Building a geographically focused aggregator. Heck, the Participants list for this is a good start towards that for this area.

Cone: Letters to the editor posted on a blog, attracts comments from a wide community. I’m reading We The Media & he mentions letters to the editor as an example of Big Media’s trivial effort to make media two-way. So is this a way to increase two-way-ness?

Someone: “I’m the blogmaster for [some site].” That’s a new term on me.

Beckwith: Charlotte is full of itself but “woefully behind the times” in terms of blog-based community. His 2/12 post has a cool image collage of photos of people at this event, presumably taken from our sites. I’m in the lower right corner, above a photo that looks like early Lou Reed or who’s that actress? The Perils of Pauline maybe? [Update, later that day: Trivial as this is, it’s bugging the crap out of me. Someone help me out here. Lillian Gish? Mary Pickford? Information science soapbox: we need better image search tools.]

Cone quotes Who?: “On the internet everyone will be famous for 15 people.” Is community-building its own end? Asks Sinreich, has OrangePolitics had an impact on anything other than people flaming each other? Sinreich: we keep stories alive that Big Media drops for whatever reason. Blogs can build community around local issues & change the direction of politics. No shit sherlock: look at Trent Lott, Dan Rather, I’m sure more that I don’t even know about. Hell, Dean is the DNC Chair apparent.

Copeland, of Blogads: Any group that wants to band together & carry some weight with advertisers can do so. I’m not sure what I think about blogs as venues for ads… he writes naively. I know that everything gets commoditized eventually (at least in the US’ model of free-market capitalism), but call me an idealistic fool if I like the idea of a commercial-free venue.

Mann: Her blog is called Mann’s World, which is a brilliant name. She asks, is anyone afraid to blog on account of their work situation?

Cone: “Some people think better out loud.”

Break now. Paul is keeping us from the donuts & bathroom telling us about the swag.