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Blogging at BlogHer

July 29th, 2006

BlogHer conference

Originally uploaded by jdlasica.

I’m at the BlogHer conference for the day, and it’s quite an experience. I’m so totally in the minority… Picture 700 women (and very few men) bouncing around the various sessions – the energy is incredible and the organization of the event is excellent overall. Needless to say, the toilet queues are ridiculous (I suggested to one 50 ft. queue that they just use the men’s room and post a guard).

Sat at a table session in the morning on ’sex and relationships’ which turned out to be a fascinating discussion on anonymity (pros and cons) and managing your online identity. One participant had been moderating internet discussion groups for 15 years and had a very interesting insight on how such discussion on the internet has changed over time (early on, you had to jump through a lot of hoops to participate and the discussions tended to be focused and very deep – today, broader access means shallower discussion).

I’m currently in a very intense session on community assistance, which relates how blog(h)ers are helping with disaster relief. It’s turning into an extraordinary brainstorming about how blogs can support disaster relief and the experiences being related are quite humbling. An unexpectedly strong thread is about the post-stress trauma problem and how bloggers can help with connecting locals with professional groups who can volunteer their time. I just found out that Dina helped with Katrina relief and coordination from India (she said she helped with the outsourcing…). Also discussed was the creation of a BlogHer relief network. Wow.

Entry Filed under: Blogging