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April 17, 2004

Later
: Finished the blogs-as-business session with a surprising (for me) outcome: The room wants a trade association to do all sorts of things, from getting stats to show how big we are to setting ad standards to helping get insurance and legal coverage to selling the blogosphere to marketers and media.
I'm tired and hot (there is no air here). So later....

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The Blogs as Business wiki
: The wiki for the Blogs as Business session is here.
I'll be asking for a volunteer to add in all the ideas heard in my session: a, what?, wikist, wikiologist, wikifier, wikster?
: Because I'll be "leading" the discussion, I won't be blogging it.
: The IRC channel will be irc.freednode.net/bloggercon204

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International
: Rebecca McKinnon is starting the international session. She's emphasizing the importance of the IRC with people on from around the world.

: Ethan Zuckerman, who has done amazing work bringing blogging and citizens' media to Africa, says that mainstream media does a terrible job of covering developing nations (and thus, an alternate source of information is needed).
Ethan graphed what is being discussed in blogs in terms of nations and found that we discuss developing nations less than mainstream media.
So his interest is in how we change this.
Thus he wants people in sub-Saharan Africa.
Ethan says that Hoder has provided a map of how blogs can be built in a nation and what it requires.
Hoder just published his map on his blog.

: I'm falling down on blogging this because I'm following the IRC since Hoder and international bloggers are in there.

: In the IRC, Fons says that the Chinese government is reporting more now because there is this alternate channel of news.
Hoder says that blogs are creating bridges across different parts of society.
He also emphasizes that a country needs its own blogosphere in its own language.

: Many interesting points about the bridges that need to be built across technologies:
English-language citizens' media tools need to be translated into other languages.
Blogging/internet needs to link to SMS (Dan Gillmor).
Radio needs to link to blogging/Internet (Ethan Zuckerman).
And radio and IM, which worked on the Dean radio show. (Jim Moore)

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From a distance
: It's so frustrating that that Hossein Derakhshan (Hoder) is not here. Many efforts to get him a speed-up to the visa process failed. And so he's watching online, as if outside, through a window. Damn. He's watching, though, and posting on his blog. I'll keep an eye on the IRC at Rebecca McKinnon's session on international blogging this afternoon so he can join in via that. Next time, Hoder, damnit, we'll get you here...

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Pres
: I'm now in Dan Gillmor's Presidential Blogging session.

: Matt Gross, ex-Dean, says that done badly (in reply to Dan's question) a campaign blog can be a new press release but done well it can open up new interaction with the voters and the larger blogosphere.

: Zephyr Teachout, also ex-Dean, says she "ends up blogging my mistake."
She sees three audiences:
> The press, which would end up using the language from the blog.
> The activist audience; blogging is an organizing tool.
> The campaign itself, which is having mixed results, she says. "Fasciinating to see how the entire campaign looked to the blog to come up with ideas and to try to gauge response... sometimes falsely, because it is small."

: Cam Barrett, ex-Clark now Kerry, says he learned that Movable Type and one blog would not scale. They decided instead to "create a network of community-oriented blogs.... So instead of one blog with 10,000 comments you had 1,000 blogs with 10 comments each."

: Dick Bell, the official Kerry blogger -- "the last standing official blogger," Dan calls him -- says his role is "a missionary role inside." The campaign did not adopt a blog until August. They also tried and rejected MT "in an adversarial environment" because of troll problems and no registration. They have the blog and a forum.
He says it's about messages out and messages in and sideways -- people finding each other.
He says they are developing new and more sophisticated tools.
Vs. the two tribes of journalists/bloggers, Dick says in politics it's two cultures. "Politics is a very high-touch culture... and it's a very conservative culture. Most political consultants would never do what Joe Trippi did...."
"Most campaigns -- to date -- don't want other personalities emerging. They focus on the candidate."

: Says Jim Moore of Democrats: "We're coming from way behind, including on the web." He says the Republicans were "way into the Dean campaign and studied it closely."

: Dan repeats Jay's question from the last session: What do we want.
That is the theme for the day. It's what I'll be asking later re business.

: Dave Winer says what he wanted from the Dean campaign was something to convince him to vote for Dean. Instead, the blog was about people already convinced talking to each other.
Dan Bricklin says what he hears Dave ask is a bunch of feeds with different perspectives.

: Winer says campaign blogs take on elements of journalism. Dan asks Dick about whether he links to things that disagree with the campaign, because blogs get much of their credibility from doing that (that is an act of journalism).
I want to say that blogs are essentially and should be essentially propagandistic.
Oliver says supporter blogs offer a different perspective.

: The Daily Kos controversy comes up.
Dick says that it's "common for someone involved in a campaign to fly off the handle every once in a while... and they're not on the advisory committee in Arizona anymore." He says there are lines you don't cross.
Cam says it's not just blogs; it's real life. When Michael Moore endorsed Clark and then went to a rally and said things the opposition would use against Clark, it caused a similar problem.

: Dan asks whether Pres candidates should blog themselves. Almost all agree that's unrealistic.
But Henry Copeland says that at lower levels -- Congressional, say -- it will come to pass that "the winner will be the candidate will blog."
Mark Cohen, a state legislator in Pennsylvania, blogs and likes the freedom it gives him to talk about other topics.

: Matt Gross says that the blog added transparency to the campaign, it -- mixed metaphor my fault -- pulled back the curtain sufficiently so that this audience now understands how busy a campaign is and how it's not realistic for the candidate to blog. That wasn't being said at the last Bloggercon.

: Matt says building the blog is building a media channel with different shows. Kate was the lifestyle role. Zephyr was the organized. "And Matt Gross," Matt Gross says, "was the Walter Cronkite."

: Dick Bell says "all of these professional communities are being opened up."
This in response to Jay on transparency; he found it amazing -- "if true" -- that the Dean campaign believed there were things to learn from the blog and thus the people there.
Zephyr says yes, they did learn, but don't overvalue blogs.

: Bell says that 10-15,000 emails come in a day. Wow.

: There's a question about whether the blog really can bring out votes. Matt Gross says he believes they did but it's only one of so many factors. He says it won't affect that person who makes the decision in the voting booth or a day before or a week before (that's the line where I'll start to quibble).
Matt Stoller says that OhMyNews definitely made the difference in a campaign in South Korea. Rebecca McKinnon adds that mobile connectivity -- SMS -- also made a difference there.

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What is journalism?
: Jay Rosen says that "starting off with definitions leads to what my teacher, Neil Postman, called 'definition tyranny.'"
And that, Jay explains, is why he wants to separate the terms "journalism" and "blogging" to understand each other them. That's what he was up to in his quickly controversial post last night. And so, he says, "the definition is something you get at the end of your inquiry rather than at the beginning."
Jay -- reprising something he said at the last Bloggercon -- sees this like a scene out of Gangs of New York: two tribes marching toward each other and battle.

: Jay asks what is pushing blogging toward journalism. Chris Lydon says we do it for the same reason we bomb Baghdad: Because we can.
"And because there's so much to say. There's so much inadquacy of coverage... Bloggers feel aggrieved by journalism...."
So Jay summarizes so far: We have the tools; we have dissatisfaction; we find a voice.
Henry Copeland adds that partisanship will out.
Trisan Louis adds that the lack of objectivity of blogging balances the lack of objectivity of journalism.
(Dave Winer, parenthetically, says he's not sure blogging is heading toward journalism; they're separate things and blogging has elements of journalism. He says there's a means of going right to sources and that's still information; that, too, is journalism.)
Someone I can't see says blogging is a medium without barriers.

: I add that blogging allows people to find and serve a public and in this medium of relationships and build a new kind of relatinship.

: David (Not Dave) Weinberger says that blogs allow you to care about -- or demosntrate you care about -- your world.
Yes, it is a way to take action.
It is a way to take leadership. (See also Britt Blaser's Open Republic for that. It's one of the tools for leading.)

: David Britten says blogging is heading toward a subset of journalism: op-ed. Bloggers don't report.
David Winer says that the source material is there and we don't need to compilation of journalism.
Well, there's still a need for reporting. Most will come from those with the resources and backing to report. Some will come from citizen journalists.
Rebecca McKinnon gives a great example: It was a journalist who heard what Trent Lott said. But the journalist missed the significance of it. Bloggers saw that significance.

: Jeff Sharlet says blogs are a social gospel; they come out of a utopian view that they can change the world. They're muckrakers. They muckrake the view within the facts.
"The old story is inadequate."
Matt Stoller says that's a matter of the narrative of news.
He says that bloggers don't challenge reports; they challenge editors.

: Joshua Farber, a high-school teacher, says that he sees students "avoiding the media mechanism" and being more actively involved in their world.
Or to put it another way:
Life is a video game. We have the controller.

: Bob Wyman says that the question is what journalism is not.
It's no longer having a tie to a printing press.
It's no longer recording events; we have better recorders -- e.g., video cameras.
So, he says, journalism focuses on timely selection in context for a sustained audience.
Nicely said.
So he says the key may be the sustained audience.

: C. Crossley (I think) says that journalism is its standards and practices in an ethical framework. Bob Wyman, next to me, is shaking his head, no. There's assorted head-shaking in the room.
Rick Heller says he'd like to know what those standards are.
(I'd say that's a plug for the Citizens' Media Center!)

: Jay asks what happens to journalists when they blog.
Oh, boy.
Someone in the back says that blogging separates journalists from editors and the value of editing.
I believe that the readers are the editors now.
And I find that it's difficult to work with editors that stand in the way.

: Another theme: freedom. Freedom of topic. Freedom of opinion. Freedom from editors.
They also gain risk.
"And they have to establish almost every day trust and a relationship with an audience," says Jay.
Debbie Galant says that blogging also gives you a freedom of audience: You can write for a broader audience.

: Dan Gillmor says the transition was easy for him because he was a columnist. Rebecca McKinnon says that's what made it difficult for her, at first.
She's right. It's exactly what I went through when I started writing a column.

: Jay says putting out a daily paper was called the Daily Miracle. To get it done, so many things have to be standardized: deadlines, methods, standards...
Without the necessity of getting onto the press, those rules disappear; freedom appears.
A man in the back says that without that, "the journalist is left naked... without the banner of the New York Times."
Jay says, yes, the brand of the newspaper continues and new people can enter and "borrow that brand."
Bloggers have to build their own.

: Jay says that "profound issues of freedom of speech are being raised for journalists in their own organization."

: Gordon Joseloff of WestportNow says he only uses blogging software and does not call it a blog. He doesn't put up his opinon.
Henry Copeland says people are "hungry for opinion... We are awash with objectivity."
Jay says "objectivity was the de-voicing of journalism."
Micah Sifry says "people are hungry for filters." A columnist or a blogger can be "a trustable filter."
[This conversation is working well because it adds up to good exchanges like this.]

: Jason Calacanis asks whether anyone has been sued. Robert Cox of the National Debate tells about his victory over The New York Times. Dan Gillmor asks him what it cost him. Bob says he got six law firms offering to represent him pro bono. The cost was in higher server traffic.

: Will Richardson, a teacher, says that in a world where everyone is an editor we need to help teach children how to be editors, how to discern.
Jay: "It's easier to be an audience. Hard to be a public."

: Tom Regan of the Christian Science Monitor: "The interaction between bloggers and journalists is the best thing to happen to journalism in a long, long time... Journalism needs an enema."

: Dave Winer: "A good journalist wants the same things a good blogger wants."

: Jay sums up: "Many of the things that used to define journalism don't anymore. The things that are defining journalism are much more profund; Search for the truth.. Will to change the world.... Individual voice....Journalism is being stripped down to what is essential to it."
The essence of journalism is changing, Jay says.
Jay explains why he blogs: First, no editors. Second: "because journalism isn't going to be the same."
"We're at the flipping point. Journalism increasingingly professionalized... tied to huge media companies..." and separated from the audience.
And there is this new challenge from the people.
Jay says we want the energy, talent, information of citizens to be much more involved in journalism.
It's a great time!

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At Bloggercon
: At Bloggercon. Wifi working. Friends abound. Links follow.

I am behind today because my browser got hijacked by something that goes to ehttp.cc addresses. It's diabolical: I tried to go to Google to look it up but the hijacker took me to a fake Google page that extolls the virtues of hijacking. Evil. But the evilempire, Microsoft, saved me with system restore. So here we go....

: I finally met the other Jarvis (or the real Jarvis met me, the other Jarvis): Critt. Whenever this happens, of course, one asks where the roots are and I've never yet found a Jarvis from our neck of the woods, as we say in our neck of the woods.
And dad crimeny, the Critt Jarvises are from Kentucky and West Virginia and the sorts of Appallachian hollers we're from. I'm sure we're the black sheep of the family.

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