Brian Kirwin has a tongue-in-cheek post over at Bearing Drift ... "RPV Advance to New Media: We'll teach you how to blog," asking a few questions that other Virginia bloggers may be wondering.
I have eagerly looked forward to what RPV would offer for bloggers at this year's Advance because Chairman Jeff Frederick is a techie guy. It is no secret that, though I am one of the older bloggers in this spectrum, my feelings have been that Virginia Republicans -- and Republicans in general -- need to catch up with new media technology. Shaun Kenney and I had that conversation on several occasions when he was still communications director at RPV which was, of course, preaching to the choir. He absolutely agreed ... but the problem has been getting our politicians to understand the importance of catching up in this field.
Brian writes about the RPV Advance and their New Media Seminar and asks who of the Virginia bloggers is involved? He then mentions top-notch bloggers -- JR, Shaun Kenney, John Henke, and Jim Riley -- none of which have been invited to participate. (And thanks, Brian, for mentioning me and, you are correct ... I wasn't asked either.)
I am always eager to learn more about this craft, and enjoy reading the writings of the gentlemen mentioned above as well as others in our blogosphere. It was a productive learning experience to hear Leslie Carbone and other new-found blogger friends at the AFP Summit's workshops in October. The AFP provided a "Bloggers Row" and ID for bloggers attending the Summit so we could identify and meet one another. I met Chuck from Virginian Federalist, Krystle from Crystal Clear Conservative, and of course hung out with fellow SWAC blogger Phil Lynch from Yankee Phil.
It would be nice to have some form of ID for bloggers attending the Advance so we could identify one another. A workshop for bloggers to get together and crunch ideas would be great by perhaps discussing ways to coordinate about elections, to advance our candidates, to promote conservative legislation, to get the word out about what the liberals are doing.
Perhaps it would have been nice to hear from members of the two dominant Virginia blog alliances -- Old Dominion Blog Alliance and the Jeffersonaid.
I would have liked to hear ideas on how to reach out to more readers and increase traffic count because I am in this to run around the mainstream media and get the message out.
Thanks, Brian, for bringing up the subject. I hope to see you and many of the others at the Homestead in three weeks.
7 comments:
I have been helping the RPV with the blog on their new site recently; in fact, James Bowden has also posted recently (a third experienced blogger also had something there, but it appears to have been removed). In six posts currently on the site, half of them are by people with experience blogging before.
I am submitting through an associate at the RPV, so I cannot say I know anything of this besides what I have read, but it does seem interesting that this idea has been pushed through without giving the slightest clue if any of Virginia's best bloggers will be included.
I will not be in attendance, but I do look forward to hearing just what this workshop is all about.
I will be at the Advance and look forward to meeting everyone again. It has been a while since we all hung out in Newport News at Mr. Hoeft's soire for Bloggers United. At the time, I dabbled in everything VA for Fred Thompson. Now doing Run Bob Run.
All the best,
Neil
http://runbobrun.blogspot.com
Thanks for your kind words, SWAC Girl. It was nice to see you at AFP08, and I'm glad that my presentation was helpful. Your suggestions for RPV are great, and, no, I wasn't invited to speak either.
100% correct, SWAC Girl. Of course, the additional item I learned is that most elected officials have no intentions of working with independent bloggers who can criticize, choose not to write about topics, or wander off the reservation.
Most elected officials would rather astroturf their netroots. In other words, find some young staffer and get them to blog pseudonymously.
For all the incremental progress we made in terms of new media at RPV while I was there (brief as it was), we certainly didn't build on it.
The good news is that RPV wants back into the game. The bad news is that they are listening to the wrong people. What's worse, there are elected officials more concerned with message control than trusting their grassroots... a lesson the Democrats had to learn the hard way from 2000 to 2006 and into 2008.
Leadership will figure it out. Whether they figure it out in a timely fashion is anyone's guess.
Perhaps we bloggers (ODBA/Jeffersoniad) need to hold our own informal panel for them? :)
There are so many good writers in the Virginia blogosphere including Carl Kilo and Alton Foley and Ron at Isophorone and DJ McGuire and Jerry Fuhrman and SWAC bloggers Phil and Jason ... I cannot even begin to name all the ones I admire. The bench is deep with talent.
Looking forward to seeing those who are in Hot Springs in three weeks.
I would love to network with my fellow bloggers again and cover the Advance for RPV. It is a shame that RPV does not seem to be interested in allowing bloggers in as members of the media to allow us to cover the event. I have not heard from the RPV regarding my inquiry about press credentials.
By the way, it was nice meeting you at the AFP Summit.
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