No Runny Eggs

We’re here and live. Started a bit late, but not too bad. The pizza was good. The folks are talking fast, and my laptop isn’t as good at live-blogging than the home machine, so I won’t be as precise. If I bollocks things up, I apologize. This is being recorded in HD for a podcast (tis a mighty small camera).

1:35 pm – Sean starting off not too bad; notes that this one doesn’t have the corporate bloggers. He went through a quick history of publishing, starting with the guy with the stick in the sand, going to the printing press, pamphleteers and Thomas Paine, and now bloggers.

1:37 pm – To panel #1 and politics (Sean – the most-vibrant part of the blogosphere). Jo Englehoff of FoxPolitics.net, out of Appleton; Daniel Suhr of GOP3.com, a bunch of conservative Marquette students, and Michael Mathias of Pundit Nation.

Jo starts off quoting One Wisconsin Now’s mission (paraphrased; they’re doing it for the people of Wisconsin). She only does politics, and pushes her e-mail service. Daniel starts his day by going through his e-mail (haven’t you heard of feed readers?). He blogs because he has candidates to push and oppose. Michael started because he was unemployed (like a lot of ventures). He doesn’t identify as much with party as Daniel, points out he bashed David Obey.

I see Fred found a WiFi connection, and my clone is live-blogging Newt’s and Scott’s taxpayer rally.

Sean lost his mic for a moment, and expresses amazement that the most-active of these three is Daniel (nationally, it’s the left). Michael says the left came into the blogosphere to counter the right (I’d say that’s a fair assessment). He doesn’t know of any liberal cabal. Daniel says that the liberal tilt is because the youth tends to be liberal, says that Ron Paul only won the text-message poll after the FoxNews debate because of the youth. Jo says that conservatism is harder to sell, but we have to do it the way talk radio does.

Sean pushes Jo into a discussion about the left using blogs like they use unions. Elements of the blogosphere is much like the bulletin boards of old. Daniel says the liberal blogospere eats its own like unions used to, brings up Kos. Michael says that Bush is regretting us on the right opposing him on amnesty, brings up the corporate card.

Question from the audience – How do you know there are more liberal blogs than conservative blogs? – Daniel – There was a Washington Post story 6 months ago that said that, and in one measure, there was only 1 conservative blog among the top 25 (it wasn’t TTLB). Jo – The word in the Pubbie circles is that they need to catch up. They went too fast, but YouTube came up, and the Dems had a 3-1 hit lead (and if it weren’t for Romney, it would be worse).

Follow-up – Where did the Rove e-mail server go? – Michael – Dunno, but we’re at the start of it. He’s surprised the Pubbies feel they’re behind here because they’ve been ahead in so many areas.

Another – Do you really think there is an organized movement on either side, or is it just individuals? – Jo – On the conservative side, it’s individuals. On the liberal side, it’s organized. Daniel – The “corporate” side needs to feed the individuals more. Michael – We’re just starting with this. Claims if the left side were organized, we would have Justice Clifford (dunno about that one). It’s a mixed bag.

Question – Isn’t a politician’s blog different? – Daniel – I don’t go through the main part of the site because it is static, but I go to the blog (brings up Romney’s).

Sean tries to steer it local. Michael – It could help coalesce (sp) it. Campaigns always appropriate new technology. Whether it changed the ground game, it’s a mixed bag.

Elliot is complaining there isn’t wireless here (he, Owen and I have the 3 wired connections and unlike the WisPolitics summit, they work). Welcome Boots and Sabers readers.

Daniel – It helps micro-target. That’s Ken Mehlman’s (former RNC chair) legacy. Jo gets into hyperlocal, goes into a Fox Valley community where the citizens are trying to implement tax limits locally. Daniel again – It can be easier to run if you have your neighbors’ e-mail addresses. Michael – Brings up the plastic handcuffs at MPS issue.

Another question I missed about hyperlocal. Sorry about that. Gist was the politicos have to look professional, while we wee little blogs don’t. Daniel says that we can be synergistic with campaigns. The campaigns will more-likely get a blog or two to pick up a press release than media, and the stuff that would otherwise stay under the radar would get traction. Jo questions whether that can kill authenticity. Daniel says that it could, but if one puts one’s own spin on it, it will work.

Tom McMahon asks if we just preach to the choir. Michael – I read across the spectrum, but I’m the exception. People tend to go to blogs to have their points validated, but there are some good discussions in the comments. Praises Owen for his interaction with FairWisconsin on the marriage amendment last year, and James Wigderson for having a lively discussion. Jo – We’re all great examples of that (bwahahahaha!!!)

Break 1, and I think we’re on time at 2:15. Owen found the goodie bags.

Onto the “Beyond Politics, Beyond Milwaukee” panel at 2:25 With Jason and Kim Kotecki of Kim and Jason, Mike Rohde of Rohdesign, and Pete Prodehl of Rasterweb. To Jason – Why do you blog? Started in 2002 for design, moved to speaking (missing too much, so don’t take it for the sole truth). To Kim – It’s basically a Barnes and Noble thing on lifestyle, stress and “fluff” (my term, not hers). Mike – I started to experiment because it was new. I talk about sketches and how I get to designs, and I am surprised that people find it interesting (familiar story). To Pete (who started in 1997) – It’s a creative outlet. I used to do ‘zines in the ’80s.

Sean asks Pete how he got started. Pete goes into the history. Back in the day (1997-1998), it was a techie-only thing, then Blogger came along about 1999. In the early days, one could read everything over lunch.

Sean reads off the top 10 blogs (dunno his source), and only 2 are political (HuffPo and Kos). He asks why the politicos get all the attention. Pete – It’s what you’re passionate about. Mike – Political blogs are easy to categorize, personal blogs are harder. It’s easier for the media to deal with political blogs. Jason – Most of the top ones are those that focus on new tech. One of the good things about the blogosphere is you don’t need to have a huge sphere.

Triticale brings up that the spheres can mix. Jason says that he always gets advice to go look in the sections at the bookstore you never go to. Someone in the audience advocates randoblog. Jason again – Life is a perpetual beta.

Jo (now in the audience) asks whether the panel members can synergize blogging and work. Mike – Brings up a customer that wanted him to post the entire process of creating a logo. He got a lot of business inquiries. Kim – We did a 40-day experiment (that wasn’t so successful personally) that turned into a marketing boomlet.

Sean tosses out the community aspect of blogging. Pete – I forged a lot of relationships through blogging. Mike – Pretty much the same. There’s the worldwide aspect and the local aspect. There’s the online half and personal half. Jason – Echo that.

Sean asks whether the blog is the job. Kim – Yep, because the online store is big and successful enough, and we’ve managed to make it an umbrella between the blog, the speaking engagement portion, and the store. Mike – I don’t do it as much for the money, though I do have a few Google ads. It’s an aside to the business, and the blog brings people to the business side. Jason – Use the blog to enhance your business status. Kim – Among the peers, if you don’t have a web presence, you don’t exist. We’re so instant-gratification. Pete – There was a time when there wasn’t ads (there still aren’t here, though the TownHall version does have ads that they get without giving me a cut). My goal isn’t to make money, but it helps with the hosting costs (well, I pay $7/month, and I don’t care).

Somebody asks Pete about him putting his phone number out there. Pete says he doesn’t get too much in the way of calls. Mike doesn’t have his phone number out there, but he does have e-mail out there. Kim – I get phone calls that ask, “Are you THE Kim?”

To the Kim and Jason comic strip. Jason – It started as a way to win Kim’s heart (from the audience, hope it works; Jason, I’m married to her). The whole site started with the comic, and the site ballooned from there. Kim does relate a weird call she got (’tis why I don’t have a phone number here). Pete – I’m a nobody. Some have to deal with the fans. Sean – That sounds like the dark side of the community. Jason – You can’t be worried about stuff all the time. At first, they felt weird when they didn’t get questions at parties, then they realized their comic gives everybody much about them, so much that they tell their parents to read the blog/comic if they don’t hear for 3 weeks. Pete – How to you view the commenters? – There’s the fine line of fans of the strip, podcast and TV show.

From the audience – there isn’t a word that describes those I get to know online. Mike – We don’t know exactly how to deal with this. He feels responsible if he makes somebody an online friend and it goes bad.

Time to leave Milwaukee. Kim and Jason are from Madison, so Sean asks if they’re part of the blog scene there. Jason – Not really. There was something they wanted to do but they were out of town. Mike has done stuff before blogging (IRC, e-mail lists; those were the days), so he’s not as much hooked into local. Jason – It can’t hurt things if you can talk globally.

Break #2 at 3:06 (lost the program, so dunno if we’re on-time). Time for Owen to create some room for me (one bad thing; these are standard chairs with no tables or desks).

Last panel, and most of the people have bailed, at 3:20. Figures because it is on “The Significance of Blogging”. In the house are James T. Harris of The National Conversation and Owen. Missing is Cory Liebmann of One Wisconsin Now because he’s been ill all week. Get well soon, Cory. First question from Sean – Why is the left so much more popular? (would’ve been a good question for Cory). Owen – Wish I knew. Demographics. James – Agree. When I first started blogging, I didn’t know what was out there. The youth (mostly lefties) are technologically-savvy. This will be a left-dominated avenue for a long time.

Sean questions whether it’s the fact that we have a Pubbie President and talk radio and media that isn’t Communist that the left came out. James questions whether a rise of the left will bring out the right. Sean – Is the right behind in using the Web for politics? Owen – Yes. Brings out the fact that Pubbies aren’t conservative lately, and bloggers are contrarians. James – Notes the politicians think the blogs are having too much influence. Conservative politicans will move to the bloggers, the rest of the Pubbies will be left behind. He wonders if Fred Thompson will use the blogosphere different than the rest of the field. Sean – What is he doing different? – The montage of the first debate got no coverage because Fred had his response to Michael Moore and that got traction. Owen – Fred is going around the MSM much like Reagan.

Continuing with Fred, an audience member brought up the draftfredthompson site. James – He’s not Reagan. He can stay out of the debates, and frighteningly be effective with 45-second stuff. Sean – Is it good? Owen – All the candidates are so investigated, we know whether they wear boxers or briefs.

Q from Michael – What is the right side doing that the left isn’t (or is it the reverse?) James – It’s a numbers game, and the Dem politicians are listening more to the lib bloggers than the Pubbies are listening to the conservatives.

Missing more of the discussion, but Owen brings up that conservatives are more individualists, saying their piece and moving on. James – the left side is more organized.

Another “Q” – Moveon.org is effective because they also raise boku money. James – Agree, and I don’t know if I want to see that kind of effort on the conservative side. When conservatives march, there’s something definitely wrong. It’s something that happens once every decade. Owen – Soros’ outfit was organized before the blogosphere happened.

Jo – Questions whether the right side should follow through more often. James – There are key words: change, follow-through. They’re the youth mentality. I’m not out to change the world. I want to get people to talk about things (specifically in Sherman Park), but I’m not someone to spearhead.

John Washburn – You can change the world or change your world.

Elliot – Brings out the expanded community, even though I usually stick with politics. Don’t talk about politics, but explain your blogging. Owen – You’ve expanded it past blogging to the Internet as a whole. It’s a good thing to converse with people around the world and make a jackass of myself and not have anybody be able to anything about it. (missing more article).

Cantakerous – Charlie’s just as apt to read a blog post as the Washington Post. How does that change you? Owen – I did get a public presence, but I still have a private side (not a good approximation). James – When I started, I just was popping off. Then somebody (Owen?) twigged on me and I got challenged to write every day. Then Charlie gave me the Wisconsin-Famous Sykes Spike™. It’s changed things, I’m having the ride of my life. It pretty much just happened. Owen – Goes back to the safety issue that was brought up earlier. I don’t tell you when I’m gone. There’s things about me you don’t want to know. James – If I think about it, I’m going to blog about it.

Audience – Would you attribute what happened to Ament to the blogosphere? Owen – Not much because the blogosphere wasn’t too much around in 2002. Charlie had his show in 2004, and the 6 in the studio were most of the Milwaukee blogosphere at the time. The Cheddarsphere is one of the best-developed state-area blogospheres.

Sean – Where did you get the idea for the tax pledge? Owen – I was sitting back and seeing the Legislature working on the budget. It isn’t election season, and it’s budget season, so it’s now time to find out where they are. James – I remembered where I made an impact, on the McGee recall failure. The Commander misattributed that to Charlie, and I figured out I crossed the rubicon. I found a number of other of conservative blacks.

Michael – Back to my question, the right side of the Cheddarsphere has the media echo chamber that the lefties don’t. Owen – I wish Cory were here. Talk radio is a right-wing medium because left-wing talk radio sucks. Brings up OWN’s opposition research on Ziegler, which eventually was picked up by the pressitutes (without credit). We’re not all that effective because those RINOs in Madistan are waffling on “fees”. Both sides lose most of the battles. James – My family is starting to listen to Charlie when I’m on. Stacy (our WTMJ host) – If there were money to be made in left-wing radio, we’d have it. Salesman from WKTI – Brings up the question of why businesses would advertise on a station where it gets bashed continually. Michael’s still pushing. Owen – You can argue the MSM is “moderate”, but not “conserative”. You, as a Communist or whatever the hell you are, see the Journtinel as conservative. I see them as Pravda. Elliot – They do a good job of finding national conservative voices, but P-Mac is a token local. Owen – The blogosphere plays well in radio, not as well in the rest of the MSM. Newspaper-types feel very threatened by the blogosphere as a medium because we’re not “trained”. (missing more of the conversation). James – I don’t complain about all the lefty outlets because I found something I can like.

Somewhere before this time, we lost the backdrop, which went first to “this computer is locked”, then to a screensaver (they’re behind this laptop as they run XP Pro).

We ran over, but James, Owen and the audience were rolling. We’re off to drinking. Later (wonder if Fred’s drinking).