Sunday, August 29, 2004

anonyMoses: "Legend has it that Matt Gross had come down from blogger heaven to add gravitas, wit and guidance to the celebration, and I, for one, want to corroborate that would-be urban legend. And he was not only there, he was trustworthy, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, cheerful, brave, and clean." 6:13:21 PM    comment []

Jeff Thigpen, a Guilford County commissioner, candidate for Register of Deeds, and blogger, writes about the conference: "As an elected official, blogging gives me more control over my voice. It can be frustrating when you are misquoted by the media...It was captivating to hear fellow bloggers engage representatives from the News and Record, etc., who were in attendance about what makes a journalist, who has and controls 'the facts' or 'venue' for facilitating the reporting and analysis of the news." 5:51:40 PM    comment []

Tara Sue Grubb And Ross Myers made a nifty short video of the conference. Nice. You can link to it from this page where it says "Blogs, Dogs, and Politics."  One of the dogs in the title is my Luna, who got some screen time as I made the point that a researched article on my blog is more aptly called "journalism" than the occasional throwaway column I write in a newspaper about my dog. 5:02:32 PM    comment []

Evan Zimmerman has pics from the con.... More coverage: Robert Reddick, who really needs permalinks: "Just to be in a room with people who get the power of personal publishing without all the gunk about what and why." Rob Zelt brought a software guy's perspective, and also posted a couple of pictures. Tony Plutonium Jay Ovittore Chris Graham had some thoughtful comments, and also this: "Here’s what I learned at the Piedmont Bloggers Conference: Tara Sue Grubb is hot Hott HOTTT!" Patrick Eakes went home and started a weblog. And then there is the Joycean narrative of Mr. Beckwith at anonyMoses: "And sure as eggs is eggs, their vision became reality, and their reality drew crafty and deipnosophical blogsmiths from throughout the land...which of course ends at Virginia, South Carolina and Tennessee." 10:21:49 AM    comment []

Gerry Goulder of Guilford GOP News: "Republicans are losing on the Internet. I attended the Piedmont Bloggers Conference this weekend. I may have been the only Republican political blogger present." Sad but true. Matt McWilliams was supposed to come, but he didn't. Lee Payne, a non-blogging GOP office holder, was supposed to come, but she didn't. The Burr and Coble campaigns were invited. Every member of the GSO City Council, Guilford Co. board of commissioners, and school board was invited via email; only Democratic pols showed up. We did have more non-Dem or at least non-liberal attendees than other conferences to date, I think. Gerry himself, of course, but also including John Hood, Cori Dauber, Sam Hieb, Hoggard...strong voices, heard clearly yesterday...but no candidates. It's a national phenomenon, this Dem-blogging lead. 10:17:21 AM    comment []

Greensboro blogger TheShu has something important to say in the wake of yesterday's confab. "It makes me wonder why the power brokers in Greensboro can't figure something like this out. Obviously you can't invite 200,000 plus people to an 'un-conference'. It would be a disaster. But a series of smaller regularly held get-togethers, perhaps in each district in the city, would go a heck of a long way towards making at least some of the population feel like they belong to something." Town meetings, I think they are called. In a city, neighborhood meetings. But why wait for government or "power brokers" to do it for us? We can broker our own power. To quote the intro from The $6 Million Man, We have the technology... TheShu also brought cold drinks to the conference, for which he deserves profound thanks. 10:01:28 AM    comment []

N&R editor John Robinson writes a weekly ombudsman-like column in the Sunday paper. Today, it's all about blogging. "At the News & Record, we believe in the big-tent idea of news: competition is healthy for us and for civic debate, different voices must be heard, and new ideas make us all better. "Weblogs certainly fit that bill. And as they get news and information to you more quickly and in ways that appeal to you, then we should be there." He cites the three N&R blogs (his, Lex's, and the sports guys'), says one from the local political reporting team will debut next month, and promises that more are on the way. I think one of those will be from editorial page honcho Allen Johnson. And he kindly mentions our conference, even quotes Jay Rosen. They get it. To quote Dave Winer, bing bing bing. Jackpot. 9:15:03 AM    comment []

The News & Record puts the blog conference above the fold, B-1 -- the top local story of the day. Thanks very much. Matt Williams covered the event, and he does a good job of summarizing the political portion of the program -- he apologized in advance for the limited scope and scale, but that's a reality when you are dealing with a quick turnaround in a Sunday newspaper. N&R: "Pioneers in the burgeoning Weblog field met Saturday in Greensboro to discuss how the medium that contributed to Dean's emergence can have the same effect locally. With Weblogs, politicians, candidates and residents alike can challenge the typically one-way stream of information in a community and remake the media landscape, they said." My only quibble is that he said the crowd was "about 50", I count 58 on this roster of people who actually showed up, which sounds more like "about 60" to me. 9:05:17 AM    comment []

"Let me apologize in advance for the unseemly display of optimism in the following column...." My News & Record op-ed this morning is about good vibes in Greensboro. "I don't want to get all Petula Clark on you, but a lot of the good stuff is happening downtown. And downtown matters." You can read the whole thing here. 8:53:12 AM    comment []