BlogNashville:

Return to BlogNashville, June 07, 2005
I have - finally - gotten around to downloading and editing and posting a selection of photos from the BlogNashville conference. [Hey ... it was only a month ago!]. They're all posted in the extended-entry portion of this post. All images are approximately double in size if if right-clicked for downloading to your PC available, and hi-res versions are available if you need one....

Blogging the Blogging Revolution, May 31, 2005
The WSJ has a story today on the growing number of corporations that are hiring bloggers. ITWorld.com, meanwhile, reports that podcasting is emerging as "an ebusiness tool" as "commercial web sites are already using podcasting in dozens of ways, ranging from sponsored podcasts, podcast 'edutainment', corporate communications and as a promotional tool." And E-Commerce News today says, "Blogging has arrived as a force on the Internet, not only for political discourse and personal ramblings but...

"It's a Web site.", May 22, 2005
Michael Silence has some thoughts about blogging in a perspective piece in the Sunday Knoxville News Sentinel reflecting on the recent BlogNashville conference.Blog is a contraction for "Web log," an online diary with emphasis on immediacy, commentary and reader interaction. More concise, as Franklin, Tenn., blogger Bill Hobbs (www.billhobbs.com) said at the conference, "It's a Web site." In Tennessee, there are some excellent examples of blogs. In addition to Hobbs, there's South Knox Bubba, www.southknoxbubba.net/skblog/;...

Making Money With Blogs, May 18, 2005
Nashville City Paper has a piece on making money with blogs, based on interviews the reporter did with attendees at the recent BlogNashville conference. Best quote:"Blog for the love of it," said Todd Anderson, who, since 1999, has written and published a variety of pop-culture oriented material. "Any creative venture worth its salt is done just for the love of the work, not the monetary payoff," he said. "I love writing so much that I’m...

John Jay Hooker, May 12, 2005
Henry Copeland of BlogAds has some comments on the BlogNashville conference, before and after. If you're from Tennessee and know the name John Jay Hooker, especially don't miss the 'after' post....

Blog Ads, May 12, 2005
If you are interested in advertising at BillHobbs.com, please continue reading......

The Scene Does BlogNashville, May 11, 2005
The Nashville Scene's cover story on the BlogNashville conference is now online, and it's a good read. Writer Brittney Gilbert - a freelance writer and blogger who recently was hired by WKRN to run their new blog Nashville Is Talking, skips trying to capture the conference in all its complexity and diversity of content and instead uses the very self-reflxive nature of the conference - bloggers blogging about bloggers and blogging - to explore whether...

Seven Ideas, May 11, 2005
Mark Glaser at Online Journalism Review has Seven Big Ideas (and one pet peeve) from BlogNashville. Good stuff....

BlogNashville Blogged, May 11, 2005
Patrix at Nerve Endings Firing Away has several good blog posts about BlogNashville, including wrap-ups of each of the sessions he attended. Start here and then click forward through each of the next several entries....

Would You Like Some Cheese With That, Dave?, May 10, 2005
Has anyone ever had a more apt last name than Dave Winer? No. For me, the moment that encapsulated all of the thin-skinned arrogance and self-absorbed passive-aggression of Dave Winer was the moment he, at the end of his session at BlogNashville, slumped his doughy self to his chair and muttered, "I just want Republicans to stop calling me stupid." As if no Democrat has ever aimed that hateful, harmful, life-damaging epithet (or worse) at...

BlogNashville Reaction, May 09, 2005
Adam Groves comments on BlogNashville. So does Paul Chaney....

After BlogNashville, May 09, 2005
Looking for what people have to say about BlogNashville? From live-blogging the sessions, to commenting on the discussions, to pictures taken at and after the event, go to Technorati.com and put "BlogNashville" in the search box. I did it just a few moments ago and came across a thought-provoking post from Adam Shostack, which lead me to another thought-provoking post from Michael Kelley. Er, and I also found a picture of me, at Tim Morgan's...

CARR, May 09, 2005
Kevin Barbieux has a picture of the bloggers and others who took the CARR training at BlogNashville last week. The future impact of training a handful of citizen journalists (as well as a few academics and a local television investigative reporter) in sophisticated journalistic techniques is, of course, unknowable now - but I suspect it will be large....

Blogging is Freedom, May 08, 2005
This story out of Kabul sort of puts the just-concluded BlogNashville conference in perspective....

Blogging BlogNashville, May 07, 2005
Michael Silence of the Knoxville News Sentinel is blogging from BlogNashville.I attended the session on blogging and journalism with Glenn Reynolds, Bill Hobbs and others. ... What I was most impressed with about the session was the absense of any Old Media versus New Media mentality. Instead, the tone throughout was working together to inform people well and give them more freedom in access to information.That's the way I view blogging and journalism. Radio didn't...

BlogNashville News Coverage, May 07, 2005
The Associated Press has a story on BlogNashville. Check it out here at the Editor & Publisher website or via this Google News search - it has run in print or online at more than 100 newspaper and media outlets including Business Week, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, San Jose Mercury News, Kansas City Star, Orlanda Sentinel, Baltimore Sun, the South Africa's Independent Online, and numerous smaller papers. By the...

BlogNashville Update, May 06, 2005
Had a great time on the panel discussion at BlogNashville re blogging and its relationship to journalism. Also on the panel: Linda Seebach of the Rocky Mountain News, which has launched an impressive new citizen's journalism project called YourHub.com, Glenn Reynolds, J.D. Lasica, myself and Liz Garrigan, editor of the Nashville Scene. Garrigan had to leave halfway through the panel, and was replaced by Terry Heaton. And a good time was had by all. Oh,...

BlogNashville Weather Report, May 06, 2005
It's picture-perfect typical Nashville spring weather for BlogNashville weekend. Brought to you by WKRN....

BlogNashville Food Report, May 06, 2005
Had a good time at the impromptu blogger dinner tonight at Sole Mio. Among those there: Matt Sheffield (RatherBiased.com), Tom Biro (The Media Drop), Mark Glaser (Online Journalism Review), Mark Tapscott (The Heritage Foundation, Doug Petch (DougPetch.com) and Tapscott's Copy Desk), Linda Seebach (Rocky Mountain News), Blake Wylie (NashvilleFiles, Rex Hammock (RexBlog, Bob Cox (The National Debate and the Media Bloggers Association, and Ian Schwartz (The Political Teen). There were others, but I'm lousy with...

BlogNashville Meet 'n' Greet, May 05, 2005
There are a number of my readers who have indicated they'd like to meet in person during BlogNashville. I think lunchtime Saturday may be a great time for folks to get together. There are several lunch options, ranging from the school cafeteria (decent, cheap, fast) to Bongo Java across the street (excellent, not-as-cheap, might be crowded) to the Curb Cafe (lousy pizza, average tacos and burgers, fast, cheap). I'd be glad to designate a place...

BlogNashville, May 05, 2005
BlogNashville is under way with CARR training for a handful of folks ranging from WKRN's new investigative reporter to blogger Blake Wylie to Kevin Barbieux, a/k/a/ The Blogger Formerly Known As The Homeless Guy. The CARR training is taking place at The Freedom Forum, which now and forever has the honor of making a bit of journalism history today by hosting the first-ever CARR training for bloggers....

BlogNashville Scene , May 05, 2005
This week's Nashville Scene had some nice words about BlogNashville....

Pajamas Media, May 05, 2005
The blogosphere is abuzz with talk of Roger L. Simon's new project, called Pajamas Media, which aims to be both an ad-supported blog network and a blog-powered global news service. Here's a story in the New York Sun that's chock-full of interesting details....

A Q&A With the Instapundit, May 02, 2005
Today's Nashville City Paper has a very nicely done Q&A with Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit.com, in advance of the May 5-7 BlogNashville conference....

Sometimes, May 01, 2005
Dana Blankenhorn on the question of whether blogging is journalism:To say that a blog is any one thing is to misunderstand what a blog is. A blog is instant publishing. A blog lets anyone post any type of digital file - text, pictures, sound, video - simply, attractively, without having to know HTML. To say a blog is journalism is like saying web pages are journalism. Journalism can happen on Web pages, and on blogs,...

Off The Sidelines, April 29, 2005
Sidelines, the student newspaper at Middle Tennessee State University, has an excellent advance story today on the BlogNashville conference. The site requires registration, but it's free. The story mentions that a member of the journalism faculty at MTSU, digital media professor Jennifer Bailey Woodard, is attending the conference and that she hopes to learn more about blogging that would help her incorporate blogs and blogging into the journalism curriculum.Woodard says she hopes to gather information...

The Future of News, April 26, 2005
What's the future of news? Via a link on Rexblog, I learn that it is "mobile, immediate, visual, interactive, participatory and trusted." In fact, says a new briefing from the Media Center at the American Press Institute, "Make way for a generation of storytellers who totally get it."...

Memo to the Media: Don't Miss This, April 25, 2005
The upcoming BlogNashville conference May 5-7 will feature a panel discussion on the evening of Friday, May 6, on the role of blogs in journalism, and the relationship between the two, including a Friday night panel discussion, 7-8:30 p.m. in the Massey Performing Arts Center, that is free and open to BlogNashville registrants, the news and public relations media and the general public....

This Makes Three, April 25, 2005
Mr. Roboto: I am shocked that Mr. Hobbs typed the words "Mr. Roboto." Ever. It's in the comments - scroll down....

Meet the Press, April 24, 2005
The Tennessean advances a special event this week, a free forum at which public and press can meet to discuss issues of media balance and bias."The News We Need: Finding Balance in an Age of Spin" is Thursday at Fondren Hall in the Scarritt-Bennett Center on 19th Avenue South. Nashville is one of eight cities hosting the forums, which are sponsored by Preview Forum, an initiative funded by the Ford Foundation. "Primarily, the purpose is...

The Future of News, April 23, 2005
Yesterday's must-read article on blogging came from Business Week and focused on blogging's impact on the business world. Today's must-read article on blogging comes from The Economist and it looks at the impact of blogging and other what I call "conversational media" on traditional journalism. It's called "Yesterday's Papers." Here is an excerpt, though you really ought to read the whole thing......

The Age of Blogging, April 22, 2005
Adam Groves says he's "sure Bill Hobbs is feeling his age and trying to keep up with all the grassroots political reporting that blogs are accomplishing now statewide for different demographics with different biases." Nope. Never felt younger. The truth is I don't see the rise of a robust Tennessee blogosphere as unwanted competition or a threat to my blog's success. On the contrary, a healthy Tennessee blogosphere is a good thing and only enhances...

Business Week: Blogs Will Shake Up Business, April 22, 2005
Business Week has an excellent cover story on blogs. If you are a business executive interested in learning more about blogs and their growing impact on business, feel free to drop me an email - I'm available for consulting work on a limited basis. You could also register for and attend the big BlogNashville conference May 5-7 ....

BlogNashville Reaches Knoxville, April 19, 2005
Today's Knoxville News Sentinel has a big advance report on BlogNashville, the big bloggers conference coming to Nashville May 5-7. The story is by Michael Silence, the most blog-savvy newspaper reporter in Tennessee. Silence's online producer is already scheduled to attend BlogNashville, and Silence is making plans to attend as well. As of now, the only Nashville newspaper reporter or editor who has said he plans to attend is the Nashville City Paper's Don Mooradian....

Blogger Makes Nashville News, April 12, 2005
Blogger Blake Wylie, of NashvilleFiles, gets credit from The Tennessean for leading the charge in opposition to the Nashville police department's plans to install surveillance cameras all over the city. The Tennessean, by the way, appears to be starting to wake up to the blogosphere - although no one from the paper has yet registered to attend BlogNashville - or to cover it - even though it is happening right in the paper's back yard...

BlogNashville Update, April 09, 2005
Registration is now open for the two-day workshop on Computer-Aided Research and Reporting during the BlogNashville conference May 5-7 . This two-day investigative journalism "boot camp" (May 5-6) is offered in partnership with The Heritage Foundation's Center for Media and Public Policy and the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, and will take place at The Freedom Forum's First Amendment Center offices . Registration is limited to 15 people. Click here for details. Also, Rex...

A Documentary on the Blogosphere, April 08, 2005
A documentary film crew is coming to the BlogNashville conference, May 5-7 .If you aren't already registered, you should hurry - over half of the 300 available slots are already taken....

MBA Nominated for "Freedom of Expression" Award, April 06, 2005
The new Media Bloggers Association, of which I am a member, has been nominated for a Freedom of Expression award by Reporters Without Borders. MBA founder Robert Cox emails:Some of the work done by the MBA to merit this nomination are known while others are not known except to a few including Julien at RSF who put the MBA in for nomination. Known efforts include the Tsunami Video Hosting Initiative and the Legal Defense Initiative...

How A Blog Swarm Stopped the FEC's Evil Plan, April 01, 2005
Don't miss the National Journal's comprehensive report on how the blogosphere beat back a plan by the Federal Election Commission to muzzle free political speech on blogs in the name of "campaign finance reform." Also, sort of related, I blogged about it last night, but it's already way down the page, so I want to again urge you to read Frank Cagle's column in Knoxville's Metro Pulse predicting blogs are going to play a major...

BlogNashville In The News, April 01, 2005
Nashville City Paper previews the BlogNashville conference, thus becoming the first Nashville newspaper to take notice of a major journalistic conference happening right in their own backyard. One of the scheduled speakers at BlogNashville, LaShawn Barber, who will lead the dicussion of "Faith-Based Blogging," recently appeared on MSNBC's blog-based show Connected: Coast To Coast. You can see the video clip here, courtest of blogger Trey Jackson. Barber is a member of the Media Bloggers Association,...

Legislator Blog Flap Postscript, March 30, 2005
I would be remiss if I didn't mention how WKRN handled the story of the Tennessee legislator whose blog has riled the leadership of the state legislature. WKRN is more blog-savvy than the other teevee news operations, and it shows. Not only did the station run the AP story on its website, it ran a sidebar with links to blogosphere reaction to the story, including to my post from this morning. Click the thumbnail to...

Something For You, March 30, 2005
Already, as of Wednesday night, 115 people have registered for the big HUGE BlogNashville conference May 5-7 . All events on Thursday, May 5, and most on Friday, May 6, are for a limited number of members of the Media Bloggers Association, but the events on Friday night and Saturday, May 7, are geared toward larger crowds. Registration is capped at 300 for the Saturday sessions. The Friday night panel discussion about journalism and blogging,...

The First Five Freedoms, March 28, 2005
Today I attended a talk by John Seigenthaler, former longtime editor of Nashville's The Tennessean newspapaper and founder of the First Amendment Center , in which he noted that surveys done by the Center find that only about 1 in 100 Americans can name all five freedoms enshrined in the First Amendment. Can you name them? Try - and then click "read more" for the answers, and for the rest of this blog post. (Please...

BlogNashville Registration Opens, March 28, 2005
The Media Bloggers Association today opens registration for BlogNashville, a three-day blogging conference scheduled for May 5-7, 2005 . BlogNashville will bring together leading bloggers from around the world including Glenn Reynolds, Robin Burk, Brendan Greeley, Rebecca MacKinnon, Hossein Derakhshan, LaShawn Barber, Ed Cone, Henry Copeland, Dan Gillmor, Jay Dedman, Mark Tapscott, J.D. Lasica, and two journalists who actively cover the blogging space, Mark Glaser of Online Journalism Review and Staci Kramer of PaidContent.org. As...

Bloggers Play Role in Tennessee Legislative Ethics Push, March 25, 2005
Today's Tennessean reports that the public is pushing the Tennessee legislature to adopt tougher ethics rules for legislators - and says bloggers are playing a role, too.Republicans and Democrats in the state Capitol appear to have started a race to see who can pass new, thorough ethics rules to better police lawmakers. The House of Representatives unanimously passed legislation yesterday that makes it a crime for members of the General Assembly to receive consulting fees,...

Blogging@Wharton, March 23, 2005
Knowledge@Wharton from the business school at the University of Pennsylvania has just published a story looking at blogs, asking "Blogs are here to stay. Where are they headed?" Here's an excerpt:Recently, blogs have been credited with everything from CBS News anchorman Dan Rather's departure, to unauthorized previews of the latest Apple Computer products, to new transparency in presidential campaigns. The big question is whether blogs, short for weblogs, have the staying power to become more...

Bloggers: Journalistic Dadaists?, March 22, 2005
Are bloggers the Dadaists of journalism? University of Texas journalism sophomore Clint Rainey thinks so.Just like a bicycle wheel atop a white stool in any museum, everyone's talking about it. Robust debate on the future of journalism, now an everyday event in elite media circles, is bringing us to face a professional crossroads: From where did this stool come, and should it stay?Rainey doesn't like blogs, claiming that what they "offer increasingly is an irresponsible,...

Bloggers to Get Journalism Training , March 21, 2005
Here's a major announcement regarding the May 5-7 BlogNashville conference....

"This is Journalism.", March 21, 2005
Patrick Beeson, a graduate student of journalism at the University of Alabama, has an excellent article on the relationship between blogging and journalism, on the website of Quill, the magazine for members of the Society of Professional Journalists. Best quote in the piece:"This is journalism. Raw, unedited, but still journalism," said Jonathan Dube, MSNBC.com managing producer and publisher of Cyberjournalist.net.The question "Is blogging journalism?" is actually a very stupid question. Some is, some isn't. At...

I Got My MBA, March 15, 2005
I am now a member of the Media Bloggers Association, as of today. The MBA is a sponsor of the BlogNashville conference May 5-7 ....

No Substitute For Journalism?, March 08, 2005
Here's yet another attack on blogging by mainstream journalism, this time by University of Maryland journalism professor Christopher Hanson, published in the March 7 Baltimore Sun....

Why Do We Need Blogs?, March 07, 2005
Washington Square News, a student newspaper at New York University, notes that when the MSM writes about blogs, they neither ask nor answer a very key question about blogs: Why do we need them?...What do we need blogs for in the first place? The answer lies in a mainstream media plagued by superficiality, over-polarization of important issues, restrictive selectivity of story coverage and consolidation of outlets. It is notable that in their coverage of blogs,...

News from the Blogosphere, March 06, 2005
Faith-blogging is the subject of this story from the NYT news service, which looks at blogging by Mormons, Muslims and Christians.Christian God-bloggers are planning their first gathering at a GodBlogCon at Biola University in La Mirada, Calif., Oct. 13-15. Planned workshops include "Blogging Pastors" and "Using Blogs for Online Activism and Evangelism."I would love to attend that gathering. In other blogosphere news, the BBC looks at Iranian blogging, the AP looks at bloggers who were...

Blog Speaking Engagements, February 24, 2005
I'll be making a presentation about blogging to the Nashville chapter of the Public Relations Society of America in mid-March and a similar presentation in mid-April to the Nashville chapter of the American Marketing Association. The only group missing from the list would be the Nashville chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. Ah, they'll come around eventually... Also, don't forget the BlogNashville conference in early May....

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Blogosphere, February 21, 2005
Ed Cone offers a beginner's guide to the blogosphere....

The Future of Blogging, February 18, 2005
Entrepreneurship professor - and blogger - Jeff Cornwall is thinking about the future of blogging. Cornwall blogs from the university that will host the May 5-7 BlogNashville conference....

Nashville Bloggers Bash, February 17, 2005
Paul Chenoweth has posted the video of WKRN's story last weekend regarding the Nashville Bloggers Breakfast Bash, courtesy of WKRN....

And The Busiest News Website In Tennessee Is..., February 16, 2005
Welcome Instapundit readers - this post has been heavily updated at the end. Please read the whole thing! Thw two largest daily newspapers in Tennessee are the Memphis Commercial-Appeal and Nashville's The Tennessean. They each have large staffs of reporters and editors, and both have websites, at tennessean.com and GoMemphis.com. Meanwhile, the biggest news blog in the world is often said to be Instapundit.com. It is written, edited and published by one man, University of...

When Corporate Board Members Blog, February 15, 2005
Corporate Board Member, a magazine for, uh, corporate board members, has an interesting look at the growth of blogging by corporate directors.John Patrick (patrickweb.com), an Internet technology expert who sits on the boards of Jupitermedia and Opera Software, an Oslo browser company: "If you wouldn't say something in public, then don't say it in your blog - because blogging is public." What else should directors know about blogs? "I don't see it as the role...

The View From The Cheap Seats, February 14, 2005
Memphis Mike Hollihan eyes the Nashville Bloggers Breakfast Bash with the kind of envy one can only develop by living 200 miles west of sophisticated, cutting-edge civilization. By the way, BlogNashville ain't in Memphis, either, Mike ... but you're welcome to attend!...

The Bloggy Future of Journalism, February 14, 2005
Earlier today I linked to a story in the Nashville City Paper about the emergence of NashvilleZine.com, a collaborative blog about the local rock scene. If you read the whole story, you realize that NashvilleZine.com is emerging as a competitor to two local print pubs, the Nashville Scene and The Rage, and its doing so with volunteer contributors and very low overhead. And if you think about that for long you realize why blogs are...

Nashville Bloggers Breakfast Report, February 13, 2005
Good reports from some of the bloggers who came to the Nashville Bloggers Breakfast at the WKRN studios yesterday. Check out Paul Chenoweth, Doc Brown, Glen Dean, Neil Orne, and Rex Hammock. No, Rex, I won't be posting photos. I only took a few and they didn't turn out well. It's hard to talk, eat a donut and take good pics simultaneously. Lots of red eye and goofy expressions. I wouldn't do that the my...

Nashville Bloggers Breakfast, February 12, 2005
I'll be at the Nashville bloggers breakfast bash at the studios of WKRN Channel 2 a little later this morning. What do some of your favorite local bloggers look like at 8:30 on a Saturday morning? A report, with pictures, later... UPDATE: No report, no pictures. The event was enjoyable, the pictures lousy. Doug Petch has a group photo. A big "Thanks!" to WKRN for producing the event ... and for their forthcoming plan to...

Nashville Blogs, February 11, 2005
WKRN Channel 2 has posted a list of Nashville bloggers on their website, with RSS feed URLs helpfully included. They're linking to the list from the WKRN.com homepage, via that image I borrowed to accompany this post. It's a very long list and includes HobbsOnline, of course, plus two blogs by bloggers who I have the honor of having helped get started (Lance in Iraq and Dr. Jeff Cornwall's The Entrepreneurial Mind), and a few...

Nashville Bloggers Breakfast Bash, February 07, 2005
There's an informal Nashville bloggers' gathering Saturday, Feb. 12, at the studios of WKRN-TV. Free coffee and donuts. I'll be there. Details over at Terry's blog, where he also mentions something called "Bloggercon." Actually, now it's called BlogNashville, and if you're involved in blogs or the media, you're invited to that too....

Wish I Could Be There, January 26, 2005
The Heritage Foundation's Center for Media and Public Policy is having a very interesting blog-centric event on Friday in Washington DC, featuring Matthew Sheffield, co-founder of RatherBiased.com; Paul Mirengoff, a/k/a "The Deacon" at PowerlineBlog.com, and Kevin Aylward of WizbangBlog.com, and hosted by Mark Tapscott, director of the Center for Media and Public Policy. Topic for discussion: in the wake of Rathergate, are blogs becoming the new media establishment ? [Hat tip: Technology Liberation Front] I...