Thanks to Claire Cole and the NCWO’s Younger Women’s Task Force, I’m spending the day at the Personal Democracy Forum, a conference on how technology is changing politics.
I saw Jessica from Feministing on the email list, so I think she’s here, but I haven’t spotted her yet. Other super-star bloggers are speaking: Liza Sabater, Joshua Michah Marshall, Markos Moulitsas, Ben Smith, Chris Nolan, Jerome Armstrong, Peter Daou, David Sifri, Chuck Defeo, Mary Katherine Ham, Jonathan Garthwaite, Joe Green, William Greene, Mike Krempasky, Juan Melli, Roger L. Simon, Matt Stoller, and more.
And then there are some super-star non-bloggers: Elliott Spitzer (swoon), Elizabeth Edwards (double swoon), ABC News’ Mark Halperin, Ari Rabin-Havt (Harry Reid campaign), Joe Trippi, Matt Bai (New York Times Magazine), Rep. Anthony Weiner, etc. If only the silver fox and the green giant were here (he needs a better nickname than “green giant,” but it was the only one I could think of — suggestions?), it would be perfect.
Right now we’re in the opening remarks. There was a networking breakfast earlier, and I found myself sharing a table with Roger L. Simon, the CEO of Pajamas Media. Goldstein, I thought of you, although I refrained from name-dropping. Either way, I had to smile to myself that I was having breakfast with the Pajamas Media CEO and his two business partners, of all people. I told them that I write for a left-wing feminist blog, and they smiled politely, but I suspect they were secretly horrified. Roger Simon was actually really nice, and said that he’s looking to branch out to other blogs and expand Pajamas’ base. Maybe I’ll hook Feministe up.
Right now, there’s an opening panel discussion on the influence of blogs on the mainstream media (a favorite topic of both bloggers and people in the mainstream media). The speakers are Chuck Defeo, founder of Townhall.com, Joshua Michal Marshall of TalkingPointsMemo, Chris Nolan of Spot-On, David Sifry, founder of Technorati, and Ben Smith of the New York Observer’s Politicker. Chris Nolan is awesome, but Ben Smith is my favorite so far. He’s the one who seems to have the most original things to say, and has suggested that perhaps it would be in the best interests of papers like the New York Times and the Washington Post to hire bloggers. There’s obviously a demand for quickly-updated news, opinion and news analysis, and, as he said, the people who are good at doing that already exist. Let the print reporters be print reporters, don’t force them to file six times a day. Hire those of us who are already filing six times a day. Everyone wins.
To up the nerd factor, there’s even a “live chat” going on, and it’s posted on a big screen behind the speakers. I see a Deanna Z — could it be Deanna Zandt from Alternet’s The Mix? I’m guessing yes, and since she’s fantastic I’ll try to meet her. I’ll have to investigate. (See? I am a real journalist!)
Chuck Defeo (Townhall) has said a few words about where the blogosphere is lacking: Local news. People still turn to their local TV stations for local information; where are the bloggers who are going to compete with that media? He says that “Mainstream media is actually doing local news coverage better than we are,” and I think he has a good point.
But Chris Nolan (Spot-On) disagrees, and points to Greensboro, North Carolina, where a local news organization adopted a blog (Greensboro101), and it’s a really great example of using a blog for local activism. These aren’t people who are about getting hundreds of thousands of hits; as Chris says, “They just want the five people that they care about to know, and to use these sites as bulletin boards.” She makes a good point, and these kinds of sites are great community-builders.
Update from Jessica: She and Gwynn from The Real Hot 100 will be here at 11. Awesome.
Next up are the break-out sessions. The main hall has MySpace for politics, and the smaller rooms are Regulating Online Politics, Making Online Work Offline and in the Field, and The Rising Power of Local Political Blogs. Liza Sabater (culturekitchen, Daily Gotham) is speaking at the last one, so I think that’s where I’ll be. More soon.