Opening session of the Personal Democracy Forum has Chuck Defeo of Salem Communications, Josh Marshall of TPM, Chris Nolan of Spot-On, David Sifry of Technorati and Ben Smith of the New York Daily News. Merrill Brown, moderator. More at the link below, including an announcement by Sifry about further developments in the relationship between Technorati and the Washington Post.Josh Marshall talks about business model possibilities in blogging by making it “to some degree” scalable, to do it on a more serious basis than you can with just one person. He has been at it for five years, but is now involved increasingly in “collaborative journalism,” making his readers into a research service. He gets many leads and information from his readers. Launched TPM Muckraker to institutionailize this method. Josh says it has been a “moderate success.”
Chris Nolan sees the creation of content on blogs as a Venn diagram with interlocking contributors.
Dave Sifry jokingly introduced himself a “tech support.” Talks about the blogosphere reinvigorate the process – “You don’t have to yell at the television set. You can actually take action on your own.”… “There aren’t enough reporters out there to cover this stuff [like the schoolboard]… but there is an eneormous opportunity for synergy with the MSM and the public.
“People formerly known as your audience and they’re talking – and they’re talking about you.”
Technorati is announcing a deeper relationship with the Washington Post. The WaPo opinon page, via Technorati, will now link to interesting blog opinion throughout the world. Sifry estimates 30,000 “influential political bloggers” in the world and the reach of this group will now be extended.
Ben Smith of the Daily News says papers are getting over their fear of “that pajamas thing.”
Marshall sees interdependence between blogs and the MSM.
Chuck Defeo – there will never be another Walter Cronkite.
Second panel, moderated by Micah Sifry, deals wtih MySpace. Bobby Clark, Gina Glanz with a video presentation of her group – the Service Emloyees International Union (SEIU) for low wage workers, Joe Green, Heather Holdridge, Chelli Pingree and Sheldon Rampton.
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