April 17, 2004
BloggerCon: Shirky's Power Law
This session didn't become what I thought it would be — and that's a good thing. With as much rage as a discussion of the blogging A-list can ignite, the discussion was surprisingly productive and civilized. Some of that is probably due to Philip Greenspun's upbeat tone and excellent discussion-handling.
He kicked off with a great discussion of "great personal moments in blogging". From simple pleasures, like "The day I received my first comment," to more public acknowledgement, "I was cited in an article as a 'respected blogger'". It was clear that many of us have received some sort of positive reinforcement via our blogs — no matter how small and unknown our sites are. People are finding us.
We talked about how people rise to the A-list and how they stay there. What role traditional media plays in that process and how "fame" changes the top weblogs. However, the point I found most inspriring from the discussion was one blogger's comment that he recieves a spike in traffic and feedback each time he posts about his cat. As of Monday, I'm making up a fake Liloia cat and posting about it weekly on our site. Let's just see what happens.
Any and all name suggestions for my fake cat will be taken under consideration.
Comments
For maximum impact, how about a long post asking for advice? "Our kitty has such big ears, we might call him Longhorn--or maybe even George Bush. Meanwhile, my Uncle Alf likes the name 'Free meds no prescription'. What do readers think?"
I think you captured this session well in a few words. I thought it was the high point of bloggercon. Thanks also for the link to the flap on the Halley Suitt invite.