I heard, from one of my friend bloggers, that some people's take on the conference was a bit more cynical than mine. Basically, the opinion went, it was a recruiting conference for CNN and other news sources so that they could have free blog content from non-professional writers who would write without charging union fees.
"They certainly weren't recruiting from the panels I attended," I said. After all, I went to the more ghettoized panels, and thoroughly enjoyed myself.
It occurs to me that even if the money people and the mainstream media imagine that blogging's future as a money-maker will be along the lines of journalism, there is also a certain democratization in the genre itself, in the fact that self-publishing on a blog is instant and accessible to a broad demographic. Yeah, maybe those small blogs don't get the hit count or mainstream media attention, but they do have an audience. This blog, for instance, gets between 200-250 hits a day, and I rarely print anything except the content of my own brain. Outside world? Who cares?
I'm more interested in the "other" folks with blogs like mine, a Writer-Theoretical-Mother-Iconoclastic-Feminist-Humorous blog.
Sounds like there were quite a few conferences going on under one roof, since no one has really nailed down the genre as yet. I wonder what a "male" blogging conference looks like? Probably has a lot more people running around worrying about hit count, wouldn't you think? Or paranoid about people stealing content. Hierarchical questions.
It would definitely be all that. After all, two guys can never get together without comparing the size of their dicks.
But chances are good that it would also include several sub-conferences, like yours apparently did, that go unreported in the mainstream, where Keith and Zeller exchange ideas on how to convey powerful imagery that moves audiences and c.jodi plots ways to improve the world.
'Mouse, as always, would be on the fringes lying to himself about all the time and energy he saves by claiming he's not really there/here.
Posted by: 'mouse | August 01, 2005 at 06:10 AM
Yes, I would love to meet with Zellar.
"Did you bring your Toe Elf?" I'd ask.
"No, he's seasonal," Zellar would say.
"Yea, same with Headless Lawn Man," I'd lie, hoping Zellar hadn't already noticed the small bulge in my shirt pocket.
Posted by: Keith | August 01, 2005 at 09:05 AM
Yes, I would love to meet with Zellar.
"Did you bring your Toe Elf?" I'd ask.
"No, he's seasonal," Zellar would say.
"Yea, same with Headless Lawn Man," I'd lie, hoping Zellar hadn't already noticed the small bulge in my shirt pocket.
Posted by: Keith | August 01, 2005 at 09:07 AM
And then it would happen again! Endless recursion! You should never meet, or the universe will repeat itself to infinity. Heh.
Posted by: Jo | August 01, 2005 at 09:26 AM
The universe is set to repeat to infinity! Apparently we've already met.
Damn it. I knew I'd forget.
I wonder what mythological being I am. I know, for instance, that my brain was built entirely of leftover tendons following the creation of Achilles. But the rest of me is a complete mystery.
Posted by: Keith | August 01, 2005 at 09:47 AM
The universe is set to repeat to infinity! Apparently we've alre....
Stop it!
Posted by: Keith | August 01, 2005 at 09:48 AM