BlogHer 2008 Annual Conference

FAQs=Frequently Asked Questions, and we’ve lined up a team of expert bloggers who know how explain the basics across many blogging platforms, protocols and philosophies. Do you have questions about the best tools? The right design? The latest in blogging “etiquette”? Look no further than these 4 kindly experts to give you the answers: Nelly Yusupova from WebGrrls Int’l, Melanie Nelson (aka Chilihead from Blogging Basics 101), Michele Mitchell (aka Scribbit) and
Shazia Mistry.

 

 How We Communicate: FAQs for Beginning Bloggers [38:26m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Heather Armstrong’s first book was just released in April (and she has other impending opportunities yet to be announced.) Stephanie Klein is a blogger, an author, and is now in development with NBC working on a pilot for a series based on her autobiographical books based on her autobiographical blog. Heather and Stephanie are the perfect people to close BlogHer ‘08 with a discussion about what it’s like “Living the Truman Show*.” Bloggers everywhere are putting their lives online…and now into other media too. We’ll talk to them about how it feels to put yourself under that microscope. Heather and Stephanie may live it on a bigger scale than most of us, but haven’t you experienced some or all of these symptoms?

- Parts of life get nearly fictionalized in your own head as you plan your next blog post about events happening in real-time

- People confuse you with a character and forget you’re a real human being

- As your friends, co-workers and family become more aware of your blog they either get caught up in it all…or get more and more uncomfortable.

By blogging we sometimes put ourselves in a fishbowl. Hilarity (and sometimes other not-so-funny stuff) ensues.

*The Truman Show was a movie from 1998 about a man who discovers his “life” is actually a reality TV show that the entire world is watching.

 

 Closing Keynote: Living the Truman Show [61:52m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Join Lori from Weebles Wobblog, Monica Mingo, Pamela Tsigdinos and Melissa from Stirrup Queens for a frank discussion about what it’s like to realize you are not on the fast track to motherhood. These women are in different stages of dealing with infertility issues, but there is one common thread. They all want or wanted to become a mom, and have found roadblocks and detours obscuring what seems to be so easy for others. Is infertility one of the last things that nobody wants to talk about? Not in this blogging community.

 

 Standard Podcast [74:33m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Hopefully our panel on why you should get involved with open source will leave you convinced you want to get started…like yesterday. If so, this panel will take it to the next step: We’ll take a look at some very popular open source blogging platforms and show you how to start contributing to the projects…and how to get more involved as you go along. Angie Byron will be on hand to cover Drupal. And Automattic’s “Happiness Engineer”, Marianne Masculino, will cover WordPress.

 

 How We Communicate: Open Source Participation: How to advance to the next level [76:17m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Blogging creates communities, and they can take action for the greater good. But they can also take action to support individuals. Susan Wagner moderates this discussion with a trio of bloggers who have experienced the healing force of a community of blog readers who hang on their every word, and talk right back…always right when they needed to hear a voice come back out of the wilderness. Hear powerful stories about how Susan (aka WhyMommy), Laurie Kingston, LoveBabz and Christine (aka Flutter) feel the healing force of their blogging communities. Share your story too.

 

 What We Believe: Blogging Community as Healing Force [68:48m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

We all know “transparency” is a blogging buzz word. Since 2005 we have been calling personal blogging “naked blogging”, and Jory Des Jardins has been our Naked Blogging leader. But what if you have second thoughts about how sheer your window dressings are? If you’ve encountered something unpleasant because of your openness, something ugly…or even something dangerous, you might be wondering: Can I take it back? Jory will talk to three women who have taken it back to varying degrees. It might be as simple as setting more stringent privacy policies on all your social application tools (and realizing that you actually can set more stringent privacy policies.) It might be going through and masking references to real people and taking down identifiable photos. It might be resolving not to engage in certain kinds of blogging or conversations any more. Or it might get as drastic as trying to eradicate your online identity. Koan, Mena Trott and Tracey Gaughran-Perez have taken some combination of these steps to get a measure of control of their online lives that they felt was lacking…and much-needed. Were they successful at taking back naked blogging?

 

 Who We Are: Can You Take Back Naked Blogging? [76:20m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

If parenting in general can be isolating, it can be more so when raising a child with special needs. Susan Etlinger, Shannon Des Roches Rosa aka Squid Rosenberg, Kristina Chew, Jennifer Graf Groneberg and Vicki Forman are among those MommyBloggers who are blogging their experiences…and finding both a community…and a cause. Join them. Share your story. Find out how, to quote Vicki, “…to embrace and treasure what makes us all different. And the same.”

 

 MommyBlogging: Blogging About Our Children with Special Needs [74:13m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Author, blogger and photographer Me Ra Koh is on hand to share as much as she can in her allotted session time. On the theory that fewer subjects with more focus is preferred we’ve actually got a thread up at BlogHer where we’re asking for you to vote on which aspects of photography you’d like Me Ra to focus on. Come on over and share your opinion or at least cast your vote.

 

 How We Communicate: Photography [68:19m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Marnie Webb will lead this conversation about what tools are out there to help you, the individual blogger, raise funds and galvanize action around the issues you are most passionate about. Catherine Connors, who has been at the helm of the BlogHers Act Canada initiative since its inception will discuss how they created their monthly challenges, and how they keep momentum going. Donna Callejon will highlight the flexible features of Global Giving, the online fundraising service working with BlogHer on our BlogHers Act Mother’s Day initiative and leading social media consultant to non-profits, Beth Kanter, will talk about what has worked for her on her personal sites and for the organizations she has worked with.

 

 What We Believe: Tools for Online Fundraising and Activism [69:14m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

It sounds a little odd coming form us, given BlogHer has an ad network, but in fact there are other ways to make money via blogging, and this year we’re going to explore some of them. Join these bloggers who have gone off the advertising path: Stephanie Agresta is an affiliate program expert, Kristen Hammond has become an e-commerce queen, Lynn Truong started her own blog network and is wiling to share the rather unusual business model she came up with for her and the bloggers who joined her, and Dana Loesch has started a local blogger network that can co-exist with her other blog advertising (OK, yes, the last two do make money from advertising, but the point is that they started these networks, they are their babies and a new business for each of them…and one could probably be started in other regional or content areas, so why not by you?):

 

 What We Do: There is More to Monetization than Advertising [76:53m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

No, this doesn’t only apply to the most common meaning of “coming out”, but rather to taking the brave step to reveal and address something highly personal to your blog community. The risks are real, but what about the rewards? Susan Mernit will moderate a discussion with some very brave bloggers. Stephanie Quilao blogs about health and a positive body image. Making the decision to blog a bulimia relapse risked losing a core audience who counted on her to be a voice of body image reason. How did they react? JenB has been up front about both mental and physical health issues on her blog. Does she feel supported…or judged? Jess Howard blogged about a suicide attempt and felt an outpouring of support…online. But she discovered it was a lot harder for people to interact with her in person, like at BlogHer. Finally, Sarah Dopp did launch a new project about being gender queer. At first she used a pseudonym, although she shared the site with people she knew. Eventually she came out and associated her real name with the site. Was there fallout? Or none at all. Find out how coming out via blog turned out for these women, and share your own story.

 

 Who We Are: Coming Out Via Blog [66:04m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Elise Bauer is back to give one of the most requested sessions…Building Traffic. Elise focuses on content and community, with a dash of technology know-how thrown in for good measure. The space keeps evolving, and so does Elise’s presentation, so whether you’ve seen it before or not, you’ll find new things to learn.

 

 How We Communicate: Building Traffic via Content and Community [66:27m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

BlogHer’s recent survey data indicated that the majority of women bloggers have been at it for three years or less. Do you see yourself blogging for life? And if so, how will you escape blogger burnout or, perhaps worse, boredom. Join some women who are in that rare pantheon of bloggers who have been at it five, six, seven, even eight years and more. We all know it’s best to blog what you feel passionate about, but as your life changes, do your passions? According to these bloggers, you can always adjust your blog to match the passions in your life. Maggie Mason moderates a discussion amongst long-time bloggers like Melissa Summers, Evany Thomas and Sarah Brown, and uses their stories to offer practical advice on how to make sure you’re always publishing what is best for you to give, not what you think others want to receive.

 

 What We Do: Pursuing Your Passion Never Gets Old [75:26m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The closing keynote for Day One of the conference will be live blog readings from the BlogHer community itself. The community is busily submitting their favorite posts, and we’ll get 20 BlogHers at the microphone sharing their favorite post with the entire BlogHer crowd. Curated by Eden Kennedy, who has some experience organizing large community writing efforts via NaBloPoMo.

 

 Day One Community Keynote [99:34m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

We blog about our own self-images a lot, there’s no doubt about that. But a lot of us also blog about our kids’ self-images. Our kids, at some point, become aware of their own physical attributes…and the physical attributes of other people too. Often we’re in the position of reacting to negative stuff they bring home. “You’re ugly, you’re too fat, your eyes are wrong, your color is different than your mom’s” etc.

Sometimes it’s really hard to help our kids if we don’t feel good about ourselves. Have you ever been afraid they’re actually picking up the wrong messages from your own attitudes about yourself? And how often have you wondered how to effectively counteract the messages we all receive from a society that markets the “super model” look to 9 year old girls and plastic surgery as a Sweet 16 present?

Children of all races, sizes, ages, and body types deserve to feel good about themselves: how they look, and how their bodies feel. Moderator Laurie Toby Edison will talk with Tracee Sioux, Kelly Wickham, Glennia Campbell and the collective wisdom in the room about strategies to help our kids like themselves as they are.

 

 MommyBlogging: Mirrors: Ours, the Media, Our Culture and Our Kids [71:16m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Engaging those outside the political blogosphere in political discourse…and action…

Is 2008 the year when every blogger is a proof point for the old battle cry that “the personal is political”? We are seeing a tremendous amount of interest and action around political issues and causes from bloggers who usually steer clear. They are galvanizing their readers to be more engaged and get more involved in a variety of ways. We’ll talk about some of those ways with Twitter rabble-rouser Erin Kotecki-Vest, Momocrat Joanne Bamberger and a woman who exhorts us all to exercise the Power of our Purse, Diane MacEachern.

How do we win in November? Conservative women talk brass tacks (and tactics).

Conventional wisdom predicts that Republicans will have it rough in Election 2008, but the Party is known for being expert at rallying the troops, energizing its base and defying conventional wisdom. Join this discussion about the Republican Party’s strategies to win in November and how bloggers…political bloggers and non-political bloggers alike, can help the cause. What is the message? And how can you help the party mobilize? RNC Online Communications Director Liz Mair will lead this discussion, along with conservative podcaster Fausta and Elizabeth Blackney (aka Media Lizzy).

 

 Conservatives [60:57m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Progressives [50:06m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Journalist, blogger, editor and consultant Amy Gahran will be conducting this workshop going over these basic of online writing excellence. Amy writes at her own blog, Contentious and edits the Poynter Institute’s group blog, E-Media Tidbits.

 

 What We Do: Writing Workshop [77:38m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

While we will definitely talk about the basics of online security…and how to actually choose how much privacy you’re willing to sacrifice…we’re also going to talk about another aspect of this hot topic. When, if ever do your kids start to have a right to know that you’re blogging about them, and what you’re blogging about them? Have your feelings about blogging your children’s lives changed as they’ve gotten older? And do your feelings change your blogging? We’ll talk to bloggers on different sides of the issue: We’ll talk to Chris Jordan about the unfortunate and very real reasons she protects her privacy online. We’ll talk to Shannon Lowe, whose children are getting old enough to weigh in on what she should and should not blog about them. We’ll talk to Crystal whose kids are also old enough, and who she has blogged about in a way that actually earned her hate mail! We’ll talk to Shino Tanaka, a former police officer and current online community manager, about where danger lies and how to protect oneself. Shireen Mitchell will ringlead the conversation.

 

 MommyBlogging: Public Parenting and Privacy [59:48m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

There are now so many ways to get your word out, that every blogger has to make the decision: how far and wide do I want to distribute my content? Do I want it to be automated or selective? When do I start to feel like a spammer, not a sharer? Which tools are really effective, and which are just taking my content for free? How do I track my words, once I’ve set them free? How do I still protect my content? What about audio and video? We’ll be talking tools like Twitter, Facebook, kirtsy, StumbleUpon, Digg, Qik, Utterz: all of which can be either well-used…or abused. Krista Neher moderates this discussion with avid users Anne-Marie Nichols and Gwen Bell who use the tools…and have opinions, backed up by data, about them all, and Esther Brady (aka faintstarlite) who will be on hand to talk video distribution.

 

 What We Do: DIY Content Syndication and Promotion [64:22m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Are you a free-spirited and totally open blogger who quakes at the notion of meeting people in person? Does your heart pound when you walk into a room populated by more than half a dozen people…whether you know them or not? Are you convinced that you are the only one who feels this way, and that everyone else already knows each other? Well, we are kicking off the Who We Are track by talking about why blogging and introversion actually go so well together, and by offering tactics for getting past your own pounding heart, sweaty palms and paranoid fantasies to actually enjoy an event like BlogHer and get the most out of it. Several bloggers are willing to get up in front of the rest of you (and you know public speaking is ranked as the #1 fear, right?) and share how they manage to overcome their natural tendencies to hibernate and instead have a great time. Shireen Mitchell moderates this discussion with Shannon Glass, Jane Goodwin, Marilyn Porter, who will share their personal tricks for having conquered their nerves and conquered BlogHer!

 

 Who We Are: Introversion, Blogging and BlogHer [67:22m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download