Sean Got His Way

Join us at the Citizen Blogging Summit!

This event is being put on by WTMJ because they - like us - were sick of listening to Sean Hackbarth at The American Mind bitch about WisPolitics’ blog events.  OK, I’m kidding… a little… but Sean is one of the organizers and will be participating in moderating the discussion. 

The good news is that it is free, includes lunch, and should be a fun time.  The organizers wanted to put together a forum in which true citizen bloggers made up the entire discussion.  Yes, this will limit some draw because there aren’t any “big names” to draw people, but it should be very enjoyable for people who love this medium.  There’s even an entire panel made up of non-political bloggers to appease Scott.  I’m looking forward to it. 

There has been some criticism leveled at this summit.  The first criticism is that it’s in the middle of a weekday and that it is on relatively short notice.  This makes it harder for people to attend because we have jobs.  That’s a fair criticism.  I suspect that the reason for it being during the day is because it is being held in a studio and will be recorded.  My guess is that WTMJ didn’t want to pay their technicians and other employees overtime to work the event.  As for the short notice… I don’t have an explanation.  I wish we would have known about it for at least a month to give everyone time to get off work if they choose. 

The second criticism is that there are too few liberals.  There are six political bloggers on panels.  Of those, two of them are liberals and the rest are conservative to libertarian.  I think that this criticism misses the point.  If the panels were discussing the news of the day, then the ideologies of the panelists would matter much more.  But the topics are about blogging and bloggers’ experiences with the medium.  The summit is about blogging as a medium. 

From this angle, it matters little whether or not the panelists are Lefties or Righties.  What matters more is that the panelists have been actively engaged in blogging.  From that point of view, I think the panelists are all good choices.  There is a wide spread of perspectives from people who became bloggers at different times in their lives for different reasons and with different goals.  This mix of people should offer some good insights into the development, impact, and future of the medium.  

In any case, I’m looking forward to the event and hope to see you all there.  Keep in mind that since it’s in a studio, seating is limited.  Be sure to register in advance.