Debate News

Global Debate Blog Gets One Millionth Visitor Since Moving to Blogspot

2012-01-13T07:11:00.000-08:00

One million page views since GLOBAL DEBATE BLOG moved to blogspot. That is a lot of views. Of course, GDB has a lot more than that, given that it began on 2 March 2006 as an iWeb blog hosted at my university. I had hundreds and hundreds of posts during 2006 and 2007, and then it moved to blogspot on 4 July 2007. But, a million since the middle of 2007.

Here it is, it just happened:

Pageviews today
948
Pageviews yesterday
3,857
Pageviews last month
106,124
Pageviews all time history
1,000,001

I originally moved to blogspot because it was just easier to do, and easier to do from remote locations. Little did I know that blogspot would keep on improving, now with an amazing design and lay out that is my favorite.

It happened in a small way. Readership during the 2006-2007 era was quite low. It was new, I was not known and promotion was a bit weak. Even Google had a hard time finding the iWeb blogs. Moving to blogspot made the postings a lot easier to find and growth began to happen.

There was a steady growth. Big growth spurts followed the World Championships as more people found out about the blog. But, people found out about it in other important ways. Over 150,000 page views since 2007 have been referred to by Google search. People are looking for something and Google sends them here. Then, they see something that interests them and then they come back. Facebook has helped as well, with a lot of people coming to the blog from links there. Colm Flynn’s World Debating has been a big help sending us lots of page views. The switch to the new “magazine” blog format has helped, as people can easily see previous blog posts that they might want to also look at. But, I must admit, the majority of references come from other much smaller sources. Individual debate programs have links, people suggest it to each other, recently Twitter has sent a lot of people (and even Bing). The growth and the way the word spreads has been organic, and that is good and to be expected.

I expect the next million to be achieved much sooner. For one thing, many of the older pages are still found through searches and links, and this will only increase. As well, traffic is at an all time high (104,000 page views last month) so the next million will happen during 2012 unless I stop posting or remove the blog.

Some things do not seem to be factors. After 3143 I only have 39 followers. After 3143 posts there are only 1343 published comments (and I publish all that are not spam). These are artifacts and do not rally concern me.

I think one aspect of the blog’s popularity is my stubbornness. I start doing something and if I think it has value I keep on doing it. I know that growth and change comes incrementally through time and that keeps me focused.

My original purpose behind starting this blog was not just to get the news out, but to show that there was a rapidly developing and expanding global debate community. It was those in the USA who seemed to be aware of this the least, and so I have always tried to report on both USA and international debating news, because the first is a part of the second, and I want Americans to know that. I think that this has been accomplished somewhat, as the USA has been the biggest locale of those viewing these pages.

Many of you might be aware of my track record in terms of applying new ideas to debating. I built my first debating website in 1994, staged the first full Internet debate in 1999, and did the first simulcast of a major event (National Forensic League Nationals in Portland, Oregon) in June of 2000. In many ways I offer my services to introduce a use for technology and then when the people I am helping sees how valuable it is they take it over and do it themselves. Thus, the National Forensic League’s first website was built by a few volunteers and myself and now they have a beautiful website at http://nflonline.org. I simulcast their national finals and now they do it very nicely themselves. I made the first Cross Examination Debate Association website and now they have one of their own. I like this model; as soon as someone else will do it I can stop and move on to something else.

Will I do that with the GLOBAL DEBATE BLOG? I am not sure. But there are new up and coming global debate information services, and I might just stop at some point when the point is made and the function is well served by others. For now, though, it is forward as ever.

I am not shy about doing new things. Several years ago I led an effort by several Eastern USA schools to move into WUDC format debate, and now through their hard work five of them are in the world’s top 60 programs. Change can come and change will come.

Yes, change can and will come, even when you are in your 50th year of debating, even with you are in your 40th year of coaching debate, and even when you are 61 years of age, like I am.

There are too many people to thank for me to even start listing them. Well, perhaps Nancy Ogden, who told a middle school student that debate was not or him (reverse psychology works), and Ray Benoit who told a young high school student not to give up. But, those are enough names for now. People have been encouraging in my efforts, have supplied me with stories and feedback, and encouraged me when I am discouraged. People have offered criticism that has been cogent as well as silly, and I thank all of them for their time and effort. People who have threatened me and tried to bully me can take a flying leap. People who have said this effort was meaningless and foolish are probably not correct.

However, if you want to buy it out, make me an offer. I could use some cash for my next debate technological adventure. ::smirk:: Hell, it worked for the Huffington Post!

As I am sure you know, GLOBAL DEBATE BLOG is a part of a family of websites, anchored by DEBATE CENTRAL (http://debate.uvm.edu) where it all began in 1994. Our many other websites and blogs are all linked from the main DEBATE CENTRAL webpage. Check it out.

Again, thanks to everyone for their support, their patience with my foolishness, their tolerance of my excesses and their understanding of my many errors. I cannot promise to be more than a little bit better, but I will try to do my best with that.

Alfred C. Snider aka Tuna
University of Vermont, Lawrence Debate Union, World Debate Institute

Here is the 2007 iWeb archive:
http://debate.uvm.edu/debateblog/doctortuna/Blog/Archive.html
Here is the 2006 iWeb archive:
http://debate.uvm.edu/debateblog/doctortuna/Blog2006/Archive.html

Harry Potter vs. Twilight Debate Gets Most Comments

2011-05-30T07:25:00.000-07:00

Image via Wikipedia
There are a lot of popular posts on Global Debate http://globaldebateblog.blogspot.com, but the one that has fired up the most controversy among readers has been a posting about a debate as to which series was better, Harry Potter or Twilight.

Well, the readers took off on that one, and as of today there are 129 comments. A new and much bigger debate has taken off after the original story.

http://globaldebateblog.blogspot.com/2009/02/fans-debate-harry-potter-vs-twilight.html#comments

Congratulations to the readers, who obviously love debate.

Over 500,000 Visitors in 10 Months for Global Debate

2011-05-26T04:09:00.000-07:00

The debate news blog GLOBAL DEBATE http://globaldebateblog.blogspot.com/ has attracted a lot of visitors in the last ten months, over 500,000 visitors.

Traffics has come from all around the world:

	United States [32%]
		India [8%]
		Philippines [5%]
		Malaysia [5%]
		Australia [5%]
		United Kingdom [3%]
		Indonesia [3%]
		Canada [3%]
		Germany [3%]
		New Zealand [3%]
		Netherlands [2%]
		Qatar [2%]
		Pakistan [2%]
		Romania [2%]
		United Arab Emirates [2%]
		Hungary [2%]
		Hong Kong S.A.R., China [1%]
		Austria [1%]
		Japan [1%]
		Macao S.A.R., China [1%]
		Kuwait [1%]
		Italy [1%]
		Croatia [1%]
		Switzerland [1%]
		Cyprus [1%]
		Taiwan [1%]
		South Korea [1%]
		South Africa [1%]
		Macedonia [1%]
		Slovenia [1%]
		Singapore [1%]
		Mexico [1%]
		Jordan [1%]
		Bangladesh [1%]

For Our Sites, We linked People to 1,854,650 Debate Videos

2011-01-07T12:06:00.000-08:00

Image via Wikipedia

Vimeo.com is the website we have used to process and embed debate videos since February, 2009. The sites works well, is economical, and provides excellent connectivity and statistics.

As of 7 January 2011 vimeo.com has served 1.8 million debate videos for our family of websites.

Thanks to Vimeo, thanks to our viewers, and thanks to all of those who helped us produce this content.

Onward and upward!

Using Xtranormal Videos to Help Navigate Debate Central

2010-08-10T07:07:00.001-07:00

Global Debate & Debate Video Recognized as Top Debate Blogs

2010-06-27T18:46:00.000-07:00

From http://compassioninpolitics.wordpress.com/2010/06/20/all-the-best-high-school-and-college-debate-blogs/

All the Best High School and College Debate Blogs

June 20, 2010 · Leave a Comment

Here is my round up of the top debate blogs as I see it (if you’ve been omitted, feel free to leave your blog URL in the comments section). I hope this helps all those looking to find the best debate and argument blogs.
The 3 NR – is basically the hub of most high school debate related. Maintained by Scott P, Bill Batterman, and Roy Lekovitz who are all nationally recognized coaches.
Georgia Debate Blog-maintained by the coaching staff at the University of Georgia debate team. Casey Harrigan is the primary author, although other coaches contribute. (only updated about once or twice a month)
Global Debate blog-All about global debate. Maintained by Tuna Snider at the University of Vermont. Tuna’s passion is global debate.
Debate Video blog-Exactly what it says. Videos of debates. Although, they are usually in parli or the international debate formats. In addition, Tuna is able to post the occassional policy debate video.
Teaching Debate is maintained by Kate Shuster. It isn’t regularly updated, but Kate has turned this into a fantastic resource for middle school debate coaches.
Victory briefs blog-covers the world of high school lincoln douglas debate.
University of Texas institute blog has interesting coverage of the military troop pullout topic–which is directly relevant to high school debate (the best way to find that blog, is either by coming back here and clicking the link or by searching “UNTIF debate blog” via Google.
I’ve functionally omitted GA Forensics and the Virginia blog as they both seem to focus on regional issues, with some coverage of national ones–but both deserve mention.
Kevin Kuswa, Steve Pointer, and friends have created a new critique specific blog (the name escapes me at the moment). Some of the language is a little jargon ridden and more appropriate for college debaters, however for high schoolers willing to dissect the language this can serve as a great idea resource for keeping up with critiques and critique theory.
Lucy Got Some Splainin is also a nice intro to debate blog, which a high school debate coach has made for his students and for the world at large. (URL = MIA)
Specific Recommendations:
If you are a coach or JV or Varsity debater…..The 3NR, the UNTIF blog, the Kevin Kuswa blog are probably the best to plug in your RSS reader. If you are a novice policy debater and starting out…..there apparently isn’t much of a blog for your RSS reader (most of the content on Lucy is already published….however I would make attempts at the UNTIF debate blog and the 3NR debate blogs. At the end of the day, only you can decide, so take 15 to 20 minutes to get an idea of each and see which content works best for you.
Audience Blog Recommendations:
If you can recommend another great debate blog, feel free to leave a note in the comments (for instance if I;ve left a policy, public forum, parlamentary debate, or lincoln douglas blog off the list–please add it. Thanks!

Watch Live Traffic on Global Debate

2010-01-12T04:53:00.001-08:00

Check it out at http://live.feedjit.com/live/globaldebateblog.blogspot.com/

Live Traffic for Globaldebateblog.blogspot.com

FEEDJIT Live shows what is happening on your blog or website right now by pushing events to your web browser the moment they happen.
Return to globaldebateblog.blogspot.com

WUDC Means More Readers for Global Debate

2010-01-02T15:02:00.000-08:00

The viewership stats speak for themselves.

Thanks to everyone for tuning in during WUDC Turkey.

Videos Getting Some Traffic

2009-09-03T08:39:00.000-07:00

Most of the videos I have used on the DEBATE VIDEO site http://debatevideoblog.blogspot.com/ have been Google Videos http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=Alfred+Snider&emb=0&aq=f# but now that Google Video is not accepting anymore uploads we have switched to Vimeo at http://vimeo.com/videos/search:Alfred%20Snider and it seems to be working very well.

Traffic is fairly good at Google and picking up at Vimeo.

The most viewed Google Video is the finals from Cork Worlds with 29,000 views, and the least viewed is one about why I personally joined debate with 11 views. The rest of the 181 videos on Google are somewhere in between.

The Vimeo videos are picking up now, with 74 videos posted they are getting about 500-600 views a week, which is pretty good. The top video is a WUDC debate from last spring about state funding of art with 943 views and the least watched of the 74 is a lecture about third speeches in the WSDC format starring Debbie Newman at 1 view. Wow, Debbie Newman is an incredible lecturer and debate teacher, so I am sure it will pep up.

No real indication of how many plays we are getting through the other systems, like the general video file archive at http://www.uvm.edu/~debate/watch/?C=M;O=D where there seems to be a lot of traffic but we do not have a counter there and I am told cannot install one.

We are glad and proud to be offering so many debate related videos and have so many people watch them.

Traffic Still Increasing at Global Debate

2009-02-04T06:42:00.000-08:00

With the buzz of WUDC Ireland and many other events, traffic continues to grow at http://globaldebateblog.blogspot.com. Even after the WUDC and a lull in debating activities, traffic remains strong.

Send in your stories, use our traffic to promote your events, and make your place in the world of debating. Send stories and ideas to alfred.snider@uvm.edu.

Thanks to everyone who finds this website useful!

Debate Video Viewed Over 18000 Times in Two Weeks

2009-01-18T05:32:00.000-08:00

The Final Round at WUDC 2009 in Cork was videotaped and put on the Debate Video Blog as well as the Global Debate Blog. The video is above if you are interested.

It has now been watched almost 19,000 times in two weeks.

That is a lot of viewing from all over the world.

Thanks to Art Ward and the WUDC crew who made it possible and easy for me to video the debate. They gave me a prime spot for my camera and all the cooperation they could.

As a result, thousands of people all over the world have been able to watch this video.

Global Debate Really is Global

2009-01-14T06:24:00.000-08:00

The stories are global, and the readership is global as well. Even in a down time in the debate cycle such as this, a calm following WUDC activity, the world is tuning in. Here is a geographic listy of visitors in the last 24 hours:

United States [33%]
United Kingdom [11%]
India [8%]
Malaysia [6%]
Germany [5%]
Philippines [4%]
Canada [4%]
Indonesia [3%]
Hong Kong S.A.R., China [2%]
China [2%]
Ireland [2%]
Singapore [2%]
Thailand [2%]
Netherlands [1%]
Jamaica [1%]
Botswana [1%]
Qatar [1%]
Bahamas [1%]
Italy [1%]
Croatia [1%]
Spain [1%]
Estonia [1%]
Russia [1%]
Saudi Arabia [1%]
Turkey [1%]
Slovenia [1%]
Pakistan [1%]
Romania [1%]
Israel [1%]

GLOBAL DEBATE Has Come a Long Way in the Last Year

2008-10-31T11:06:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-01T05:37:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-31T05:48:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-23T09:10:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-17T07:52:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-23T12:35:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-02T08:03:00.000-07:00

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

2008-03-05T18:02:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-10T23:13:00.000-08:00

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.

Now Everyone is Talking About "The Great Debaters," but Global Debate Had It First

2007-12-14T23:28:00.000-08:00

Every debate group imaginable is getting on "The Great Debaters" bandwagon. That is easy. It seems like a great movie with great stars and an inspiring story.

And it is nice that everyone now knows about it.

Regular readers of GLOBAL DEBATE http://globaldebateblog.blogspot.com/ would know all about it.

Stories from August 20, August 31, October 21 and December 6 have kept GLOBAL DEBATE readers informed.

If you want to know the real deal first, subscribe.

I don't feel quite so comfortable blowing my own horn so often, but I could not resist it on this one.

A Pause for Travel

2007-12-06T18:00:00.001-08:00

I am on my way to the other side of the world. I fly tomorrow to San Diego, then I head for Mexico until early next week. I need to work on my keynote speech for the World Universities Peace Invitational Debates in Malaysia. Then I will fly to Kuala Lumpur for the WUPID, which promises to be an exciting and inspirational event. I will report on the event as it happens.

After that I will do some vacationing in Southeast Asia. I hope to have internet, but one never knows. I will post stories when I can.

I will end up in Thailand where I will be reporting on the World Universities Debating Championship to be held at Assumption University in Bangkok. I should have lots of internet access there.

After that a bit more vacation and then back to the USA in January for the new school semester and back to the routine.

Be patient, and I will do my best to report on the news from the world of debate while on the move.

Thanks to those who read this. Visitation stats are starting to rise and I appreciate your visits.

Send me news of debate events where you are so I can promote them.

alfred.snider@uvm.edu

The next news will be from Mexico.

A Pause in the Global News Flow

2007-10-28T08:12:00.001-07:00

There is, as a matter of fact, a pause in the flow of global debate news. Here are some of the reasons:

The Asian Debating website has really slowed down lately. After a lot of stories now we have one or two a week. I know that Rashedul Hasan Stalin is involved in organizing a tournament and is a very busy person, but I hope he does not lose his enthusiasm for his blog because I use it and enjoy it.
Colm Flynn's World Debating Website has been having server troubles. I assume that this will pass, but it is another important debate news website that I enjoy and use.
Some other news sources (I won't name them, don't want to be critical of god efforts) have switched to using bulletin boards that I find harder to check. They are also difficult to post to because I have to formally join them, which I would prefer not to do.
Some listservs I use have been very slow or else full of irrelevant nattering that is of no news value, such as flame wars and fantasy sports posts.
Finally, I have been on the road and just returned from Yale, so even Global Debate has been slow since Thursday. I plan to make up for that today.

So, that is my read on the situation as October ticks away and we head towards November. Thanks for reading this site, probably the least read of all my websites.

Trying to Refine the Stream of Debate News

2007-10-04T18:15:00.000-07:00

As each month goes by I post a lot of debate stories at Global Debate http://globaldebateblog.blogspot.com. Last month I posted 60 stories, or about two per day. This post represents an attempt to improve on the news stream and how I choose things for inclusion.

There are some items which should not be carried because any fair addition of them would totally flood the system. These include:

Stories in the local press about how XYZ high school did in the local tournament;
Blogs of specific teams talking about how they did at a tournament;
Local league announcements and business;
Local tournament invitations and results.

On the other hand, there are stories I should probably continue to carry (and perhaps increase), such as:

International tournament invitations and results;
News about international debate organizations;
News about debate appearing in new sectors of society;
News about debate appearing in new and unexpected countries;
New kinds of competitions and organizations;
International debate rankings;
Information about new instructional resources;
Debate related things that are hard to believe;
News about debate being staged and presented in new ways;
International conferences and meetings related to debating;
Reports from the debate frontiers and front lines;
Other new and interesting things that will certainly happen.

I will be adding an infrequent editorial from time to time. Do not worry, it will be clearly marked as such.

I will also be restructuring the news feeds on the side of this page, which is where I get many of my stories.

I want to salute my fellow debate news gatherers who are a resource and an inspiration to me, such as the World Debating Website at http://worlddebating.blogspot.com/ of Colm Flynn as well as the Asian Debating Website at http://asiandebating.blogspot.com/ of Rashedul Hasan Stalin.

New Sources for Debate News

2007-09-02T06:27:00.000-07:00

August was a tough month for me due to the conclusion of the four week World Debate Institute session and then the need to relax a bit and recover. Well, the recovery wasn't to bad, and it was nice, but now September is here, the school year has started and my mind returns to the task at hand - promoting debate.

During August I learned of a few more news sources that I can use. I do not use them everyday but I look into them at least once a week.

One of them is a fairly comprehensive blog search that Google now offers. This looks all throughout the blogosphere and finds debate related stories. Most of them are just students chatting about their debating experiences, but some can be quite informative and revealing.

Another source has been the comprehensive search system hosted by Rasheful Hasan Stalin at the Asian Debating Website at http://asiandebating.blogspot.com/.
This site has a lot of keywords and a lot of news sources (they look like Google robots) that then turn up a list of the top four or five stories once you check a keyword. This has bit been that productive, but I do turn up some stories every time I look through it.

Two other thing I will do this month are change the keywords and searches on this page as well as fire up a number of Google reader machines to try and locate those few stories that are still eluding me.

This website will continue to be on that works. It is not so much designed for you to use (although you are welcome) but is designed to gather news to use in other places, specifically on the Global Debate Blog at http://globaldebateblog.blogspot.com/.

Debate News Sources Proliferate

2007-08-05T05:50:00.000-07:00

The purpose of this website is the use of the news feeds on the right. I survey them daily and take stories for the Global Debate Blog. Once a month, however, I do post some commentary here about the process of gathering news about debating.

Since I moved to blogspot.com with the Global Debate Blog http://globaldebateblog.blogspot.com/, other sites have also come over and started doing the same sorts of news circulation that I am.

One is the World Debating Website http://worlddebating.blogspot.com/ organized by Colm Flynn. He has been running a different blog site and I think was also attracted to the ease of using Blogspot. The site has a lot of good information but tends to have a preference for information about international parliamentary debating. There is also a nice news feed at the site that I check out regularly.

Another is the Asian Debate website at http://asiandebating.blogspot.com/
which is organized be Rashedul Hasan Stalin of Bangladesh. A very active debate promoter, this site is designed to "see debate through the eyes of Asia." Given how explosive the growth of debating in Asia has been recently, this is an excellent idea. He and I have cooperated and shared links and publicity, and I congratulate him on his work.

I am glad to see this taking place.

First, we are not competitors. We are all trying to promote debating and share information, and the better job we all do the better off debating will be.

Second, we can help each other. Stalin sends messages to a variety of listservs about his stories. I used to do that every month but got harsh emails from some people who didn't want to hear about debate events in the USA (hello Australia) so I stopped. I will occasionally send some emails to some lists if I think a story specifically interests them. Stalin has also sent a number of emails about my stories from both the Global Debate Blog and other sites I have, such as Flashpoint Television http://flashpointtv.blogspot.com/. I look forward to meeting Colm in Malaysia later this year and hope to strike up a cooperative relationship.

Third, I sometimes will take a story from them. I cannot say that they do the same from me, and it might just be that we find the same story, but we have had some appear on the Global Debate Blog and then on one of their sites. No problem. I usually will take a story from them if it is also circulated by email (like Stalin's Tibetan Buddhism debating story) or if it just looks too good to pass up. However, if it is marked as an "exclusive" I will not take it, with an example being the Red Mosque of Pakistan debate story http://asiandebating.blogspot.com/2007/08/cnn-bbc-aljazeeras-red-mosque-of.html.

Fourth, someday I want to have a discussion with them about how they find stories. We might want to exchange some tricks of the trade as to how we find out content. For me it is often the first thing I do in he morning as I troll for debate stories. This website is one that I use to find some of them. We shall see.

In any case, another month down (July) and a lot more debate stories to circulate. I have been pleased with the number of debate stories available during the northern hemisphere summer, so it looks like we can sustain a 12-month news cycle.

Good luck to all of these stalwart debate supporters.

A Working Website - It Gathers News

2007-07-09T14:22:00.000-07:00

This site uses Google robots to find news stories on a global basis that may be relevant to debates and debating in an educational and competitive sense. Some of the search terms may be a bit broad and some irrelevant stories slip through, but it is better to have a few irrelevant stories than to miss important ones. Articles can be found on the side of this blog about debate in general. These can be surveyed to get a sense of what is happening, but of course only a part of the story.

This website is part of a working family of debate websites. This one gathers news more than distributes it. The best stories are then picked for the Global Debate Blog and for other uses.

Here are some of the other debate websites that I manage. Please feel free to visit them.

Debate Central
Main page http://debate.uvm.edu/
Learn to Debate
http://debate.uvm.edu/learndebate.html
Video Instruction and Debate Video Library
http://debate.uvm.edu/watch.html
Purchase Debate Training Materials
http://debate.uvm.edu/ee.html
Debate Related Books We Endorse
http://debate.uvm.edu/shoptext.html

Global Debate Blog
http://globaldebateblog.blogspot.com
Old Global Debate Blog
http://debate.uvm.edu/debateblog/doctortuna/Blog/Blog.html

DebateVideoBlog
http://debatevideoblog.blogspot.com/

Instructional Programs
World Debate Institute Summer Program (USA)
http://learn.uvm.edu/wdi/
International Debate Academy (Europe)
http://debate.uvm.edu/idas2007.html
Asian Debate Institute (Korea)
http://debatekorea.blogspirit.com/

Other Websites
YouDebate (list of debate videos elsewhere on the web, such as YouTube and GoogleVideo)
http://youdebate.blogspot.com/
DebateNews (Google robots find debate in the news)
http://debatenews.blogspot.com/
Lawrence Debate Union, University of Vermont
http://debate.uvm.edu/ldu.html
Voice of Edwin (Lawrence Debate Union Newsletter)
http://debate.uvm.edu/debateblog/LDU/Voice%20of%20Edwin/Voice%20of%20Edwin.html
Flashpoint Debate Television Program Videos
http://flashpointtv.blogspot.com/

Non-Debate Websites
Alfred Snider
http://alfredsnider.blogspot.com/
Alfred Snider Photo Albums
http://debate.uvm.edu/debateblog/travelpix/Welcome.html
College of Music Knowledge Radio Downloads
http://collegeofmusicalknowledge.blogspot.com/
Reggae Lunch Radio Downloads
http://reggaelunch.blogspot.com/
Alfred Snider Calendar
http://debate.uvm.edu/tunacalendar.html
Alfred Snider News Links
http://debate.uvm.edu/news.html

Debate Stories Continue in the Summer

2007-06-11T13:16:00.000-07:00

The debate stories keep on coming, even with the school year over in the USA.

There will be a huge swamp of stories indicating how teams do at various tournaments, such as NFLs, IDEA-NJFL, NCCFA, etc. Other stories will cover various summer debate institutes.

Then, of course, there will be a lot of coverage of political debates.

The articles on the right update themselves every day, so check it out.

Make comments to suggest new keywords to use for searches.

Scroll Down the Page

2007-04-12T15:21:00.000-07:00

...and look at the news stories on the right.

Check out any that strike your interest.

Please suggest new search terms that may be useful.

Usually the hits we get are from:
-Local newspapers covering debate activities.
-College and university newspapers covering the activities of their team.
-Blogs by people who are involved in the activity.
-Media news about debate on television, in documentaries or in the movies.
-Reports from countries where debate may be a newer activity and the press is featuring it.
-Press releases put put out by schools or teams.
-Websites created by new debate and forensics organizations.
-Websites built by individual debate organizers.
-Other stories too diverse to mention.

Please leave comments about other search terms you would like.
-Unexpected sources.

Debate News Page Begins

2007-04-11T05:39:00.000-07:00

There are many stories about debate activities that are produced every day in the global infosphere. Check them out and be aware using this site. New search terms are always welcome and accepted.

Just check out the lists of stories on the right.

Please leave a comment if you have more ideas for search terms.

Check out stories in more detail at
http://debate.uvm.edu/debateblog/