Blogcabin California

Yesterday, the mostly-Californian, mostly-Conservative Bear Flag League of Bloggers met in Pasadena to discuss blogging and politics. Although the event lasted longer than a Harry Potter movie, you hardly noticed it–and as an organizer, to me that’s a smashing success. I am glad others, including our speakers agreed.

Here is a roundup of some of the more important gems of information and opinion I think people got out of the event.

• Build your source network. As a journalist, SacBee Columnist Dan Weintraub has successfully used his blog to build his source network of experts he would otherwise not know as a journalist. For the bloggers, it is important to build our own source network–of publications, experts and official documents. One suggestion was to get on the email list for press releases from elected officials or campaigns. Being technophiles, some in the room are already thinking of how to take that to the next step.
• Craigslist will kill the newspaper. As a journalist, Dan Weintraub is not high on his industry. Nearly 40% of newspaper revenue comes from classified advertizing. What happens when people realize they can do that for free online?
• Wiki me this. Collectively, blogs form what amounts to a wiki netowrk–where interested individuals from all corners give their input and engage in a discussion. That, of course is a best case scenario, but both Weintraub and former California Speaker Bob Hertzberg have made it work.
• Could blogs replace political parties? Bother Hertzberg and Allan Hoffenblum commented that weblogs may become a more efficient way to organize and target voters than the traditional political party structures. IMHO, this is as likely as blogs replacing newspapers…both will probably co-exist, not always peacefully, but campaigns will start to pay more attention to targeting audiences of influential opinion leaders through the internets.
• Blogs influence opinion leaders. Because of their speed and immediacy, weblogs have an advantage over other forms of communication. Candidates can get their message out quickly and unfiltered if they are tied in with a network of bloggers. Opinion leaders then turn to the blogs for information. Hertzberg mentioned that he emailed out his BoiFromTroy endorsement to fundraisers while Hoffenblum said that he reads several BFL blogs before going on KCAL Channel 9 for his Tuesday-Thursday debates with Kerman Maddox.
• Campaigns should make their content blog-friendly. If you are running a political campaign, it might be wise to consider the limitations blogs have in putting together their content. Most sites cannot take pictures wider than 400 pixels wide…so why not make content that can be cut and pasted–or even hot-linked–onto blogs easily? And don’t change URLs on press releases, source documents, etc. But if you must, let the bloggers who have linked to you know!

I want to thank the Bear Flag League for having me and for turning out in such great numbers.