Woody Cavenaugh

I'm here, and we're bloggers on blogging. There's over fifty here today, and that happened on only three weeks of planning. I predict in two years we will have a much larger conference. My guess is an east coast blogging conference held somewhere big. Hop to Cone and Hoggard! Lets get Drew Curtis, Matt Drudge, and Glen Reynolds.

The conference is split into three parts, political blogging, the media and blogging, and local community blogging. I have split it up further based on my observations as I wrote them down. What you are reading is my actual notes edited after the fact. I didn't want to forget anything note worthy, but at the same time it might not flow as well as I would like. I will try to keep the tone light to make up for it.


Woody Cavenaugh- "Blogging today is what the barber shop, beauty parlor, and general store was for previous generations." You can quote me on that, just be sure to spell my name right.

Political Blogs
The political bloggers like the blog format because it allows for conversation. Web pages are often as flat as a newspaper ads, or TV ads, with no feedback. The room seems to be split between blogs are the bane of politics, and blogging is the new fresh way politics gets done. These political types can all fear the allowing of comments due to trolls. Ideally you want conversation, but you have to be mindful of the comments should they become illegal, immoral or slanderous. It takes a sharp eye and extra time to make sure some ill wisher doesn't derail your message.
On the other hand, un-ringing the bell still impossible is easier in blogs because people can challenge ideas faster and check facts quickly. As opposed to traditional mass media where one team makes an attacking commercial and weeks later the other team gets to respond with their 30 second spot.

"We gots to get paid."
People like to make money, from writing and others like giving it; those who gave the option for donation were shocked by what was given. Renting the space for the conference and hiring the security guard to watch the door was paid for solely out of blog gotten gains. It's a nice gig if you can get it. I suppose you need a higher readership than ten hits a day though.

"Blog Tech: The Next Generation"
Most bloggers here are using the pen and paper route for the conference. In an auditorium setting I can't blame them; laptop users like Tara Sue Grubb have had to work a little to get comfortable. Most are either holed up at the back tables or have small units that they can prop up on their laps. I am the only tablet user in the room. This might be a good segue into a small review of Microsoft?s handwriting to text feature. Below is an example of how it translated a paragraph of my chicken scratch. I never knew I used so many capital letters when I wrote by hand. Needless to say this series of notes have taken a great deal of editing and wondering, "What in the blazes was I talking about anyway?"

Underdog Politicians Jet bugaboos, but don't
win elections yetis they Still hair a hurtle left
to overlords In my opinion this right Te
The fact That they are underdogs is the first plate.

What I wrote was something like:
Underdog politicians get a boost from blogging but so far haven't won any elections yet. They still have one hurtle left to overcome, in my opinion this simply the fact that they were the underdogs in the first place.

Nice try OneNote, we'll keep practicing. On that note about underdog politicians, it is clear that in most every case we talked about, the blogging underdog went from obscurity to almost winning in an amazingly fast period of time. Now just imagine what would happen to a well known, popular, or incumbent politician who jumped headfirst into the world of blogging. (Let's just keep this a secret from Emperor Bush though.)

MEDIA AND BLOGGING
Is blogging Journalism? Many of the people in this room say yes. I am certain of it. For one thing, Is That Legal.org is a perfect example of how bloggers can be and are journalist. In his example he is a history buff who specializes in WWII Japanese internment in the US. I'll find the link so you can see for your self what can happen.

- Bloggers can be journalist.
- Bloggers could be the bane of a journalist's existence.
- Bloggers can be the inspiration for journalist.

Journalism is a craft, blogging is a tool. This seems to be a major reoccurring theme here today. I can almost quote that line if I knew who here said it first. Hopefully one of the other bloggers will pick up the slack there.

Everything is always on the record. I think that is why I chose to use the clever pseudonym for my blog Woody Cavenaugh. Credit or blame is a knife edge, I'd hate to lose my edge.

Wow we have a blogging journalist from Wilmington here, with The Star-News. Though we are assured this conference is just a bonus visit and not the reason for him coming to town. Maybe next year will be different.

Types of Bloggers I have met today:
There are Political bloggers, activist bloggers, journalistic bloggers, poet bloggers, essayist bloggers, fiction bloggers, humorist bloggers, reviewers, and combinations of all of the above. I guess I am a combination blogger, jack of all blogs, but a master of none. I blog like my life it seems. Good.

Brad Krantz makes the point that bloggers aren't journalist, because journalists have accountability.
Bloggers can say anything without worrying about pissing off their editor and their slaveholders, (The word I wrote was "shareholders" but I am going to go with OneNote on this one.) Bloggers are their own editor, and they (usually) aren't paid to write. Newspaper, write for a broad audience, where they have to please most of the people most of the time. Bloggers write for their personal audience, all ten or twelve of you in my case. You are loved each and every one of you.

THE BLOGGING COMMUNITY:
Local blogs, local subjects, local point of view
"Blogs are the media of last resort." I?d quote the guy who said it, but he never said his name that I heard. Blogs are a way of getting your groups message out when traditional media ignores your tiny voice. The value of blogs is that subculture and counter culture can find each other and share their thoughts together. You speak as loud as your audience is large.

What the heck was I talking about anyway?
Below is what I was writing as the battery gave up the ghost. I do know this much. I got three hours of conference on a single charge on my tablet. The secret is to go in and dim the screen as much as you can and still see. In the auditorium I can turn it all the way down and still see nicely what I am doing. A tip to know and share.
T'
we Been at it for 3 hours or on
Change. I will help it up till the
Battery finally Dies, Than I will go
by merest
Now Thy are talking about Blos rolling
and community, of Local B 1039th, and rd
Battery is about gone,
The Sta of the slow is frog Ras Sit rosters...
I need To put in more Links 07
my A/unroll of people E Lithe To read,
so people who Cite me, can read others I
Lille.

Some 5% 19 a s have multiple blogs.

"The sta of the slow is frog ras sit rosters?"

I couldn't have said it better myself.

Over all I will say that this conference was a huge success. We were finally able to put names to faces or at the very least faces where we only had words before. I have learned some valuable things. First Billy the Blogging Poet, can be credited with pretty much any blog who you don?t know the author, at least until that author comes up and tells you that you?re wrong. Billy, you are an amazingly busy and schizophrenic dude. Congratulations on your very speedy recovery. Ed Cone and David Hoggard, you both did an amazing job pulling this together and I hope next years conference is so big you have to put it into a convention center. Others I have not named: I am terrible with names. I met an amateur astronomer and a punk drummer. They were as different as night and day, but had blogging in common. Tara Sue Grubb almost wasted time interviewing me for her blog (probably to get me back for blogging her blogging my team during the 48 Hour Film Project). I am glad I was able to talk her out of it. The good stuff really was inside. Brad Rich, I hope you can make it next year, I think you would have enjoyed it. To my friends at tp.org: You who are local to Greensboro and blogging missed out on something special. Your loss.