What Should I Say? - A Pajamas Media Query

In the spirit of John Lennon’s “Life is what happens while you’re busy making other plans” and in part, I think, because this guy had a deadline on his book and couldn’t show, I have wound up being the keynote speaker at the conference on “Media, Communications & Technology in the Age of the Blogger” in New York on Oct. 26-27.

Now I would be disingenuous to say that I have never spoken in public. I have held forth at numerous writers conferences on such deep philosophical questions as “How do I get an agent?” and “Do you do an outline or do you just make it up as you go along?” But I have never spoken in front of such an august group on matters of such import. (Given the venue, I imagine I will have to wear a tie.) So, to be honest, I am getting a little nervous. I also realize this is an opportunity to organize my thoughts and speak on behalf of the Pajamas Media idea, even if our final name will still be embargoed (drama, drama) until our November 16 launch.

In the fledgling tradition of open media, what I would like to do is open a dialogue on here about what I should say. The comments section of this blog is almost always smarter than I am (okay, always) and I would be a fool not to listen to and/or plagiarize from brilliant people with anonymous names like flenser, chuck and Knucklehead. Or more real ones like Rick Ballard, Jamie Irons and David Thomson. (The list could go on with other superb commenters, but as with my speech there are time and space constraints and you get the idea.)

PJMedia began with the simultaneous goals of raising the profile and credibility of bloggers and providing them more remuneration for their efforts. We are working like beavers to accomplish this but we need your guidance. Perhaps we could start with the most difficult of all conundrums. How do we raise the blogosphere to the next level while maintaining the openness that is the hallmark of new media?

But don’t feel constrained by that. Feel free to pitch in with whatever other suggestions you might have. As I said, I could use the help.