'What Is All This Blog Stuff and Why Should I Care?'

That's the title of a session at the rtpnet.org annual conference in Chapel Hill, where I'm blogging "live." What is a blog? It's a social networking tool, to find people of like mind or like interest in your town, your region, or around the world, with whom you can organize for action in the real world, or simply read about and discuss items of mutual interest with a lot more emotional quality than you do in reading an "objective" newspaper or magazine account that you can't talk back to.

A blog involves people writing from their own experience, from their hearts and from their heads, with their own style, not from a corporate perspective, and not from a market-driven mainstream media perspective. You might not agree with them, but you know they are telling you how they see things from their experience and perspective.

A blog has a number of qualities, according to Ruby Sinreich of www.lotusmedia.org. Here's an abbreviated paraphrase of what she said:

"A blog is written in the first person, with an authenticity (that other media forms don't have). A blog has community, or dialogue between writer and reader. Posts are dated, with the newest first. The archive is open and discoverable. Each blog has its own specific link or file on the web, and a database for syndication and aggregation."

Blogging is narrow-casting rather than broadcasting. A blog makes you famous among a small group of people.

"I'd rather be famous on a blog for 15 people, rather than be famous in the world for 15 minutes," said Brian Russell from Durham Literacy Center and audioactivism.org, one of the leaders of the session. He proceeded to quickly make a member of the audience famous, with a demonstration of "podcasting." Using a cheap digital tape recorder, he demonstrated how a sound bite from a member of the audience could be edited quickly and uploaded to a blog for the entire world to listen to. 

Russell said he'd rather be a blogger or podcaster, maintaining a relationship with readers and learning from them, in a two-way interactive format, rather than be a big-time, famous media star who too often lets his fame go to his head, and starts to have ego problems. 

Blogtogether.org is a site for North Carolina bloggers who "meet up" in person.

Learn more:

• Ruby Sinreich of www.lotusmedia.org
• Brian Russell of www.audioactivism.org
• blogtogether.org