I'll try and make this sound less nerdy than it was but it might be hard. Actually this event felt to me like most web-related events: grass rootsy, full of fervour and passion and self-importance, and lots of beseeching and not a lot of practical advice, but Jennifer and Mark got over it pretty quickly and we went for a drink.
Anyway...300 bloggers and blogger wannabes flocked to the Brooklyn Lyceum to celebrate 'place blogging', citizen journalism and advocacy. There are Brooklyn-based bloggers who are local heroes (atleast in the blogosphere, as the community is known) for raising awareness of local issues, capturing the beauty of the borough through daily photos, opening longtime residents' and newbies' eyes to events, idiosyncrasies and ways to make the most of it.
Jennifer was interviewed for a film shown at the blogfest, when their Henry's in New York blog got referenced on another Brooklyn blog. (Actually 'Another Brooklyn Blog' would be a good name for a blog. BKLYN has more bloggers per capita than anywhere, apparently).
I found the event interesting as a blogger (though from Manhattan, which would probably have been booed if I had made it known) and as a web professional who regularly discusses the idea of blogging with corporate clients (who are wary of it for the most part) and as someone who stumbles across blogs that are just crap and not contributiong anything to the world at all. Estimates put the number of blogs at over 200 million. And the blogfest was mostly about encouraging more people to blog, and to post more often.
An 'old media' (newspaper) writer got up and asked 'where is it all heading?' I think some people don't care where it's heading, they're just happy to have a voice and a free publishing medium and dialogue with their readers. Bloggers meet up with their readers and other bloggers IRL and make friends. Bloggers want to practice their writing (or videomaking or photography) craft. Bloggers want to stay in touch with loved ones en masse, efficiently. Bloggers want to fill a gap that other forms of news and views don't fill. Bloggers want to play around with software.
Anyway...300 bloggers and blogger wannabes flocked to the Brooklyn Lyceum to celebrate 'place blogging', citizen journalism and advocacy. There are Brooklyn-based bloggers who are local heroes (atleast in the blogosphere, as the community is known) for raising awareness of local issues, capturing the beauty of the borough through daily photos, opening longtime residents' and newbies' eyes to events, idiosyncrasies and ways to make the most of it.
Jennifer was interviewed for a film shown at the blogfest, when their Henry's in New York blog got referenced on another Brooklyn blog. (Actually 'Another Brooklyn Blog' would be a good name for a blog. BKLYN has more bloggers per capita than anywhere, apparently).
I found the event interesting as a blogger (though from Manhattan, which would probably have been booed if I had made it known) and as a web professional who regularly discusses the idea of blogging with corporate clients (who are wary of it for the most part) and as someone who stumbles across blogs that are just crap and not contributiong anything to the world at all. Estimates put the number of blogs at over 200 million. And the blogfest was mostly about encouraging more people to blog, and to post more often.
An 'old media' (newspaper) writer got up and asked 'where is it all heading?' I think some people don't care where it's heading, they're just happy to have a voice and a free publishing medium and dialogue with their readers. Bloggers meet up with their readers and other bloggers IRL and make friends. Bloggers want to practice their writing (or videomaking or photography) craft. Bloggers want to stay in touch with loved ones en masse, efficiently. Bloggers want to fill a gap that other forms of news and views don't fill. Bloggers want to play around with software.
Is it like having pen pals? Is it like having a column in a newspaper? I feel like its putting messages in a bottle and throwing them into the sea, sometimes. Mostly its the stuff that would end up in letters (remember those?) or emails to friends and family. Like this.
1 comment:
Is this your "Metablog" entry?
Apropos of metas, I wrote a Metahaiku the other day -
Five syllable start,
Seven syllable middle,
Five syllable end.
- Borisan, Metaforeman.
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