Lessons Learned: Convention Blogging

What we learn from the Convention blogging, is an account by Dan Bricklin, reflecting on the presence of bloggers at the Democratic Convention in Boston, USA, this week. He follows it up with a second post

It reminds me of the conversations we had at BlogTalk about blogging from the venue. Myself, I'm more in the listen now, reflect later camp, but I do appreciate those who are able to report, point to relevant other sources etc, share atmosphere and emotions in real time. It's just not something I am good at. I enjoy reading it though, as it reinforces my presence when I am at the event, and it helps me feel connected to the group on the ground when I'm not. It builds and reinforces community in that way.

Dan follows it up with a second post, on how the press reflected on the bloggers. The journalist he cites seems to be as self-referential as what he accuses the bloggers of.

Apparantly the question if blogging is journalism played a central role again. A question to which the answer is "no, but it can be sometimes" (when the blogger is a journalist) and it's a discussion I think was closed at BlogTalk. David Weinberger already wrote about what journalists don't get about bloggers, and this seems to be supporting that theory. They see those blogs and those aspects of blogging that resemble the traditional role of reporting media the most, and think that that must be what blogging is about.

Thanks to Danah Boyd for the pointer.

[Update] David Weinberger videoblogs his reaction to the "Convention-blogging was a disappointing quality of journalism" article Charles Cooper wrote at CNET, and which I mentioned above.