I confess I am a bit envious of those that were able to attend the blogging conference in Toronto this past week.
Exploring Fusion Power of Public and Participatory Journalism
Some of us just blog.
We don’t think much about the technology that enables us, the social networks that form, or the potential impact on other mediums.
As weblogging grew, it moved beyond the realm of the technican - as the tools became easier to use, the voices added moved well beyond the mechanics and into what the medium has been designed for.
I might have been a bit out of place, I don’t have a laptop, I don’t care much for the technical, so I’m not quite a geek.
But as I read some of the topics that were explored and some of the posts I feel that bit of envy. I’ve never gotten the blog verus big media mentality. It’s isn’t a competition or an either/or sort of thing as some participants noted.
I like what Rebecca McKinnon pulled out.

I think David Weinberger made a very good point that blogging as a medium will really have come into its own when you don’t need to accredit bloggers for such events, because the actual participants will be blogging the events themselves. I also agree with quite a number of people who have pointed out that the strength of blogs lies not in competing with mainstream journalists - but in the airing of things not found in the mainstream media for whatever reason. The strength of blogs lies in building an “information community” around an issue, place, personality, or set of opinions. People should stop framing the discussion of blogs as an issue of “blogs vs. big news media.” It’s a completely false issue. The two are mutually complementary. Journalists read the blogs for story ideas and tips. Bloggers depend on the work of mainstream media journalists or they’d have very little material to discuss. It’s a win-win. Let’s stop talking as if this were a zero-sum game. It’s simply not.

I haven’t followed blog conferences all that closely because they are far from where I live and way to expensive to get too. I’m interested in more than the ‘compete with media debate’ and internationality was part of the discussion in Toronto. Jeff Jarvis, blogging/media guru makes a few salient points.

1. Promotion. Hoder says it is important to get prominent people, like journalists, blogging in these countries to bring attention to it. He wants to set up an award for Iranian blogs — not for the best blog but for the best post, which is appropriate to the medium. We talked about the need to creat a blog news service that would translate and reblog notable posts from around the world: Hey, big news guys, here are the stories you’re missing but here’s a link to where you can get them. And hey, powerful politicians, here is what the people are reporting in your country. And hey, readers around the world, here’s a new perspective on a country you’re not seeing in the paper or on TV — either because it’s not coverered or it’s covered from a high-altitude and not from a human level.

2. Tools. We need to get tools and instruction translated into Arabic and other local languages. They need to be the appropriate tools — so, for example, bloggers can post via email when they can’t get Web access. For blogging to take off in a country, it has to be done in the native language. Efforts are underway.

3. Hosting. If rich folks want to help the cause of free speech and understanding, providing free and anonymous hosting that’s not under the control of repressive governments will help.

I’m not Cool
Leighton Tebay of The Heresy has written about not being cool.
I’ve met LT, and I think I can agree on his self assessment of being uncool.
But, I also think that he may not understand that some of us have very different definitions of cool that aren’t defined by advertising, media, peer groups and pop culture. And under my standards of cool, LT rocks.

It’s been a busy week. Time to walk away from the computer and get caught up on some reading for the sheer pleasure of it.
I want to finish Carl Hiassen’s Skinny Dip and James lee Burke’s Jolie Blon’s Bounce before their due date. Christianity Today has an interview with Burke that is consistent with his writing. Later, blog on!