GLOBAL DEBATE Has Come a Long Way in the Last Year

The statistrics above tell the story.

October 2007 there were about 3500 visitors, and in 2008 we have over 13,500 with most of a day still to go.

Observations indicate that the traffic will continue to grow. We see that most people do not come to GLOBAL DEBATE for a check up on news, but in search of something specific. About 60% of the visitors come from search engine sights and are after a specific story. To me, this means that as the archive grows the traffic will grow because there will be more to find there.

Following coverage of WUDC 2008 in Thailand traffic fell off. But now, it is above the high mark it hit during WUDC 2008, and was also higher in September, and thre is no special event going on now.

Thanks to everyone who has visited, thanks to those who have been encouraging and especially thanks to those who have alerted me to important stories.

Huge Boost in Readership for Global Debate

September 2008 was the biggest month yet. It was bigger than January 2008, which was our previous high due to everyone checking in on results from WUDC. There was no huge event in September, even though WSDC was big, but not that big, and visit patterns do not indicate that WSDC was that much of a factor.

It seems as if the start of the school year here in the Northern Hemisphere is the reason, or at least the one that seems logical to me.

More people are tuning in, so the focus now has to be on content and variety.

Global Audience for Global Debate Website

Got a swet little gadget from a group called FEEDJIT http://feedjit.com/ and it is showing a lot of interesting data. Here is a list of countries from last week.

United States [47%]
India [6%]
Philippines [4%]
Australia [4%]
United Kingdom [4%]
Canada [4%]
Indonesia [3%]
Malaysia [3%]
Slovenia [3%]
China [2%]
Romania [2%]
Czech Republic [2%]
Ireland [1%]
Jamaica [1%]
Netherlands [1%]
Hong Kong S.A.R., China [1%]
Estonia [1%]
South Korea [1%]
South Africa [1%]
Greece [1%]
Germany [1%]
Singapore [1%]
Mexico [1%]
Ivory Coast [1%]
United Arab Emirates [1%]
New Zealand [1%]
France [1%]
Bangladesh [1%]

Global Debate Traffic Holds Steady Over Summer

The summers are usually a doldrum time for debating, mostly because northern hemisphere schools tend not to be in session and many people are on vacation. So, it is good to see that the traffic at http://globaldebateblog.blogspot.com/ has remained at its higher spring levels all during the summer, with a rise for July.

That is a good thing and bodes well for traffic increases when schools start again at the end of August and the beginning of September.

Thanks for all of the support you have offered.

Watching a Public Relations Catastrophe for Policy Debate

They say that no publicity is bad publicity, but I am not sure that is true. An event from last March is now rising to the surface of the global media, and I am not sure it is a good thing.

Two policy debate coaches had a row after the quarterfinal round at the CEDA National Debate Tournament. There was shouting, profanity and finally one coach dropped his pants to the room (although the underwear stayed up). The event was videotaped and then recently posted on YouTube.

Here are some points to remember about this story:

• Many of the reports are highly inaccurate and downright wrong, so be careful reading
• The video leaves out the context of the situation and how it developed
• Many of the stories are using the event to promote their own agenda, whatever it is: racial, anti-intellectual, voyeour, anti-debate, anti-youth, anti-university, etc.
• The two people most involved, I am told, have made up and moved on

It has gone viral. When I woke up Friday morning there were 282 stories. An hour later there were 288 stories. Ten minutes later 290 stories. Many of the stories are by the AP's Maria Sudekum Fisher. And so it goes.

Both universities are now investigating the situation. I will report on that when it comes down.

I am not going to try and fill in details or take sides or make judgments. There is too much of that already. What I want to report on is the emerging media storm and how it influences debate, especially in the United States.

If you want to see all the sources, go to
http://news.google.com/?ncl=1236737470&hl=en&scoring=d

Now the count is 362 stories.

Back to Regular Programming After Some Slow Weeks

Posing with the Blue Man Group in Las Vegas

It has been a rough few weeks for publishing GLOBAL DEBATE and my other debate related blogs.

• On May 1 I headed off to Bangladesh for two weeks. Lots of work, tabbing the 15th All Asians, doing workshops, etc. Little time to post from there.
• 3.2 weeks in Mexico followed that. Sometimes I had Internet access (thanks Bob and Clint) other times I did not. Got some stuff posted, but not enough.
• 10 days in Las Vegas being director of operations for the largest speech and debate tournament in the world (5500 people). I thought I would have time to post from there, but the absolute firewalls at most of the schools where I was based, the temporary collapse of the wireless network at our hotel, hanging out with like-minded celebrities (like the Blue Man Group above) and the busy nature of the tournament kept me from posting much.

So, now I am back in Vermont for the rest of the summer. Look for me to catch up and expand.

Keep reading.

Global Debate Traffic Goes Up Again

Encouraging. The bump in traffic during December and January were predictable because of the live news from WUDC in Thailand, but the fall in February was not that much. Now, in March, traffic is up again. We are making good progress as new people learn about the site and then come back to check it out on a regular basis.

http://globaldebateblog.blogspot.com

WUDC User Bump Has Some Sticking Power

The Global Debate website (http://globaldebateblog.blogspot.com/) got a huge user bump in December and January as it reported live from the World Universities Debating Championship in Thailand. This inflated user figures for December and January. However, it seems as if many of those who discovered Global Debate during that time have continued to visit the site for debate news long after the WUDC news is gone.

The user numbers for February (no WUDC news there) have been as high as user numbers in December which were swelled by WUDC information seekers.

It seems as if Global Debate is making progress in becoming a news staple for the global debate community. Thanks for your suport and we will continue to do our best to find the best debate news and share it.

Huge Traffic Increase Begins 2008

The fact that Global Debate was closely covering the World Universities Debating Championship certainly led to a big increase in site visits. There was also a big increase in comments and even arguments among the commenters and with me. This blogspot site began in late July of 2007, so we are making progress.

I hope that in the year to come that people will remember that this is a spot for debating news all year long and that they can keep up on lots of issues and formats here.

Trevor Sather of the World Schools Debating Championship has also put together a "blog aggregator" for WSDC folks to use and features us prominently. Find it at http://www.schoolsdebate.com/feeds/
I plan to cover the WSDC in September quite closely from Washington, DC as well.

Plans for 2008 include regular editorials (they might even launch a few controversies) and don't forget that a dozen new debate videos from WUPID in Malaysia and WUDC in Thailand will be coming your way soon at our partner video site, http://debatevideoblog.blogspot.com/

Thanks for following and supporting this effort in 2007 and even before that in our non-blogspot sites in 2006.