Media Giraffe-ing
On Friday, I attended the Media Giraffe Project conference at UMass on a one-day pass for the "local blogger meet-up." It was a bit of a mixed bag. The noon blogger meet-up fizzled a little when it was realized that the Christopher Lydon New England Common session was happening at the same time. A core group of the local bloggers decided we should postpone the meet-up and go to hear Lydon pitch his idea for a new media hub. I'll give it to Lydon: he was able to get a roomful of interesting people from the Massachusetts blogosphere and behond. But his pitch seemed to some of us a little Boston-centric and clubby. It's not that I didn't think he had an idea, only that it was an idea that didn't seem to have much room for me in it.
Unfortunately, the blogger meetup lost some steam from the Lydon event. When we reconvened at 1:15 p.m., there were only about half a dozen of us there. We did, however, have an interesting discussion about the social and relational aspect of blogging and how it is different from traditional media, because of linking. Plus, I was able to hand out a few copies of my fancy new card and meet a few people who I read out in the blogosphere.
Elsewhere in the day, I ran into a few of my physicist friends at the Blue Wall watching the Germany-Argentina game. There had to be about 80 graduate students clustered around the televisions in the Blue Wall watching the World Cup. My physicist friends told me that it seemed to be a pro-Germany crowd, which surprised me.
Also, I had an interesting conversation with Recorder publisher Kay Berenson, who was at the conference. Berenson said the Recorder had recently done a readership survey and found that The Recorder had about 85 percent penetration into its market, which is pretty astounding in this day and age, when everybody is wailing about the end of daily newspapers. She also sounded upbeat about the new cooperation with the Daily Hampshire Gazette. In one of the panels, she made an oblique reference to the Greenfield Optimist in a way that I thought was baldly condescending.
But perhaps one of the most satisfying parts of the day was taking the bus to UMass. I avoided paying for parking at UMass by driving to Sunderland and picking up the bus there. The bus was free and I enjoyed looking out the window instead of staring ahead at the road.
Update 7/6: Heather B posted this wrap-up of the convention at her MassLive blog, Urban Compass. Also, I've commented in a couple of places on the Christopher Lydon event.
Unfortunately, the blogger meetup lost some steam from the Lydon event. When we reconvened at 1:15 p.m., there were only about half a dozen of us there. We did, however, have an interesting discussion about the social and relational aspect of blogging and how it is different from traditional media, because of linking. Plus, I was able to hand out a few copies of my fancy new card and meet a few people who I read out in the blogosphere.
Elsewhere in the day, I ran into a few of my physicist friends at the Blue Wall watching the Germany-Argentina game. There had to be about 80 graduate students clustered around the televisions in the Blue Wall watching the World Cup. My physicist friends told me that it seemed to be a pro-Germany crowd, which surprised me.
Also, I had an interesting conversation with Recorder publisher Kay Berenson, who was at the conference. Berenson said the Recorder had recently done a readership survey and found that The Recorder had about 85 percent penetration into its market, which is pretty astounding in this day and age, when everybody is wailing about the end of daily newspapers. She also sounded upbeat about the new cooperation with the Daily Hampshire Gazette. In one of the panels, she made an oblique reference to the Greenfield Optimist in a way that I thought was baldly condescending.
But perhaps one of the most satisfying parts of the day was taking the bus to UMass. I avoided paying for parking at UMass by driving to Sunderland and picking up the bus there. The bus was free and I enjoyed looking out the window instead of staring ahead at the road.
Update 7/6: Heather B posted this wrap-up of the convention at her MassLive blog, Urban Compass. Also, I've commented in a couple of places on the Christopher Lydon event.