Bermuda’s saturation of computer literacy has paved the way for a still fairly new platform to skyrocket in popularity and prominence. A small collection of bloggers have galvanised the public discourse — inspiring some into civic action and alienating others. Whatever the reaction — shock, laughter, or hot rage — bloggers have undeniably stirred the pot of local debate. In this two-day series by senior reporter Glenn Jones readers will hear from two distinctly different sides — bloggers determined to grow their medium and users who seemingly get angrier with each passing post.Perhaps unbeknownst to you a computer subculture has not only developed in Bermuda, but has become so established, that even the most technologically shy citizens can no longer ignore its presence.

Each day the Bermuda blogosphere — an online log of local opinion — is alive with debate and discourse and flat out attacks.

There are many sites. New ones are added regularly.

Four men who individually run their own blog sites agreed, at The Royal Gazette’s request,>to gather and talk about their growing platform.

The group was forthcoming, and even if it wasn’t, it couldn’t have hidden a remarkable sameness — all male, all white, all in their mid 30’s.

Three of the four are Bermudian and the one who is not seems to have the most popular blog. Limeyinbermuda.com was born in the summer of 2003 by a Briton named Phillip Wells.

It was supposed to be a way for him to keep in contact with his friends and family back in the United Kingdom.

The site quickly became something else — a high traffic bulletin board of local politics and opinion. “I had an interest in politics before I came to Bermuda so it kind of seemed natural,” Mr. Wells said.

Bill Davidson, the founder of bravozulu.bm, also got his site up to keep in touch with family, but like Mr. Wells it progressed into a public forum.

Willingly or not all of these sites have become the island’s virtual smoking lounge where it seems every topic is welcomed and most comments are accepted despite their potential to offend.

Sean Soares is the gatekeeper for a website called imho.bm which stands for “in my humble opinion”.

It’s a site known for it’s humour and political satire, so it was no surprise when Mr. Soares said he started the blog because “my psychiatrist said I needed some kind of method...”

He never finished the thought because the group of four men began laughing too loudly.

Royal Gazette columnist Christian Dunleavy’s website politics.bm is more political analysis than public forum — he doesn’t typically post the comments of visitors.

“At some point I just decided rather than barraginI>The Royal Gazette <$>with letters to the editor, it was much easier just to do it myself,” Mr. Dunleavy said.

It certainly doesn’t appear these men would intentionally use cyberspace to cook up crookedness.

They are thoughtful and caring citizens with day jobs and children and personal ambitions.

Nevertheless, the Bermuda blogosphere can be a treacherous place — a cross between relentless tabloid journalism and catty sewing circle.

And most of it is done anonymously.

Someone can tiptoe into a conversation, lob an inflammatory tirade like a grenade, and then sashay back into his or daily routine — without leaving a fingerprint.

It’s like witnessing a crime, but not being able to see the criminal.

Mr. Davidson calls the blogosphere journalism without editing.

“If you put something up there that is blatantly false you’re going to hear about it. So you’re self-policing what you put on your site. As far as controls,” he says, “there aren’t any.”

The A Limey in Bermuda website had a very public spat over an irresponsible post.

A visitor barged in and posted under the name of ZBM journalist Gary Moreno.

There were no safeguards to verify the comments or the writer’s identity before the post went public. It created a firestorm of controversy. Mr. Moreno threatened a libel suit.

“That caused a big fuss,” reflected Mr. Wells during the cafe conversation.

He now approves all comments before they’re posted — doing whatever he can to verify who is writing and whether or not the information is too inflammatory.

Although he has changed his own rules, Mr. Wells isn’t convinced he did anything wrong.

“It’s still an open question as to whether bloggers are legally responsible for a comment that somebody posts on their site,” he said.

“The Gary Moreno thing made me realise it’s really just not worth taking that risk on behalf of the people that comment on my site. “I don’t want to lose how many hundreds of thousands of dollars on a libel suit for something I didn’t write.”

Mr. Moreno had no comment when contacted Wednesday.

As masters of community journal, Mr. Wells and the other bloggers, carry a tremendous responsibility to filter what bleeds out into the public domain.

It’s also a tremendous power, arguably. But uniformly all four men say their roles as maestros of public opinion do not make them powerful. “I think it’s blown out of proportion as to what people see us as,” said Mr. Soares.

Mr. Wells agreed: “I think the platform is incredibly powerful, but I think we as individuals are not.”

Mr. Dunleavy, once a political candidate for the United Bermuda Party, said quite bluntly: “I don’t believe I have the same level of responsibility that a newspaper does.”

He further admitted he likes to “traffic in rumour and gossip at times”. At least one of the other bloggers reacted with laughter. Then later in a more serious exchange all seemed to agree that they are not journalists when they blog, but the so called Limey appeared to be on the fence.

“It depends on the circumstances,” said Mr. Wells as he cited the time his site sprang into action with breaking news of the Norwegian cruise ship accident last June.

“Whether you want to call us journalists or not, in that case, we were performing an act of journalism,” he said.

This is where the carbon copied quartet of computer savvy men in button down shirts seemed to splinter.

“Anybody can do that,” said Mr. Soares to his blog brethren, suggesting Mr. Wells’ work that day did not make him a journalist.

Mr. Dunleavy piled on, telling the Briton he couldn’t “come in and out of it” when it concerns being a journalist.

Although it might be alleged, coming in and out, is what Mr. Dunleavy does when he shuts down his blog and writes for The Royal Gazette, albeit an opinion column. No matter how these men individually utilise there respective venues, collectively the Bermuda blogosphere has found a way to ignite public discourse.

But whether or not that escalation is productive is still open for debate.

That’s why visitors to these blog sites, particularly novices, should enter with a great deal of scepticism because untangling truth from untruth might prove as difficult as separating peanut butter from jelly — after the sandwich is already slammed together.

* In tomorrow’s Royal Gazette read how the Bermuda-based blogosphere is seen by some as a platform that divides along racial lines.

Blogosphere cont.