Quick ConvergeSouth08 recap

I am back from the 4th ConvergeSouth, the do-not-miss Greensboro conference about the Web, blogging, journalism and community (and the model/inspiration for our own science blogging conferences, including the third one) . Big kudos to Sue Polinsky, Ed Cone and the cast of thousands for putting together the meeting again, making it better and better every year. And of course, thanks to Dave Hoggard for hosting the legendary BBQ with (even more legendary) banana pudding.

I rode to Greensboro with Kirk Ross and came back home with Anton Zuiker, having interesting conversations with each.

Dave Slusher and I found a common interest beside blogging - animal domestication!

Pam Spaulding was on two panels, and did a great job liveblogging the conference. Melody Watson also has interesting thoughts on it all.

At the BBQ, Anton and I talked with Anil Dash (also here) whose SixApart runs MoveableType which is the platform on which scienceblogs.com is hosted. Of course, scienceblogs.com is a complex site, with much more than just a bunch of blogs, and Anil gave kudos to Tim, the tech guru of Seed, for his amazing ability to build, fix and run our platform. We also talked about the ability of the blogosphere to effect change (e.g., in Washington). Something Anil said in a panel discussion lit a lightbulb in my head. He said that until about two years ago or so, it was very unusual for a Congressman or a Senator to receive many phone calls from the constituents. But with blogs (either big blogs like DailyKos or lots of smaller blogs acting in unison), this changed. Suddenly, the blogs can turn the 'on switch' and send thousands of people to ring the phone in the offices on The Hill - something for which the offices are not prepared. Instead of a few letters, or some e-mails, suddenly, for a day or two, the phone is ringing off the hook and prevents all other business from getting done over the phone. This is an element of surprise to them and thus they tend to sit up and listen! This may explain why the blogosphere-wide action to defeat PRISM was so successful (and it was so thoroughly defeated that the ridicule even outside of science blogs was widespread). I heard that SPARC got a number of call from various senatorial offices, pretty much saying "call off the dogs, we got it, we understand the issue now and will vote Yes, and please, we need to use the phones again!" As a result, despite being voted on twice (Bush vetoed the bill the first time around), the NIH mandate language remained unaltered and the bill became the law.

After the initial talk by Chris Rabb and the morning panel, I first went to a session on Social Networking for Bloggers led by Kelby Carr. That was quite an interesting discussion about do's and dont's of social networking behavior, etiquette, dividing personal from professional, etc. It fed nicely to what someone at the closing panel said (and I've been saying for a long time) - that in the age of the Web, the criteria for 'proper behavior' for getting a job or running for office will change, as the Facebook generation takes over, knowing that everyone has drunk pictures on Facebook and that it is OK, so let's look at what really matters about the person, not such superficalities that insult old puritanical norms stemming from the times when such behavior, while ubiquitous, could be safely hidden from the public. Soon enough, we can stop pretending to be mortally insulted that someone, gasp, had a beer at a college party or did/said something silly or stupid at some time in the past.

My own session was small - but that was good. Those who came were interested in the science side of things, so I could quickly dispose of the more general stuff about people being active on Facebook, twitter, FriendFeed or blogs, and focus more on commenting behavior (and specifically psychological barriers to commenting) on science-related content online, be it science posts on blogs or peer-reviewed papers. I got a lot of useful feedback on this which may help me both here on the blog and at work on PLoS.

Next, I went to hear Kirk Ross on "Slow News". As you already know, I am a big fan of Carrboro Citizen and the concept that guides its publishing model. While the panic - "OMG! The newspapers are dying!" - may well apply to large metro, state and national papers, the small, hyperlocal newspapers are doing just fine and will probably continue to do so. I am constantly online, constantly scouting for news - about science, science publishing, U.S. electoral politics, Serbia, etc. - which is a 'pull' model. I am interested in particular topics and actively search for them at places I trust. Thus, I may be missing something interesting which is outside of the realm of topics I actively look for. This includes news about the happenings in my own town and neighborhood (if I spent less time online and more walking the streets, I may get such news the old, from-the-horses-mouth way). For this, I need to occasionally succumb to the 'push' model, which I do every Thursday when I go to La Vita Dolce, get a mocha ('Bora's style, please'), sit back and enjoy the new edition of Carrboro Citizen. I learn which cool plant is in bloom right now, what is the controversial issue at the Town Hall this week, what is going on at my kids' school, and what the candidates for local elections are saying. And it is all written with no rush (digest the news first, don't rush to print) and no heed for the he-said-she-said false-equivalence mode of journalism that has been poisoning the A.S. media for decades. See, for instance, this editorial from this week's edition (this is just the ending paragraph - read the entire thing - well worth your time):

For The Record:

This has not been lost on many. In fact, in a recent local candidate forum, a member of the GOP -- yes, there are a few here in Orange County -- acknowledged that it appears there are programs or missions where government actually does a better job than the private sector. Such acknowledgements are rare, but increasing. It will take years, though, for the poison injected into our political discourse to be metabolized. People will still rail about big government and taxes. But there's a difference between pushing back in order to insist on efficiency, transparency and fairness and simply attracting the system for ideological or political gain.

In a recent New York Times column, Thomas Friedman recalled Oliver Wendell Holmes remark that "I like paying taxes. With them I am buying civilization."
We're a far cry from that sentiment but perhaps a little closer to understanding the role of government and how dangerous it is to entrust the whole of civilization solely to those out to profit from it.

Now, if you are a partisan Democrat you will love this piece, if you are a partisan Republican, you will hate it. But if you are unbiased in any way, you will recognize that the piece has no ideological axe to grind - it is a mix of stuff you should have learned in high school Civics and what you have learned in college freshman Economics 101, plus recent statements from the two presidential campaigns. It provides you a baseline expert consensus on what the Reality is, so you can compare the party platforms, proposals and rhetoric to the Reality and decide for yourself which party tends to better consult with Reality when designing their campaign promises, i.e., this is how journalism should be committed.

The final panel compared the roles of the Web and technology between the 2004 and 2008 elections. The two-way communication between campaign and volunteers in real time, texting, ads on games, real-time updates of the voter databases - none of those were possible in 2004, but are ably used by the Obama campaign this year (McCain campaign is relying mainly on old-style techniques: nasty robocalls, racist flyers, and negative TV and radio ads). But the main difference between the two years is video - as soon as someone does or says something on TV or a campaign event, it immediately shows up on YouTube for everyone to see. The video of the 'macaca' moment that millions saw in 2006 did not so much show Sen. Allen as a racist as much as a jerk - someone you do not want to vote for. The videos this year are really making the opinions change - when you see the behavior of supporters at McCain/Palin rallies, when you watch the racist, dishonest and nasty ads they are putting out, when you watch the conventions and debates (and important moments from them), when you watch Obama's rallies, ads and speeches in contrast, when you watch GOP operatives openly lying on TV, and you watch all of that over and over again - it is easy to make up your mind.

Finally, it was so much fun meeting and chatting with Ginny Skalski and Wayne Sutton (of 30Threads), Matt Gross, Lenore Ramm, Heather Solos (you can find her here, here and here), Dan Conover and Janet Edens, Jim Buie, Robert Scoble, Ruby Sinreich, Nancy Shepherd, Lauren Polinsky, Dennis Meredith, Donna Fryer, Ilina Ewen, Vera Hannaford, Jay Ovittore, Andrea Novicki and many others.

You can see more pictures from ConvergeSouth here and more discussions here. See you all next year - same time, same place.