Random thoughts and brain farts from Netroots Nation

State Blog Caucus (0.00 / 0)

I was thrown right into the thick of it on day one. I was still wearing a temporary pass courtesy of a transfered credential from Democrats Work. I was going to lurk in the very well attended "State Blog Caucus" meeting, when it became clear that there was nobody to act as facilitator.

John Edward's internet rock star Tracy Russo shouted a nomination that I chair the thing, and I countered with a nomination for MoveOn.org's Adam Green. Adam shouted a second for Tracy's bad plan, and so I was stuck.

Lucky for me, making it work didn't require someone who had any sense or perspective. It just needed a Stateblog groupie, and I am one of that emerging breed.

I know and admire the work that Goldy has been doing in Washington including his incredible rapid response that allowed us to help Darcy Burner after her house fire.

I read Michigan Liberal. I know the editor of the Florida Progressive Coalition Blog when I see him in a hallway. I have a top ten list of trivia at my fingertips about Ali Savino (pictured here because you would rather look at her than me or Adam Green.)

It was a fantastic and selfish new version of liveblogging. I had my favorite state level bloggers in one place and I could click on them, hear their stories and then tap on the raised-hand-hyperlinks to hear the comments of a room full of experts.

We spoke about the interface between the state blogs and the national, the blogs and the other media, and the blogs and the party.

There were two things I really took away from the meeting. One was the idea that when we link to a national blog, we send them a 'customer' that is going to stick around and talk about those national issues. When a national blog links to us, we get a big spike in traffic, but it doesn't stick. They came for a particular story or picture, not because they have a general interest in Colorado politics. The State blogs recruit for the national. Therefor it is ultimately in their own interest for the national blogs to find ways to support our projects.

The second was an interesting funding model that is helping the sustainability of a blog on the West Coast. The blog was started in the offices of a social justice organization that brought suit against abusers and rolled the proceeds back into widening their operations. One of the logjams they faced was push-back from a biased and oppositional newspaper. They needed someone out there to debunk the disinformation of the newspaper, so they understood the value in looking to the internet.

Blogs keeping the media accountable is nothing new, but I was encouraged that an organization that wanted to advance the conversation in a specific way, could see the value in supporting the more general efforts of the progressive netroots.

A state blog will never be sustained on the tiny amount of money that comes in from blog ads, and really a tangent and a drain from the real work of the blog. If a group wants to sell something to the audience, then great, we should use that, but what would be really powerful if organizations were more aware that hanging something off the side of the community is not where the real value is for them. Having the community there is a victory for them. They should not worry about a single day's content or message. Cultivate the community, and you win.

I found a way to make a living and blog, but it would be insane to make everyone who wanted a voice to have to live the way I have online and offline to make it possible. What we need to build self-sustaining communities, so that everyone can bring what time and effort they can to them without re-arranging their entire lives to do it.

The Party has an interest in seeing that work. The national blogs have an interest in making that work. Progressive organizations have an interest in making that work. Colorado is leading the nation in supporting valid new journalism like Coloardo Independent, and watch dogs on the old media like Media Matters Colorado. I would love to see Colorado lead the way in supporting the presence and sustainability of state level blog communities. The option might be to see these greenhouses of the grassroots shut down.

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by: Aaron Silverstein @ Fri Jul 18, 2008 at 11:55:14 AM CDT

can you (0.00 / 0)

repost this as a diary?  great stuff.  And it helps that Ali is wearing a green hat in that photo.  Very cute.

revolution from within

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by: johne @ Fri Jul 18, 2008 at 12:46:01 PM CDT

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