Sunday, June 5, 2005

Johnny on the Vlog Al Gore may have done a lot for the Internet and have some ideas about reaching young people with digital media through the current.tv project, but former Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards seems to have beaten him to video blogging at his oneamericacommittee.com site. Edwards, who has been doing a weblog and an audio podcast, now is soliciting questions as video clips and offering video answers that viewers can download or subscribe to with podcasting tools. Rocketboom's Amanda Congdon introduced him to her audience last week and posted outtakes on Friday... Rocketboom apparently invited some of the first questions, including one from sister vlogger Zadi (karmagrrrl), whose reaction to Edwards' reply was: So yeah okay, my name isn't Audi (not a big deal, it happens all time:)), and a plane flew by, and the tape got cut off - BUT HOW COOL IS THIS? Back in Edward's home state of North Carolina, Internet guru Paul Jones blogs: Is there no end to the variety of ways that John Edwards will use to reach us with his message? I hope not. He blogs, he podcasts, he guest blogs at Talking Points Memo, and now he video blogs. And unlike some politicians, he seems to be having fun communicating ... And Greensboro blogging journalist Ed Cone says "The guy is onto something. I volunteer to do an interview for a future edition." That might make for a different level of questions, but it will be interesting to see whether any Republican vloggers make it onto the site...  and whether any "response" sites start mashing up his video clips. Speaking of television... Newsweek has a special future of TV package this week. I don't see "politicians' vlogs" in the headlines yet, but maybe I missed it. 11:54:16 AM    comment [] Special Librarians Learn Blogging in Toronto Blogging for News: Introduction to Blogs and Feeds. News librarians had a challenging job even before the proliferation of Web news sites and weblogs. The prolific "j" is part of the solution -- although she could turn into part of the problem if you tried to keep up with everything she writes. It would be even harder to keep up with everything she reads, which is a good part of what blogging is about -- finding people who read interesting things, think interesting thoughts, summarize and share. J is a news librarian at Harvard who contributes to 30 blogs (!)... including some designed to keep news librarians (as well as friends and neighbors) up to date on sites they might find useful. This weekend she's passing on some of that guidance in person, at the Special Libraries Association 2005 Annual Conference in Toronto. I think all librarians are special, but the organization in question is made up of librarians who work in a variety of places. Its own definition: "Special librarians are information resource experts who collect, analyze, evaluate, package, and disseminate information to facilitate accurate decision-making in corporate, academic, and government settings." J's Blogging for News class has about 35 people attending. I wish I were there... I wonder if she's found a Toronto place for dim sum after the class... See NewsliBlog and j's scratchpad 10:49:54 AM    comment []

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