Debate in the Iranian blogosphere concerning the webzine Capuccino

In response to Shirin's request, here is a very rough translation of the note that I published yesterday on mediatic. The french text was allready an abstract and a translation of what I picked up on several Iranian blogs. Il hope that this additionnal translation will still outline the whole story.

In the last week of June, the Iranian blogosphere was actively discussing about the webzine Capuccino which had been relooked for its 100th issue. Anyone wanted to provide his criticisms, advices, congratulations and encouragements.

Capuccino has existed for more than two years, it publishes one issue per week, and covers various subjects : society, technology, photography, art, archaeology, cinema, literature, sports... Each issue also includes one or two articles freely sbmitted by invited authors on the subject of their choice. For the moment, there is no advertising on Capuccino.

Capuccino is supported by a network of voluntary people, most of them having a personnal blog by their own. That's why the blogosphere speaks such an amount about it. The accointance of Capuccino with the blogs is also noticeable in the writing of the articles which is pulled between the journalistic style (reports and analyses given on a rather objective tone) and the typical blogger style (subjective and sometimes very relevant, though trifling like).

But today, Capuccino has a development problem because it acquired enough reputation to count as a reference. Since the expectations of the readership are necessarily idealized, the gratuitous help of the team can hardly satisfy such a demand.

Khâbgard (Seyyed Rezâ Shorkr-Ollâhi) underlines a paradox: each publication of Capuccino is largely amplified by the personal weblogs of its contributors, but Capuccino itself, remains on the fringe of the process. According to Khâbgard, what should characterize a webzine is not so much the frequency of the updates, but its participation to the digital space which is compared to an adventure playground. In such a playground, Capoccino is still playing in its own corner instead of reacting with the whole game. From a formal point of view, the external links are rare. Looking at the contents, Capuccino remains too timorous and does not bind itself enought in the discussions that interest the social network. Khâbgard considers that the personal webblogs of Capuccino's writers are often more interesting and engaged into the Web's scuffle. In addition, Khâbgard criticizes Capuccino's inclination for the teenager culture which is too much marked at his opinion.

During a meeting held four months ago, the Copuccino's writers wonder whether it would not be time to leave amateurism for a more professional work.


Indeed, in their personal weblogs, Shideh and Parastou, who recently took turns to assume the leading responsibility of some issues, pose the problem of the gratuitious work. The polemic were partly nourished by writers who were drawn aside of Capuccino or by an author complaining that the editor did not make the rewriting which was necessary to an interview. One finds by allusions, or in the form of trolls, some of these reproaches in the comments which accompany Shideh's note.

These are the failures of gratuitious work : lack of time for rewrighting an interview, lack of transparency in the collective regulation processes and the way that the influential members impose upon the team. Some writers or commentators warmly defend the independence provided by the voluntary work which is seen as a promise of integrity and enthusiasm. Others, as Hossein Derakhshân, would like to see Capuccino becoming more professional by giving itself the means of attracting authors of quality who would agree to publish only in exchange of a remuneration.

In a note published on his persian blog, and developed on another hand for Capuccino, Hossein Derakhshân suggests to add a weblog to Capuccino in order to put it in the trend of the current events and make it more reactive. But his main idea is that in addition, each week, one or two important articles likely to interest the anglophone world, should be published and translated in English. These articles would contribute to increase the audience. The aim is to attract googleAds, blogAds and other advertisements, in order to be able to pay a leading editor in charge at full time, a Webmaster, and now and then, some authors.

Beyond the basic dissensions which did not fail to be expressed in the blogosphere, the problem remains the integration of these advertising intrusions in the graphic aspect of the site. In his English blog, Hossein Derakhshân tested the blogAds but he had to give it up because it seems to be impossible for the moment to harmonize the banners with the format and the esthetics of his site.

So what ? Invent your own advertising medium as Chris Pirillo did ?