The World According To Mom - apparently still going...

You may recall a while back I participated in a project with Catherine "Her Bad Mother" Connors and some of the the editors at Global Voices Online we called "The World According To Mom." It really took off - to the point where I was having a lot of trouble keeping track of every post.

I'm completely sure I don't have all the posts, but I figured I should at least mention the ones I did see since I said I would... I count 312 posts from bloggers representing 44 countries and 8 languages. The additions I found since the last update:

South Africa: Expensive Mistakes and Cheap Thrills, Angel's Mind
USA: Keep Your Day Job - But You Ought To Write Too, Life at Willow Manor, Sands Random Ramblings, Turning Stones, Mama Mutterings, The Child, A Lawyer Mom's Musings, Suburb Sanity, Pajama Mom, Mistress Stash Enhancer
India: What's On My Mind, YOnEarthNot, HappyFeet N Me, A Journey Called Life, Apya and Bubbu
France: The Ancient Sword
Ireland: K8 the GR8
Philippines: Calculated Spontaneity, iMom
United Arab Emirates: A Baby Story

I also saw an impressive post from the Shutter Sisters, where the members of that community from several countries added comments with links to pictures that fit the meme. And Catherine wrote a second "five things" post in celebration of her son's birthday, and published it on her Belief.net blog.

As I wrote in my previous update I'm hoping others pick this up, track and catalogue the posts. I know the Global Voices team has some great ideas to highlight their coverage of this. We're all juggling busy schedules so it's not always top of mind, but if you're a mom and you're looking for some inspiration, I think you'll find your fellow moms have plenty to share.

The World According To Mom: Update 12

This has been a fun ride. The global mom meme that Catherine Connors started and Global Voices Online covered in 5 languages now has 288 posts from bloggers from or in 44 countries representing 8 languages.

It's also gotten to the point where it's difficult to track. I'm convinced I haven't been able to find every post. About a third of the posts I've found don't link to Catherine or leave a comment, they just take a tag and sometimes pass it on. That's obviously fine - after all, I'm not the meme police - it's just logistically cumbersome to manually search for trackbacks and links over dozens of countries in my spare time.

I'm not suggesting this project is over by any means - I'm just hoping some others will step in and take it to the next level. We easily surpassed one of our goals - 80 bloggers - and we're more than half-way to reaching the much harder goal of 80 countries.

So in addition to listing the blogs who have joined since the last update, I'm going to provide a partial list of countries where I HAVEN'T found a post but think we could get one - in the hope that anyone reading this might know someone in that country and tag them. We only need 36 more to reach the goal. (The tags on the delicious page show where we've found countries.) If you send me a link or leave a comment at Catherine's post - I subscribe to the comments there - I'll add it to the delicious page. Remember, anyone and everyone is welcome to post, regardless of where you live.

The countries I could think of that haven't been represented include: Afghanistan, Albania, Angola, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belize, Bermuda, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei, Bulgaria, Cape Verde, Chile, Columbia, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Estonia, Fiji, Georgia, Ghana, Greenland, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, Iran, Iraq, Jamaica, Jordan, Kenya, Latvia, Lebanon, Leichtenstein, Liberia, Malta, Madagascar, Monaco, Mongolia, Mozambique, Nepal, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Romania, Rwanda, Seychelles, Tanzania, Thailand, Ukraine, Uruguay, Venezuela, Vietnam, Yemen, Zaire, Zimbabwe.

That's more than 60. And I left out a lot.

Additions since the last update:

Singapore: APPYAYAN
USA: Little Miss Emalyn, Thrift Store Mama, End of a Long Day, Illuminate Everyday, Gravity Check, Taking the Scenic Route to Joy
Germany: Our Feet Are The Same
Pakistan: No.1 Mouse Place
India: Ageless Bonding
South Africa: Twaddle & Twak, Food & Family
Mexico: Carmeliux sin limites
Australia: Comfort Food

Thanks again to everyone who participated, to Catherine, and to Amira & Solana at Global Voices. Let's see where it goes from here. As always, leave a comment/email to let us know you're in.

The World According To Mom: Update 11

Wikipedia says that something like 68 countries will celebrate Mother's Day on Sunday. People all over the world celebrate this day in different ways. One way to gain the perspective of moms worldwide is to simply check out the 80Clicks Delicious links page for The World According To Mom, the global mom meme started by Catherine "Her Bad Mother" Connors and supported by the editors at Global Voices Online.

This project features no bells or whistles, no marketing gloss - just mothers discussing motherhood with each other in their own words, passing a conversation on from country to country. Sometimes the simplest projects are the most authentic.

Today the project includes 274 posts from moms from or in 44 countries and written in 8 languages. Global Voices has covered the project in 5 languages. Bloggers in Greece and Argentina have joined the project since the last update. Special thanks to Jen Zingsheim, Neville Hobson and my pal Mark Story for talking about the project on the Media Bullseye podcast. Here are the latest posts I've found:

Greece: Aspa Online, sofiascomments
Argentina: El Mundo del Julie en el Mundo
USA: My Party of 6, Wonderful World of Franry, Bella Luna, Charm City Moms, i should be napping but instead i am, The Crab Chronicles, MOMSTIR, Mom Zombie, The Traveling Circus, Delhi Bound, NOVA Parenting
Australia: Sanity is for the Weak
India: Hallucinations, I, Me and Myself, Thought Raker, A Reason To Write, Tiny Little
New Zealand: Oh Waily Waily
UK: The Normal Self, filthy, funny, flawed, gorgeous
Ireland: Sassy Irish Lassie
Malaysia: Sleepless in KL

As always, everyone is welcome to participate by writing a post, tagging some friends, and letting us know you did so via comment, link or email. I hope every mom (and everyone else) will consider writing a post for Mother's Day if your country celebrates it this Sunday, or just because it's a nice thing to do.

The World According To Mom: Update 10

The posts keep coming in response to Catherine's global mom meme, though nearly all of them are from countries we've already seen - not that there's anything wrong with that...

We've hit a milestone of sorts. I now count 250 posts from bloggers in or from 42 countries, in 7 languages. Add Mexico to the list. I'm sure I've missed some - not everyone links back, so it's nearly impossible to find everything.

The Global Voices Online team continues to demonstrate their awesomeness by doing things like providing coverage in Arabic.

Additions since the last update:

Mexico: Zona infinita
USA: Words in a waltz, Tea & Brie, Toddler Planet, madameblogalot, Shrink Rap, Anne Spollen's Author Blog, My Solid Best, Mom and More, Wacky Mommy, Priyamvada, only sometimes clever, We Sit By Fire, A Parent in Silver Spring
India: to the wind and the trees, Epiphany, My world of words, Li'l Cubby R, anoobhooti
Italy: Family Matters
Turkey: Resident Alien
Ireland: sligoice weblog, Magnumlady's blog
New Zealand: 4maze's weblog, Embejo etc, UpsideBackwards

As always, reach out if you're not on the list...

The World According To Mom: Update 9

It appears we've reached all the low-hanging fruit.

Catherine's global mom meme has generated a number of new posts this week, but none from countries we haven't already seen. We're at 226 posts in 41 countries and 7 languages. That's not to say The World According To Mom hasn't added significant diversity, however.

I'm very pleased that Susan Niebur of Whymommy fame has joined the discussion, posting at the group blog Mothers With Cancer. Catherine and Amira & Solana at Global Voices Online all think that as we continue to strive for geographic diversity, we should remember that diversity of perspective takes many forms. All moms (and dads) from all walks of life are welcome to participate here.

Eighty countries is within reach. Here's a modest goal - 68 countries celebrate Mothers Day this May 10. Only 22 of those countries are home to bloggers who have participated in the discussion. Let's see if we can get a few more on that list.

Additions since the last update:

USA: Mothers With Cancer, Mama Mary Show, Gravity Check, We We Clothing, Our Chaotic Life, Funny Magic, Momma Says, PunditMom
Canada: Bad Mummy, No Cookie!, Kyooty Center
India: Where I'm Calling From, Muse Cruise
Germany: Charlotte's Web
Nigeria: My Name is Mommy
Finland: Lintsi
South Africa: Food & Family
New Zealand: This is Today
Italy: Italian Trivia

As always, contact Catherine or me via email or comment if you don't see your post on the list or at the delicious page.

The World According To Mom: Update 8

We're making great progress and inching ever closer to 80 countries. We've blown past the first goal of 80 bloggers. Since the last update we've added Qatar, Cambodia, Denmark, Indonesia and Belgium to the list of countries. I count 206 posts from moms from or in 41 countries and representing 7 languages. I'm also aware of bloggers in two other countries who have said they plan to participate, and through the tags we're reaching into countries such as Thailand and Niger. I'm fairly certain I haven't found all the posts - "trackbacks" aren't as reliable as I'd like them to be, and I noticed some bloggers aren't linking back to Catherine so they're a bit harder to find.

I also think Catherine's original post is getting filled up so much with comments I'm thinking blogger has some issues keeping track of all the links. The people at Global Voices Online continue to demonstrate their awesomeness, reaching out to bloggers and providing coverage in many languages, all while managing very demanding day jobs. They continue to amaze me.

This continues to be a largely expat, mostly English-language phenomenon, though we're now up to 7 languages. That may be simply because of the circles these bloggers travel, it may be that language barriers are fairly substantial in the blogosphere, or it may simply be that expats are active bloggers.

Additions since the last update:

Denmark: Mads & Kelli
Indonesia: The Milk Bar
Cambodia: Forty-Two
Qatar: Starting Up
Belgium: Heaven is in Belgium
Ireland: Secret Diaries of a Wannabe Yummy Mammy
France: Peperuka
Canada: Dispatches From The Failed Mommies Club, Miss Columbina, Reflections in the Snow Covered Hills
USA: JJ Lasberg, Graceful Creative, A Simple Family, for a different kind of girl, Barriers, Bridges and Books, Baby & Mom Blog, She Laughs at the Days, Oscarelli, Homeschool Etc
Singapore: Me, My Hubby & Our Baby, aalochane
Finland: puhti, On sus
New Zealand: tiny happy, speckled egg
UK: 280 Days Later, 3 Bedroom Bungalow, Little Mummy
India: Five Senses, Everyday Life, sloc's home (our second dad), Violet
Australia: The Adventures of Deep Kick Girl Down Under
Japan: Illahee's blog
Malaysia: Sew & Stitch

As always, if you don't see your post here or at the delicious links page, or you're aware of one that isn't here, just let us know via comment or email.

The World According To Mom: Update 7

Slowly but surely, we're creeping toward 80 countries. The global mom meme that started with Her Bad Mother adds New Zealand, Turkey and Japan to the list. (Apparently all it took was calling out the Kiwis.) The 80clicks delicious links page now includes 172 posts from bloggers in or from 36 countries and features posts in six languages.

There are 44 countries to go before we reach the goal, and I think we're in very good shape. There are still a number of countries I considered to be somewhat "easy gets" when this started - Belgium, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Greece, Iceland, and Mexico - plus dozens of countries where we'd certainly find at least one blogger. So if you know a blogging mother in any of these countries, please let us know.

The Global Voices Online team continues to be amazingly helpful and supportive. They've referred a Russian-language blog as well as brought in a number of French-language posts. They're even doing outreach within their impressive network.

New additions since the last update:

New Zealand: 2 B's mommy
Turkey: a pink canary's nest
Japan: Gaijin Mama
Finland: ripaus inkivaaria, Blueberry Fields, fridulina, lapset nukkuu
USA: The Making of a Mum, sarah-ji, Ryan & Michelle +3, Kodimeow Kronicles, A Mother Is Born
Canada: The whole ball of wax in a nutshell, Pengelly Pastimes
UK: A Brief Aside #14, English Mum
India: Life is a box of chocolates, Crazy mum, A Celebration called Life, Inexplicably, Motherhood and all that jazz
Pakistan: Rites Of Passage
United Arab Emirates: A Goofy Mumma's Happy Blog
France: Eclats
Singapore: Moppet Tales
Australia: Liferightnow, Blurb from the Burbs

As always, if you don't see your post on the list, let us know by comment or email. This is really shaping up to be quite a project.

The World According To Mom: Update 6

It's been another busy few days for the global mom-meme launched by Her Bad Mother. We've surged past the first goal of finding 80 moms - we're over 140 and rising. Now there's that thing about finding bloggers in 80 different countries. That's still a challenge - we're at 32 (UPDATE - 33, see below). The full list of posts that I've found is here. For this update we're adding bloggers from three new countries to the list -- Singapore, Finland and Pakistan -- plus a number of bloggers from countries we've already found.

The people at Global Voices Online have been outstanding. They've reported on the project in English, Spanish, French, and Bangla. (BANGLA!) This should prove very helpful because we're only slowly pushing through language barriers. (Our first contribution in Finnish is in this update.)

We've gotten many posts from the US, Canada, India and Australia, which isn't all that surprising. Now comes the hard part - finding more countries. I expected things to start getting challenging after about 25 countries, but I'm pleasantly surprised that some of what I think are the more "gettable" countries are still out there. (Time to step up, Kiwis.) I've also noticed bloggers in countries like Turkey, Russia, Denmark and Jordan have been tagged.

The delicious links page is already proving useful. Teachermommy in Michigan (USA) already thumbed through the list and picked out a few of her favorites. I hope we see more of that, and I hope the moms start linking to and chatting with each other.

Here are the additions since the last update:

Singapore: Squiggles Mom
Finland: lista asioista (in Finnish and English)
Pakistan: mom on the outside, babe on the inside
India: Sunny Days, where the mind wanders, sur notes, The Munchkin Blog, Life of Our darling Prince, Bringing Up Adi, Musings from Mumbai, Word Junkie
Australia: Life with Pipette, A Memory Forever, Baino's Banter
USA: Red Pen Mama, Hortus Delicartum, Daisy Bones, This Wabi Sabi Life, Sundar Narayanans Travelog (our first dad!), Enjoy Indian Food, Winkie's Way
Egypt: Living in Egypt
China: tiny tidbits
Spain: Expat Mama (yes, that problem again, I know)
South Africa: Mom de Plume
UK: Notes from Inside My Head

As always, reach out if you don't see yourself here or on the delicious links page.

UPDATE: Make that 33 countries. Add Portugal to the list. Mae da Mafaldinha joins the fun, in English and Portugese. And thanks to the comment, I learn the GVO coverage in French is already having an impact. Gabi in France tells me she read the coverage from Global Voices and joined in on her blog, I Love You Baby. Julie Adore, a "Russian Mom in France," does as well on her blog, conveniently titled Julie Adore. Not sure to call this our first "Russian" post yet.

The World According To Mom: Update 5

Her Bad Mother's global mom-meme continues to grow. Now that bloggers from Ireland, the Netherlands, and Malaysia have joined in, I count more than 110 posts in or from 29 countries, and I know posts from more countries are on the way.

Global Voices Online continues to be enormously helpful - Solana Larsen published a story and issued the call to her global readership. I think that brought more attention from a global audience. I still find only posts in English (save one in English & Spanish) so I'm not sure that the meme will break much of a language barrier. We still haven't seen posts from countries I thought would join quickly - Japan, New Zealand, Belgium, Finland and Brazil, to name just a few - But I do know bloggers in places like Turkey and Pakistan have been tagged and/or are drafting posts.

One cool feature I haven't mentioned before - the 80clicks delicious page has an RSS feed so bloggers can easily add links to the blogs on the list as they're updated, or you can build rss widgets, or you can put the feed in your reader of choice.

Here are the additions since the last update:

Norway: American in Norway, Being More Through Having Less
USA: Don't Ask Me, I Just Work Here, Neurotic, Yet Classy, G's Blue Eyes, ana na uwr, a life reconstructed
Ireland: Irish Mammy On The Run, Jen's Rantings, Arty Feminist, mammydiaries
Canada: Kami's Khlopchyk
Sweden: Happysilly
UK: Diary of a Mad Mammy (she's in Northern Ireland)
India: The Mad Momma, Eve's Lungs, Of This And That, It's A Mom's World
Malaysia: Twopointthree kids, Sixpointsix ideas on raising them
Netherlands: Diligent Candy
Australia: Frog Ponds Rock, Life Or Something Like That, Memoirs2Cherish

As always, if you don't see yourself here (or more importantly at the 80clicks delicious page) just reach out via comment or email. And thanks to all who have participated and reached beyond borders!

UPDATE: Apparently I missed Beneath the Wings in Israel. Thanks to @mominisrael for letting me know via Twitter!

The World According To Mom: Update 4

The momentum continues for the global mom-meme started at Her Bad Mother. I've found more than 85 moms in 26 countries all sharing what they love about being a mother. Here are the additions I've found - and I stress "I've found" because I'm almost certain there are a number of posts I haven't found yet:

USA: so-so stephanie, Mommy Needs 5 Minutes, Here Only, Toni Johnson, Keep it Together, Zebrabelly, Life As I Live It, It's My Life - Now or Never, From Here To There And Everywhere
Canada: A little bit of Momsense, Frog and Toad are Still Friends, Loulou's Views, Canadian Mom (something seems to be wrong with this link)
Italy: An American Mom In Tuscany
Korea: Expatriate Games, Domestic Bliss in South Korea, A Quest for Cuteness, Mama Seoul
South Africa: Supermom
Sweden: annapernilla, at hanna
India: The not-so artful dodger, Hip-Hop Grandmom
France: Poppy Fields,
Bahrain: Hypnotic Verses
China: Notes from an Escalator, Email From The Embassy
Morocco: Planet Nomad

The meme remains dominated by expats so I'm still trying to find the right standard for countries. In this case the bloggers in Italy, Bahrain and Morocco are all American, and at least one of the bloggers in Korea is a Canadian expat - but they all seem to have something that convinces me it's ok to list them in that country.

I know that other bloggers in Ireland, Italy and Norway have expressed an interest in participating, and I have also seen bloggers "tagged" in countries like Hungary, Singapore, El Salvador, the Czech Republic, and Turkey. Still, there are plenty of countries out there that are fairly well "wired" that havent joined yet, so there's a lot left to do. The people at Global Voices Online continue to help - over the weekend they identified a bunch of blogging mothers in, of all places, the Sultanate of Brunei.

That's the update for now - there will be more. All mothers in all countries are welcome to participate and tag - simply reach out via email or comment to be added to the list...

The World According To Mom: Update 3

At this point more than 60 bloggers in or from 23 countries have participated in the global mom-meme that Catherine Connors launched last week. That's more than 25 percent of the goal in a very short time. We've also had one dad ask if he could join.

I'll leave the commentary on motherhood to Catherine, at least for now. I do have some observations about how this has grown so far.

First, all but one of the participating posts I've seen to date are in English. That's the language in which this started, but I'm hoping it will travel across linguistic barriers as much as geographic ones. I know the folks at Global Voices Online will be chiming in soon so maybe that will change.

Second, a lot of the participating bloggers are expats, and that is raising a number of interesting questions. For the purposes of getting 80 bloggers in 80 countries, do you consider an American expat in Germany a "German" blogger? What about an Indian mom in Switzerland? Or a Brit in Bosnia? Or a Nigerian in the USA? At first I thought I'd call them whatever gets us to 80 countries fastest, but now I'm going with the self-identification of the blogger. I'd love to know people's opinions here. Still, its interesting that this meme is "traveling" on the backs of people who do a lot of traveling themselves.

Third, I'm a bit surprised that we haven't yet seen bloggers from some of the more wired countries like Ireland, New Zealand, Finland, Korea, Japan, or Italy. I guess that means we've already gotten some of the "harder" countries.

Finally, this idea is starting to get some attention - it was highlighted on blogs.com.

I'm sending occasional updates on Twitter and the delicious page. More updates here as events warrant.

Here are the additions since the last update:

Bolivia: Capsula Del Tiempo (bilingual!)
USA: Daily Dwelling (in Germany, but identifies as US), Bethany Actually, Deliajude, life is good, And I'll Raise You 5, Whiskey In My Sippy Cup, And I Sing To Myself What a Wonderful World
Egypt: Heissatopia
France: Whale Ears and Other Wonderings, Momster
Canada: Hey, Mrs. Wilson!, Canadian Mom
Oman: Daily Dose of Me
China: Bloomin' Marvelous, Email From The Embassy
Trinidad and Tobago: Things I've Found In Pockets
India: Boo's Baby Talk, Mamma of Twins
UK: A Modern Mother
Bosnia: Brits in Bosnia (here's where I run into that self-identification issue)
Guatemala: Expat Mom

Remember, if you're participating and don't see your post included here or the delicious page, just let us know by leaving a comment and/or an email.

The World According To Mom: Update 2

This thing is really taking off. Since Catherine launched the global mom-meme, I have found about 40 posts from moms in or from 14 different countries. Moms in at least a half dozen other countries have already been tagged, and a Korean-American mom group blog called Kimchi Mamas has put the call out for Korean bloggers to participate.

Posts are bookmarked and tagged by country at the 80clicks delicious page. It's going to get much harder to keep track of everything, so if you're participating and want to be added to the list please leave a comment either here or at Catherine's post so we can make sure you are represented.

We've already seen a lot of creativity displayed. One mom chose to describe her "five things I love about being a mother" in pictures. Another wrote a graduation speech. Some use humor. Others are remarkably introspective.

One observation, and this isn't surprising - so far all the posts I've found are in English. Our friends at Global Voices Online are constantly traveling the world and it takes time for their editors and volunteers to do what they do best - but they've also been spreading the word and they've been very helpful - many of the bloggers they identified are already participating.

Since the last update, here are the additions - and again, apologies if I've missed you. Just reach out to make sure you're included.

Dubai: Sandier Pastures
Spain: Oreneta Aground
Sweden: Fine Little Day
The Philippines: A Filipina Mom Blogger
South Africa: So Close, Expensive Mistakes and Cheap Thrills, and The Jackson Files
Lithuania: Travel Shifts
Nigeria: It Was So Much Easier When I Had Only One
Kuwait: Chocolate Mints In A Jar
Israel: Around The Island
USA: Secret Agent Josephine, My Life As A Hotfessional, Notes From a Scattered Mind, Too Many Hats, Thinking About..., Ma Vie Folle, Coastal Carolina Moms, A Design So Vast, The Mama Beth, Adventures In Paradise, Send Chocolate NOW!!!, IIDLYYCKMA, Trees And Flowers and Birds, Is There Any Mommy Out There, and Mothergoosemouse
Canada: Psychic Geek, Dutch Blitz, Blog Like No One Else is Reading, Chaos Theory, Attack of the Redneck Mommy, and A Day In The Life... One Glass At A Time
Australia: Magnetoboldtoo

This is moving so fast I'll probably just add the RSS feed of the delicious page so people can find links here without me having to write long posts, but I may still announce new countries and of course provide a list of 80 links in 80 countries when we get there.

And we WILL get there.

The World According to Mom: Update 1

We're off and running. Since Catherine wrote her post launching The World According To Mom, we've seen posts in six countries:

Canada (obviously, it's Catherine)
USA: Somewhere in the Suburbs, Gas-Food-Lodging, Diapers and Dragons, Tangerine Times
Israel: A Mother in Israel
France: BurkinaMom in France
Australia: My Glass Half Full
China: Expat in China!

Another person actually STARTED blogging because she read Catherine's post. While I don't know what country she's in her blog is called a.k.a Mama.

We're also expecting posts from bloggers from or in The Philippines, Sweden, India, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria and Kuwait, plus at least a couple more from Canada.

We now have a delicious links page that tags the posts by country for people to see and share and we'll update it as we find more moms participating in the meme. If you'd like to let us know you've written, leave a comment here or at Catherine's departure lounge post and you will get added.

We're going to be reaching out to bloggers who don't write in English, thanks to the great people over at Global Voices Online - they've been enormously supportive and helpful. Amira Al Hussaini and Solana Larsen have really stepped up.

I also want to thank the Israeli Consulate in New York City for being actively interested in this project via Twitter at @IsraelConsulate. A number of people have re-tweeted and expressed interest, so this is really starting to take off.

More updates soon...

The World According To Mom

A while back I discussed an idea with a couple of bloggers - it would be great to demonstrate how "global" many online communities truly are. Find bloggers with common backgrounds or interests all over the world, and ask them to discuss a specific topic.

Of course, reading bloggers from virtually any country is easy today - just go to Global Voices Online and start clicking.

But what if we did it with bloggers in one specific online community, one that transcended borders? And what if that community, from a global perspective, has been marginalized in politics and media to a certain extent - despite its enormous value?

What if we could use social media to help amplify their voices, strengthen their bonds with each other, and teach the rest of the world a thing or two?

So today, together with some impressive bloggers, we're launching "The World According To Mom: Around the World in 80 Clicks."

We're going to try to find 80 mom bloggers in 80 different countries to write a post in response to a meme Catherine "Her Bad Mother" Connors develops.

I can't think of two better people with whom to try this. Catherine has been a force in the blogosphere, especially among moms, for some time now. She's giving some thought to what we'd ask moms in 80 different countries to share with the world, and providing an intellectual and emotional rudder to this project. Amira Al Hussaini is the Regional Editor for the Middle East and Africa at Global Voices - I interviewed her about her amazing project, Voices without Votes, for a Business Lexington column a few months ago. She's graciously offered to help us find bloggers in 80 countries. I'm essentially a worker bee here - part recording secretary, part dot-connector, part publicist.

Catherine was on the faculty at the University of Toronto, so she's accustomed to giving out assignments. She's developed a straightforward, inclusive and powerful meme for online moms across the world: Describe five things you love about being a mom. Amira Al Hussaini and GVO's Managing Editor, Solana Larsen, have already been enormously helpful finding online moms in scores of countries, and they've offered help with translation, an obviously critical aspect of this project.

As this progresses, I'll be posting links to all the moms in all the countries so you can actually go "around the world" in 80 mouse clicks. I'll also tweet with a hashtag - #globalmoms.

I'm hoping we get more than 80 - we'll soon see. If you're interested in participating - whatever country you're in and whatever language you speak -I hope you'll join in by writing your post, linking to friends, and letting us know by commenting at Catherine's post or here, or sending an email.

When we're completed, I'm hoping we'll have an amazing collection of perspectives on motherhood. I'm excited to see what moms across the world have in common, or how opinions differ. I'm also excited to read GVO's take on this, and Catherine's reactions once this is complete.

I realize it's somewhat odd for a man, and a PR flack at that, to help kick this off. But the "mom-o-sphere" has been the focus of much of my work for years now, and I've come to learn a few things. With all due respect to those (actually rather smart) people who consider "mommyblogs" (I don't like this term either, Liz) to be "media properties" or offer "helpful hints" on pitching them, maybe this will remind us all that online moms exist for something other than the convenience of marketing and PR people.

But this isn't about me, and it's much bigger than whatever PR flacks are talking about. . Once it starts, it belongs to all the people who participate in it and it will exist for the reasons they say it does - that's what "social media" is all about.

Seriously, people, it's not a lecture.