Rising Star?

First time to be featured in the Post, 7Days:

Rising blogger Suon Sopheaktra. Photograph: Pha Lina/7Days

Suon Sopheaktra, blogger

With a radiant smile and a prolific amount of Khmer online content to his name, rising blogger Suon Sopheaktra makes the scale of his mission look easy. The 23-year-old is a committed Wikipedian, submitting Cambodia-related articles, but equally devoted to the preservation of the printed word. In 2013 he hopes to digitise another 10 pre-Khmer Rouge Khmer-language novels, to add to the 50 he collected this year, available as e-books for free on his blog.

What do you plan for 2013?

In 2013 I’m going to still keep doing what I’ve been doing on my blog for the last two years – re-writing books. My blog is in Khmer and mainly focuses on tourism and culture and history. If I go to historical sites, I take photos and post them on my articles. I also document old French colonial buildings.

What trends might emerge next year?

I think there’s a trend in people blogging, but they’re less committed. I’ve seen people start and stop. I myself only get about 100 daily page views and I hope that will increase.

What excites you about the coming year?

My main point of interest in the internet is our history – books from before the civil war. I get them through book shops – they are scanned and I take them and re-type – but it takes time.

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Source: Phnom Penh Post, 28th Dec 2012.