Wednesday, August 25, 2004

Cross-posted from the conference weblog: We will not have wi-fi on Saturday, but there is a terminal with an Internet connection. On Saturday, anyone who is here can contribute to this blog in real time. Also, those of you with blogs that run on Blogger, TypePad, and other hosted apps can use this terminal to update if you wish. And we can show on the big screen the blogs of bloggers as they speak. 5:57:05 PM    comment []

EdCone.com readers are motivated and inquisitive. Or easily manipulated by advertisers. In any case, this report on political campaign ads shows that you are twice as something as the average weblog reader: "(T)he blog ads, initially intended to build name recognition for the candidate, garnered 0.4 to 0.5 percent click-through rates on average, and went as high as 0.8 percent on EdCone.com." 2:07:14 PM    comment []

The Muller-Malkin debate on Philly public radio was civil but decisive. Muller won handily. Malkin made her limited case on the military necessity side of the issue, was shown to rely heavily on a discredited authority (Lowman), and was wholly unable to defend the actual internment, which is a liability when hawking a book called "In Defense of Internment." But as Muller said, if she'd called it "In Favor of Limited Pragmatic Measures against Japanese Americans During World War II", it wouldn't have sold very many copies. Listen for yourself in the Radio Times archive. 11:19:57 AM    comment []

Piedmont Blog Conference, this Saturday at 9 AM, Weatherspoon Museum, Greensboro.   We have 50 people signed up, a great mix of local pols and expert voices and bloggers and would-be bloggers from across the region, a real diversity of political opinion and blogging styles, all set to gather at a cool venue for what seems to be a first-of-its-kind event.   We have room for more people, it's free, please let me know via email if you plan to come.    Almost all of the planning and publicity has been done online, mostly by weblogs, some email, plus a plug in Matt Williams' N&R article.   Three weeks ago today: "Hoggard emails to suggest a quick weblog conference in Greensboro, sparked by the uptick of interest in Internet campaigning by local candidates. Sounds good to me."   Two weeks ago today: "So I guess we're set for Saturday, August 28, 9 AM, GSO NC."   The least responsive group to email invitations: the Guilford County school board, which has a reply rate of 0%. GSO City Council responses not so great, either. 8:23:51 AM    comment []

Vital information added to blog conference page: Tate Street Coffee House, just down the hill from the museum, is open early on Saturdays. We should have bagels and Krispy Kreme for the break in the museum courtyard. The conference will last from 9 AM til lunch, at which point people can decide what they want to do next. The auditorium is available all day, I will hang out as long as people like, we can improvise, do tutorials, gossip, whatever. Folks can go to lunch on Tate Street, or up Spring Garden at Yum Yum or the Draught House, or even drive to Stamey's for some good local 'cue. And the museum galleries open at 1:00, so you can check out the art. 8:09:29 AM    comment []

Jerome Armstrong: "North Carolina, as I noted in a previous post, is one techy-blog state." 7:56:52 AM    comment []

Jay Rosen will be covering the Republican convention at a purpose-built blog called Sky Box. ""I will be a contributing writer for Knight-Ridder's Washington bureau, credentialed to cover the event for them, working out of their space in the Post Office building, across 8th Avenue from Madison Square Garden." 7:55:31 AM    comment []

N&R: "Doctors and researchers with the Guilford Genomic Medicine Initiative will begin [working] with members of the public and specific patients early next year." Congresspersons Coble and Miller announced yesterday that Congress has approved a second, $3.4 million round of funding for the long-term project, a joint effort by UNCG, Duke, and the Cone Health System. 7:53:22 AM    comment []