "surprised, confused over where the comments came from, but pleased at the same time".

Two more flash blogs are planned for October - the next one takes place on 23 October. Visit clearblueskies.blogspot.com to find out more.

Back to index